THE NEW YORK TIMES: Iran and allied militias, including Hezbollah, attacked Israel and U.S. targets in the Gulf in retaliation for Ayatollah Khamenei’s death. Israel struck in Lebanon as President Trump said that the U.S. assault on Iran would last “four or five weeks.”
Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, traded strikes early Monday after the breakdown of a fragile yearlong truce, opening another front in the widening war in the Middle East following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah said it had launched rockets at Israeli territory overnight in retaliation for the death of Mr. Khamenei, who was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation on Saturday. Israel responded by attacking sites south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, that are affiliated with Hezbollah, as Israel’s military chief of staff warned of a prolonged conflict.
The United States and Israel have conducted thousands of airstrikes across Iran since Saturday, and a defiant Iran has responded by firing drones and missiles at Israel and at U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.
President Trump has framed the war on Iran as an effort to decimate much of its military capabilities and to pave the way for the ouster of the decades-long authoritarian rule of the Islamic Republic. In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump said the United States intended to keep up the attack on Iran for “four or five weeks.”
The escalation has heightened fears that the conflict could draw in more countries across the region. Critics say the Trump administration has no clear endgame and that casualties are beginning to mount.
The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that the U.S. and Israeli strikes had killed 555 people across Iran. China’s foreign ministry said the death toll included one of its citizens who was caught in the crossfire. Live Updates » | Christina Goldbaum, Aaron Boxerman and Yan Zhuang | Monday, March 2, 2026
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. God only knows where this is going to end. Trump has about as much understanding of Middle Eastern religious affairs and politics as a cornflake! — © Mark Alexander
