Situation Tense: Israel Hits Tehran Oil Facility and Beirut as Iran Strikes Bahrain Plant and Threatens Wider Retaliation

Israel has launched fresh strikes on southern Lebanon, Beirut and an oil storage facility in Tehran as the war between Israel, the United States and Iran continued to widen across the Middle East, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that the next phase of the conflict would bring “many surprises.”

Image Via: Mario Nawfal on X

The latest Israeli attack targeted an oil storage facility in Iran’s capital, sending towering flames into the night sky in what appeared to be the first known strike on a civilian industrial installation since the war began. Verified video recordings captured and assessed by Associated Press journalists showed massive pillars of fire rising from the site, illuminating the skyline of Tehran, the news agency said. 

At the same time, Israeli forces carried out strikes in southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut as fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement intensified along Israel’s northern frontier.

Iran responded with new attacks across the Gulf region. Officials said a desalination plant in Bahrain was struck, damaging infrastructure that supplies drinking water in one of the world’s driest regions. Earlier Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a separate U.S. airstrike had hit an Iranian desalination facility on Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, warning that the United States had now set a dangerous precedent by targeting such infrastructure.

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Iranian TV correspondent reports from bombed oil depots in Tehran with giant flames behind him. pic.twitter.com/128vA4hU6y

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Iran’s leadership signaled that further retaliation could follow as the air campaign continued. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would intensify attacks against American targets across the region if the bombardment persisted.

While Pezeshkian said Iran was not seeking confrontation with neighboring Arab countries — describing them as “our brothers” — he accused the United States of attempting to divide the region. Several Iranian strikes in recent days have nevertheless landed in countries hosting U.S. military assets, including energy facilities and civilian infrastructure.

The escalating conflict has also begun to drive sharp shocks through global energy markets. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned that oil prices would continue to surge if the war persists.

“If the war continues like this, there will be neither a way to sell oil nor the ability to produce it,” Qalibaf said in a social media statement, arguing that the economic consequences of the conflict would extend far beyond the Middle East.

The human toll of the war is also mounting rapidly. Iran’s Health Ministry said Sunday that more than 1,200 people have been killed since the conflict began, including around 200 children and 200 women. According to ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour, more than 1,000 additional people have been injured, among them hundreds of women.