Updated March 26, 2026 at 3:10 PM CDT
The war in the Middle East ramped up on Thursday as Israel launched a wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure in the central city of Isfahan, and said it killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy.
Iran hit back, firing two rounds of missiles at central Israel causing destruction and injuries. Israel was also under attack from a wave of rockets from Iran-backed fighters in Lebanon, and an Israeli soldier in Lebanon was killed.
On the diplomatic front, Pakistan's foreign minister said his country is facilitating "indirect talks" between the U.S. and Iran and said 15 points proposed by the U.S. were "being deliberated upon by Iran." U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed presenting 15 points to lead to a "peace plan" through Pakistan as a mediator.
Iran countered with its own five conditions in return, including war reparations and rights over the Strait of Hormuz for Iran.
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Here are more updates on Day 27 of the Iran war.
To jump to specific areas of coverage, use the links below:
Thursday strikes | Negotiation claims | Kharg Island | Germany slams the U.S. | Oil prices | UAE affected
Israel trades strikes with Iran and Hezbollah
NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv spoke to two military officials who said Israel wants to keep fighting and is hoping for several more weeks of war in Iran.
A person briefed on the operation told NPR the Israeli military is speeding up its targeting in Iran over the next 48 hours, focusing on trying to hit Iran's arms factories as much as possible — in case a ceasefire is declared.
The Israeli military said on social media it had completed a "wave of extensive strikes in Isfahan … targeting infrastructure."
Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said his country had killed Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy, in an overnight strike. An official in Islamabad following the negotiations also said that Tangsiri was killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Iran has not publicly commented.
Israel also came under attack Thursday, with air sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the Israeli military saying rescue crews were en route to the location of a strike at the center of the country.
The military reported a soldier on the ground in Lebanon had been killed, naming him as 21-year-old Sgt. Ori Greenberg.
Israel says its airstrikes continue in southern Lebanon, in advance of what Israeli officials say will be a "prolonged" ground invasion targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel this month in support of Iran and after months of Israel's attacks in Lebanon despite a ceasefire. Israeli officials say a civilian woman was killed by their rocket fire this week. More than a dozen people in Israel have also been killed by Iranian attacks since the start of the war.
Israeli officials say they plan to take Lebanese territory up to the Litani River, which runs 10 to 20 miles north of the border with Israel. Hezbollah says it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers inside that area with a drone.
The U.S. confirms presenting 15 points for a "peace deal"
President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the U.S. had presented a "15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal," which mediator Pakistan gave to Iran.
"If we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them, other than more death and destruction, we have strong signs that this is a possibility," Witkoff said in a Cabinet meeting Thursday.
The comments came after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar wrote on social media: "US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan," adding that Turkey and Egypt were also "extending their support to this initiative." He said Iran is deliberating upon the U.S. 15-point proposal.
No official text of the U.S. proposal has been published and NPR has not seen the 15 points delivered to Iran. President Trump has offered different reasons for launching strikes against Iran last month. The one consistent objective the U.S. and Israel have cited is ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.
A person briefed on the U.S. proposal told NPR that a summary reported by Israel's Channel 12 reflected an early version and that changes have since been made, though it wasn't clear what the changes were. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he believes Iran is desperate to make a deal but won't say so publicly.
"They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people," Trump said during a Republican fundraising dinner Wednesday. "They're also afraid they'll be killed by us."
On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social the Iranians are "begging" for a deal.
Iran's state media on Wednesday quoted a senior security official as saying Iran rejected the U.S. proposal and countered with five conditions of its own. An Iranian Embassy statement shared on social media summed up the conditions as: "end to aggression by the enemy, concrete guarantees preventing the recurrence of war, clear determination, guaranteed payment of war damages and compensation, comprehensive end to the war across all fronts, incl. against all resistance groups, recognition of Iran's sovereignty over Strait of Hormuz."
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged the exchange of messages with the U.S. through intermediaries but said it was not a negotiation.
An official in Islamabad, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that the Pakistani interior minister held a secret meeting with the Iranian ambassador in Pakistan Thursday.
Neither country has mentioned the other warring power, Israel, in the process.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday would not confirm news reports that there could be U.S.-Iran talks in the coming days. "Nothing should be deemed official until it is announced formally by the White House, I would not get ahead of our skis on reporting about any talks this weekend, until you hear directly from us," she said.
Will U.S. forces seize Kharg Island?
The Pentagon is set to deploy up to 3,000 paratroopers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, and thousands of Marines are also on their way to the region.
NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports it comes as President Trump weighs whether to seize Kharg Island, the home of Iran's main oil processing facility.
The U.S. attacked Kharg Island earlier in the war, with Trump saying the U.S. bombed Iranian military targets there but spared the key oil infrastructure.
Analysts say such an operation to seize and hold the island would be militarily challenging. Despite weeks of the U.S. and Israel pummeling Iran's military infrastructure, the country still has an arsenal of drones and missiles.
"Even inserting U.S. forces so close to Iran's shores would be risky and carry the potential for casualties," says Caitlin Talmadge, an expert in U.S. military strategy and the Persian Gulf at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"And then there's the question of sustaining that U.S. military presence on the island, which I don't think would be simple, again because U.S. forces would be within range of Iranian weapons very close to Iran's shores, which would raise costs and raise casualties," she says.
Talmadge says if it is meant to be a negotiating tactic, it isn't clear why taking Kharg Island would pressure Iran into making concessions at this point.
"This is a case where we're talking about a military mission that's in search of a strategic rationale. What are we getting in exchange for doing this? What is the strategic and political result of taking these risks. And that's where my concern lies," she says.
It would also have regional and global fallout.
"This would be a hugely provocative step because … an attack on the processing infrastructure on Kharg Island would likely lead to retaliatory strikes by Iran on processing infrastructure in other countries … in the Gulf," says David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, an international energy consulting firm.
Iran's Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote on social media Wednesday that the country's enemies were "preparing to occupy one of the Iranian islands," with the support of a country in the region. "If they step out of line, all the vital infrastructure of that regional country will, without restriction, become the target of relentless attacks," he warned.
Goldwyn also says it would have an impact on world energy markets, sending oil prices soaring.
Germany's defense minister slams the U.S.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius gave a frank assessment of the war in remarks on a trip to Australia.
"To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for the world's economies," he told reporters.
"What really concerns me the most about that war is there was no consultation, there is no strategy, there is no clear objective and the worst thing from my perspective is that there is no exit strategy," he said.
He also criticized Washington's changing demands of Europe, noting the U.S. had asked Europe to ramp up its defense spending and told it to focus on its own backyard.
"That was before the war started against Iran. Now, the arguments are different. Now they are saying: 'Where are you, you are cowards, you don't help us,'" Pistorius said.
He was referring to Trump calling NATO allies cowards after they declined his request to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Pistorius said while Germany would not be getting involved in the war, they could help secure the vital economic waterway once a ceasefire is agreed.
Oil prices higher amid Strait of Hormuz standoff
The Iranian foreign minister said Iran has let India, China, Russia and other "friendly" nations send ships through the Strait of Hormuz but vessels linked to its adversaries would not be allowed to transit the key shipping passage.
About one-fifth of the world's oil typically passes through the strait, but Iran has blocked most traffic since the start of the war.
Iran's ambassador to South Korea said Tehran considers that Asian nation a "non-hostile country" in the war and that South Korean ships could pass through the Strait of Hormuz if they coordinate with Iran's authorities.
This came as Iran tried to exert greater control over the strait, a narrow passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf which is normally considered an international waterway for ships to access freely.
Before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, approximately 130 ships a day passed through the strait. The latest figures show six or fewer ships transiting a day, in coordination with Iran.
Iranian state-affiliated media reported that the country's Parliament is planning to formalize fees for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian media quoted lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that Iran's "Parliament is pursuing a plan to formally codify Iran's sovereignty, control and oversight over the Strait of Hormuz, while also creating a source of revenue through the collection of fees."
Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a bloc of Arab nations, said in a briefing that Iran is already charging fees for safe passage — in violation of international law.
Iran has also listed among the demands for ending the war the "recognition of Iran's sovereignty" over the strait.
The war and the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz has shaken energy markets. Brent crude oil, the international standard, stood at over $107 a barrel on Thursday.
UAE's stable reputation at risk
The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted 15 missiles and several drones fired at it from Iran Thursday, but two people were killed in Abu Dhabi by falling debris after a successful missile interception.
That raised the UAE's casualties to eight people killed during the war.
The UAE, whose cities including Abu Dhabi and Dubai are normally considered some of the safest in the world, has been heavily targeted by Iranian counterattacks.
The country now says it's ready to join an international effort to open the Strait of Hormuz, where many countries' ships have been unable to transit because of Iranian attacks and threats.
In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, the UAE's ambassador to Washington, Yousef Al Otaiba, said Iran cannot be allowed to hold the global economy hostage.
"A simple cease-fire isn't enough. We need a conclusive outcome that addresses Iran's full range of threats: nuclear capabilities, missiles, drones, terror proxies and blockades of international sea lanes," he wrote.
In other parts of the region, Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry also announced the interception of a drone, while Kuwait and Bahrain also reported attacks.
Airlines in what used to be one of the globe's busiest regions for air travel continue to suffer. Oman Air announced flight cancellations to numerous regional countries as well as parts of Europe until April 15.
Sultan al-Jaber, who heads the huge state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., accused Iran of "economic terrorism" for its stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz.
In comments at Washington's Middle East Institute, he said: "When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store and at the pharmacy. No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way."
Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv, Israel, Diaa Hadid in Mumbai, India, Lauren Frayer in Beirut, Emily Feng in Van, Turkey, Jackie Northam in Maine, Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg and Alex Leff in Washington contributed to this report.
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