Israel says it intercepted first incoming missile from Yemen as war in
Middle East intensifies
[March 28, 2026]
By SAMY MAGDY, AAMER MADHANI and JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel’s military said it intercepted
a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel early Saturday and the
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels later claimed responsibility for the
attack, their first since the war in the Mideast started.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, claimed
responsibility in a statement aired Saturday morning on the rebels' Al-Masirah
satellite television. The possible entry to the war of the Houthis calls
into question whether the group will again target commercial shipping
traveling through the Red Sea corridor.
Sirens went off around Beer Sheba and the area near Israel’s main
nuclear research center for the third time overnight Friday into
Saturday as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel overnight.
Loud explosions also filled the air in Tel Aviv and Israel’s Fire and
Rescue Service said it was responding to 11 different impact sites
across the metro area.
Israel had struck Iran’s nuclear facilities hours after threatening to
“escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday. Iran vowed
to retaliate and struck a base in Saudi Arabia, wounding U.S. service
members and damaging planes.
More than two dozen U.S. troops have been wounded in Iranian attacks on
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in the past week, according two
people who have been briefed on the matter. Iran fired six ballistic
missiles and 29 drones at the base in the Friday attack that injured at
least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to the people who
were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of
anonymity.
The base about about 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the Saudi capital of
Riyadh came under come attack twice earlier in the week, including a
strike that injured 14 U.S. troops, according to the people briefed on
the matter. The base is run by the Royal Saudi Air Force but also used
by U.S. troops.
In Lebanon, authorities said more than 1,100 people have been killed
since the start of the war. The Associated Press is now calling Israel’s
military actions in southern Lebanon an invasion. Israel has moved
thousands of troops across the border into Lebanon, and Israeli forces
and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants have been fighting on the ground for
at least three weeks.
U.S. stocks experienced a further drop Friday. The S&P 500 sank 1.7% to
close out its worst week since the Iran war started and its 5th losing
week in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7%, and the
Nasdaq composite sank 2.1%. Meanwhile, crude oil prices continued to
soar.
With U.S. gas prices approaching $4 a gallon, members of Congress have
been pushing to suspend the federal gasoline tax, set at 18.4 cents per
gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. U.S.
President Donal Trump suggested states should look at suspending their
fuel taxes.
Involvement of Houthis could further complicate the war
Saree said the Houthis fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting
what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern
Israel. The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement
Friday that the rebels would join the war.
The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, and so far had
stayed out of the war as the rebels have had an uneasy ceasefire for
years with Saudi Arabia, which launched a war against the group on
behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015.
Attacks on vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended shipping in the
Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion worth of goods passed each year
before the war. The rebels also fired drones at Israel.
In 2024, the Trump administration launched strikes against the Houthis
that ended weeks later. The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels,
overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, turned into the
most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II.
The Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and
drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023
until January 2025. That would cause further chaos in global shipping,
which already is reeling from Iran’s stranglehold over the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of
all oil and natural gas once passed.
The potential involvement of the Houthis in the war also would
complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft
carrier that went to port in Crete on Monday for repairs. Sending the
carrier back into the Red Sea could draw it into the same high tempo of
attacks seen by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry
S. Truman in the 2025 American campaign against the Houthis.
Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities
Israel focused its attacks Friday on sites “in the heart of Tehran”
where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced, the military
said. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in Western
Iran, while witnesses in eastern Tehran reported a partial power outage
following airstrikes.
Iranian state media said Friday that two nuclear facilities had come
under attack. Israel, which had threatened to “escalate and expand” its
campaign against Tehran, claimed responsibility, and Iran quickly
threatened to retaliate.
“Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Iranian Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi said via X.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the Shahid Khondab Heavy Water
Complex in Arak and the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd
Province were targeted, IRNA reported. The strikes did not cause any
casualties and there was no risk of contamination, it said. The Arak
plant has not been operational since Israel attacked it last June.
Yellowcake is a concentrated form of uranium after impurities are
removed from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear
reactors.
The Israeli military later said raw materials are processed for
enrichment at the Yazd plant and the strike was a major blow to Iran's
nuclear program.
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An Israeli first responder walks from the site of a missile strike
in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya
Levin)
Seyed Majid Moosavi, IRGC’s Aerospace Force commander, said on X
that employees of companies tied to the U.S. and Israel should
abandon their workplaces: “This time, the equation will no longer be
‘an eye for an eye,’ just wait.”
Late Friday, Israeli authorities said Iran had launched missiles at
the country that killed a 52-year-old man in Tel Aviv. Sirens
alerted people to seek shelter in and around Tel Aviv, Jerusalem,
Beer Sheba and areas near the country's main nuclear research
center, which were targeted by Iranian strikes that injured dozens
last weekend.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down
missiles and drones targeting the capital, Riyadh. In Lebanon, the
Health Ministry said two people were killed.
Kuwait said its Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City and the Mubarak Al
Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of
China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. China has continued to purchase
Iranian crude.
Trump renews call for Israeli-Saudi ties
Speaking in Miami at an event sponsored by the Saudi sovereign
wealth fund, Trump reiterated his desire for those two countries to
normalize relations.
The president has been pressing the two biggest powers in the Middle
East on that for years as part of his Abraham Accords efforts, and
he said the time will be right when hostilities end with Iran.
“It’s now time,” he said. “We’ve now taken them out, and they are
out bigly. We got to get into the Abraham Accords.”
Significant headwinds remain, including Saudi Arabia’s insistence
that there needs to be a credible path to a Palestinian state before
it normalizes commercial and diplomatic ties with Israel.
Diplomacy proceeds alongside US troop buildup
Word of the attacks on Iran came after Trump claimed that talks on
ending the war were going “very well” and that he had given Tehran
more time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran maintains that it has
not engaged in any negotiations.
With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war
extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing
pressure to end Iran's chokehold on the strait.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington delivered a 15-point
“action list” to Iran for a possible ceasefire, using Pakistan as an
intermediary. It proposes restricting Iran’s nuclear program and
reopening the strait.
Iran rejected the offer and presented its own five-point proposal
that included reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over
the waterway.
Trump has said if that Iran doesn't reopen the strait to all traffic
by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants.
Diplomats from several countries including Pakistan and Turkey have
tried to organize a direct meeting between U.S. and Iranian envoys.
Separately, G7 foreign ministers meeting Friday in France formally
asked for an immediate halt to attacks against populations and
infrastructure.
U.S. ships drew closer to the region carrying some 2,500 Marines,
and at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne trained to
land in hostile territory to secure key positions and airfields have
been ordered to the Middle East.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. “can achieve all of our
objectives without ground troops.” Following the G7 meeting, Rubio
said the deployments are designed to ensure “maximum opportunity to
adjust to contingencies should they emerge.”
Israel sent the 162nd Division into southern Lebanon to support
efforts to protect its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks
and uproot the militant group, the military said.
Death toll climbs
Nineteen people have died in Israel, while four Israeli soldiers
have been killed in Lebanon.
Authorities dais over 1,900 people have been killed in Iran. The
U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said Friday that
82,000 civilian buildings in Iran, including hospitals and the homes
of 180,000 people, are damaged.
At least 13 American troops have been killed, and four people in the
occupied West Bank and 20 in Gulf Arab states have also died.
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the
conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.
Possible breakthrough with aid and agricultural shipments
There appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow
humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of
Hormuz, accepting a request from the U.N. Ali Bahreini, the
country’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Iran
agreed to “facilitate and expedite” such movement.
The vital waterway usually handles a fifth of the world’s oil
shipments and nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer trade. While
markets and governments have largely focused on blocked supplies of
oil and natural gas, the restriction of fertilizer ingredients and
trade threatens farming and food security around the world.
“This measure reflects Iran’s continued commitment to supporting
humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those
in need without delay,” Bahreini said on the social platform X. The
U.N. earlier announced a task force to address the ripple effects
that the war has had on aid delivery.
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Magdy reported from Cairo, Madhani from Washington and Gambrell from
Dubai.
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