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Article: Israel sends an extra infantry battalion to Lebanon’s border.

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A coalition of 32 countries, led by the International Energy Agency, is coordinating the largest-ever release of strategic oil reserves to stabilize global supply. This action responds to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz—a critical oil transit route—due to military conflict, including attacks on commercial ships for which Iran has claimed some responsibility. The expanding war between Iran, Israel, and their allies has caused significant casualties, displacement in Lebanon, and disruptions to global energy markets, driving up fuel prices.

Main Topics Covered: 1. Global coordination to address an oil supply crisis. 2. Military conflict and attacks around the Strait of Hormuz. 3. The regional war between Iran, Israel, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. 4. The economic fallout, including rising oil and gas prices.

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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/11/world/iran-war-news-trump-oil-israel/israel-sends-an-extra-infantry-battalion-to-lebanons-border

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2026-03-11 15:45

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2026-03-11 13:00

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Tehran7:30 p.m. March 11
Tel Aviv/Beirut6:00 p.m. March 11
Iran War Live Updates: Coalition of 32 Countries to Tap Oil Reserves to Shore Up Supply
The Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil, is all but closed as war in the Middle East expands. A British agency said three ships were hit by unidentified projectiles in or near the strait.
- Royal Thai Navy, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- AFPTV
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Agence France-Presse
- Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
- AFPTV
- Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
World leaders were racing on Wednesday to shore up the global oil supply as war in the Middle East and retaliatory attacks by Iran threaten to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits.
The International Energy Agency said that its 32 member countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, the largest ever and the first such coordinated action since 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, did not say when countries would start releasing oil. The agency was created in 1974 to help prevent price shocks.
President Trump, who has sent contradictory signals about the duration of the war against Iran, told Axios on Wednesday that it would end soon because there was “practically nothing left to target.” But Mr. Trump has also said only Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” would end the war, and Iran has shown no sign of halting its attacks.
Earlier on Wednesday, three ships in or near the Strait of Hormuz were struck by projectiles within a few hours of each other, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, marking a sharp uptick in strikes on vessels in or near the waterway.
Iran appeared to take responsibility for at least one of the attacks, on the Mayuree Naree, a Thai-flagged cargo ship. Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said in a social media post that “any vessel that intends to pass must obtain permission” from Iran.
The intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Iran had killed about 1,300 people as of several days ago, according to officials there, a toll that has undoubtedly climbed since then. Dozens of people have been killed by Iran’s retaliatory strikes on several neighboring countries.
In Lebanon, where Israel has been bombing Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, officials said that through Tuesday, at least 570 people had been killed and more than 750,000 displaced from their homes.
Here’s what else we are covering:
More Iranian attacks: The defense ministry in the United Arab Emirates said that its air defenses were responding to incoming missiles and drones from Iran. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar said their forces had intercepted drones and missiles on Wednesday, without saying where they originated.
Israel: Israel said in the early hours of the morning that it had launched a wave of strikes on Tehran, the Iranian capital, targeting what it said was the regime’s infrastructure. The Israeli military also issued alerts after detecting what it said were missiles fired from Iran.
Economic fallout: The expanding conflict has disrupted global energy markets. Higher oil prices have driven up prices for global consumers, and gas prices in the United States rose for the 11th straight day on Wednesday, to a national average of $3.58 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club.
Strikes in Lebanon: Dozens of people were killed or wounded in Israeli strikes early Wednesday across Lebanon, where the Israeli military is attacking Hezbollah, Lebanon’s national news agency reported. Israel issued an evacuation warning for the densely populated southern outskirts of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, indicating that more strikes are planned.
New leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, who has succeeded his slain father as Iran’s supreme leader, has not appeared on video or in public nor issued any written statements since his appointment was announced on Monday. One reason is the concern that any communication could reveal his location and put him in danger, according to three Iranian officials. Another is that he was injured on the opening day of the U.S.-Israeli strikes, they said. Read more ›
American casualties: The Pentagon said on Tuesday that Iranian strikes, which have killed seven U.S. service members, have also wounded 140 U.S. service members, eight severely.
John Yoon and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.
The U.S. military warned they cannot guarantee the safety of shipping ports in the Strait of Hormuz, signaling that ports could become military targets. “Civilian ports used for military purposes lose protected status and become legitimate military targets under international law,” the military’s Central Command, which is responsible for Middle East operations, said in a statement. It added that Iran is using the ports “to conduct military operations that threaten international shipping.” That follows reports of attacks on multiple ships in and around the critical waterway over the past day.
Following the International Energy Agency’s decision to release 400 million barrels of reserve oil, President Emmanuel Macron of France said in “no case” should sanctions on Russia be lifted. He commended the Ukrainian government for offering to help Gulf countries coming under Iranian attack with drones.
Major developments — March 11
The Israeli military said it had sent an additional infantry battalion to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday, as Israel appeared poised to escalate its military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Israeli forces have already been pushing deeper into Lebanon — expanding a de facto military buffer zone — since Hezbollah attacks on Israel last week. Israel responded with waves of airstrikes in Lebanon, and military officials have also drawn up plans for a more sweeping ground invasion in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
At least 700,000 people have already fled their homes in Lebanon, according to the United Nations, after the Israeli military threatened imminent attacks. More than 570 people have been killed, including dozens of children, according to Lebanese officials.
The Lebanese Red Cross said on Wednesday that one of its volunteer paramedics, Youssef Assaf, had been killed in southern Lebanon after rushing to try to treat wounded people in the town of Majdal Zoun. It did not say who was responsible for his death.
Hezbollah also continued to fire barrages of rockets and drones at northern Israel. During the last war between the sides, which formally ended in late 2024, the Israeli government ordered a mass evacuation of towns along the Lebanese border. This time, many residents are staying, choosing to hunker down in reinforced shelters.
On Wednesday, the whir of Israeli surveillance drones could be heard across the Lebanese capital of Beirut, even as heavy Israeli airstrikes continued to pound the city’s southern outskirts overnight.
Joseph Aoun, the Lebanese president, called this week for direct talks with Israel on an immediate cease-fire and the disarming of Hezbollah. Israeli officials did not comment on his offer, but they have expressed skepticism that Lebanon’s government could disarm Hezbollah, as the militia has long operated as a powerful state within a state.
Instead, Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, vowed that Israel would “not only refrain from retreating in the face of Hezbollah, but take advantage of the opportunity to strike it.”
“We are striking it and will continue to do so,” Mr. Katz said this week, vowing to “exact a price” from the group.
Euan Ward contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
Iran has launched missiles with cluster-munition warheads at Israel over the course of the Middle East war, according to verified footage and Israeli officials — actions that experts say could violate the laws of war.
More than 10 Iranian missiles with the warheads have been fired at the country since the war began on Feb. 28, according to Chief Superintendent Doron Lavi of the Israeli police’s bomb disposal unit.
Cluster munitions have warheads that burst and scatter into bomblets, which can cause indiscriminate harm if fired near civilians. Since 2008, more than 100 countries have signed an international agreement to prohibit them. Israel and Iran have not adopted the ban, nor have major powers like the United States, Russia, China and India.
Iran previously targeted Israel with cluster munitions during a 12-day war last year. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said Iran had drastically increased its use of the weapon in the current conflict. Israel used cluster munitions in past wars, including in Lebanon in 2006, prompting similar criticism.
In one video shared by a municipal authority in central Israel, a bomblet, also known as a “submunition,” is seen exploding on impact on March 4 on a street in Or Yehuda, a city near Tel Aviv. There were no reported injuries.
“The video shows what appears to be an Iranian submunition tumbling to the ground before detonating,” said N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, a firm that analyzes arms and munitions.
In a separate clip, from March 5, bomblets are seen in the night sky during a ballistic missile attack, according to Mr. Jenzen-Jones.
Legal experts said international law barred countries from using cluster munitions in populated areas because the weapons’ indiscriminate nature makes it far harder for belligerent forces to target soldiers without risking harm to civilians.
“The bomblets are released in a fairly random pattern — they are unguided,” said Adil Haque, an international law professor at Rutgers Law School. “As such, they cannot be directed at specific military targets.”
In theory, the munitions could be used in areas without civilians, such as naval warfare, Professor Haque said. But Iranian missile fire over Israeli cities did not meet that standard, he said.
Cluster-munition warheads often leave behind “unexploded duds,” which can suddenly detonate when civilians stumble upon them years later, said Bonnie Docherty, an arms expert at Human Rights Watch.
Russia and Ukraine have used cluster munitions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The United States sold the weapons to Ukraine in 2023 despite concerns over how they would be used.
Tal Inbar, an Israeli expert on Iranian missiles, said Iran might be using the weapons to make it easier to evade Israel’s air-defense system.
Even if an Israeli interceptor missile hits a cluster-munition warhead, some of its bomblets may still emerge undamaged from the collision and continue their descent. Israel, Mr. Inbar said, could try to intercept those bomblets, but it is hard to hit them all in time.
Twelve Israelis, at least 11 confirmed as civilians, have been killed in Iranian attacks during the war, two of them in cluster attacks, according to Israeli officials.
More than 1,300 Iranians have been killed in Israeli and American strikes, according to Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. Iran’s toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The European Union energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, welcomed the decision by IEA member states to release oil stocks in an effort to stem rising oil prices. “In times of hardship, unity and global cooperation are essential,” Jorgensen said in a social media post. The 27-nation bloc’s oil coordination group is scheduled to meet tomorrow to review the fallout from the Middle East.
I welcome the decision by IEA Member countries to carry out coordinated oil stock release amid the current market disruptions sparked by the conflict in the Middle East.
— Dan Jørgensen (@DanJoergensen) March 11, 2026
In times of hardship, unity and global cooperation are essential. ↓
The announcements by Citi and other banks that they are temporary closing their Gulf offices came hours after a warning by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that a strike on an Iranian bank early Wednesday gave Iran free rein to hit Western banks.
Citi is evacuating the Dubai offices that long served as the bank’s Middle East headquarters, according to a staff notice reviewed by The New York Times. The note cites “heightened security concerns” and orders employees to find “the nearest safe place away from the office.”
Russia has evacuated another 150 people from the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, according to the head of the state-owned nuclear company, known as Rosatom. Its director, Aleksei Likhachev, told the company’s official publication that about 450 people remain at the site, the only operational civilian nuclear power plant in Iran, where Russia has been building two new reactors. Russia had halted construction work to expand the plant when the U.S.-Israeli strikes began. The latest evacuation, following 94 family members previously, reflects fears of strikes on or near the plant. Russian officials warned that strikes are being conducted kilometers away from the site, but Israel’s ambassador to Russia has said the facility is not a target.
The IEA has not yet released details about when countries will start releasing oil, nor how much they will be able to put into the market at a time. The move is designed to stem swiftly rising oil prices.
Oil prices have not changed much since Birol’s announcement. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is up slightly, trading around $91 a barrel, from about $89 a barrel before Birol started speaking.
Drones have struck fuel tanks at a port in Salalah, in southern Oman, without causing casualties, according to Omani state media. It did not say who had fired the drones. Before the war, Oman had been mediating talks between Iran and the United States. That has not spared it from being drawn into the fighting, though it has reported fewer attacks than its neighbors in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Birol says the IEA’s member countries will release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, the largest ever such release. The last time its members took similiar coordinated action was in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, has started speaking in Paris. “The conflict in the Middle East is having significant impacts on global oil and gas markets with major implications for energy security, energy affordability and the global economy.”
Iran appeared to claim responsibility for at least one of the ship attacks. Alireza Tangsiri, the naval commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, named one of the ships that was struck, the Mayuree Naree, in a post on social media, saying it had “ignored the warnings” from Iran, and “ended up getting caught.”
At least three ships were hit on Wednesday in and around the vital oil route of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a British maritime monitoring group, as the Middle East war chokes off a crucial conduit for the global oil trade.
A Japanese container vessel owned by Mitsui, a large global shipping line, was among those hit, according to Kpler, a global ship tracking company. The other targeted ships, according to Kpler, were bulk carriers, or vessels designed to transport loose cargo like grain or iron ore.
“This increasingly points to a sustained pattern rather than isolated incidents,” said Dimitris Ampatzidis, a senior risk and compliance analyst at Kpler. “The pace of attacks does not suggest any intention to de-escalate.”
Only the Mayuree Naree appeared to be in the Strait of Hormuz when it was attacked, Mr. Ampatzidis said. The other vessels were in the Persian Gulf, according to shipping executives and ship tracking data.
Iran appeared to claim responsibility for the attack on one of the bulk carriers, the Mayuree Naree, from Thailand. Alireza Tangsiri, the naval commander in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps, said in a post on social media that the vessel was struck because its crew had “ignored the warnings” from Iran and “ended up getting caught.”
He said that another ship had been targeted.
“Any vessel that intends to pass must obtain permission from #Iran,” Mr. Tangsiri said in his post.
The incidents came after the U.S. military said it struck 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, though it remained unclear whether any Iranian mines had actually been deployed there.
The attacks on shipping have given Iran leverage even as the country comes under heavy attack by the United States and Israel. By making the strait off-limits to most shipping, Iran has cut off a significant amount of oil and natural gas from world markets. This has pushed up oil prices, led to higher gasoline prices and forced countries to tap emergency oil reserves.
About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas is transported through the strait in normal times. President Trump said last week that he was considering a naval escort for commercial shipping in the strait and that a U.S. government agency was planning to offer affordable insurance to shipping companies sending their vessels through the waterway.
The Star Gwyneth, the other bulk carrier, was anchored in the Persian Gulf when it was hit, said Petros Pappas, chief executive of Star Bulk, the Greek company that owns of vessel. Mr. Pappas said that none of the crew were hurt and that the vessel was not seriously damaged. “We think it was an accident,” he said.
Efforts to reach representatives for Mitsui were not immediately successful. Reuters reported Wednesday that Mitsui had said that the attack on its container ship, the One Majesty, took place when it was at anchor in the Persian Gulf, and that the vessel was operational.
The British monitoring agency, United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, said it had received reports of 13 attacks in total since the United States and Israel began its war with Iran on Feb. 28.
The Oman News Agency said the country’s Maritime Security Center received a report indicating that the Mayuree Naree was hit off the Omani coast.
“The targeting resulted in a fire breaking out in the main engine room,” the news agency said.
The ship’s stern was damaged while sailing, after it departed from the port of Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement from the Thai foreign ministry. Oman’s navy rescued 20 of the ship’s 23 crew members, and efforts are underway to rescue the remaining three, the statement said.
Some vessels are going through the strait, but it is unclear how many, because those making the passage typically turn off devices that allow them to be tracked.
Sanam Mahoozi, Aaron Boxerman and Sui-Lee Wee contributed reporting.
Spain has removed its ambassador to Israel, according to the Spanish government’s official gazette. The bulletin did not lay out the rationale for the move. Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, has slammed the decision to attack Iran as “playing Russian roulette with the fate of millions of people.” Ties between Spain and Israel had already deteriorated in the shadow of the war in Gaza, in which the Spanish government has been one of the fiercest critics of Israeli policy. Israel recalled its last ambassador to Madrid after Spain recognized a Palestinian state in 2024.
Thousands of Iranians gathered in a funeral procession in the capital of Tehran to mourn Iranians, especially leaders, killed in the war with the United States and Israel. In footage from the scene streamed by Reuters, a singer can be heard over a loudspeaker as coffins are brought past on elevated platforms. Green banners hanging over the coffins are emblazoned with the faces of killed senior Iranian leaders, including longtime ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A speaker on stage leads parts of the crowd in chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” While dissent against the Islamic Republic’s repressive and autocratic rule is widespread, the Iranian government does have a base of public support.
Price of Brent Crude Oil
World leaders agreed on Wednesday to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, their most forceful response to the surge in oil prices since the war in Iran began at the end of February.
But the announcement, which was well telegraphed, did little to further calm the oil market, where international prices ticked up to around $91 a barrel.
This would be the largest coordinated release of stockpiled oil on record by members of the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based multilateral organization.
The 400 million barrels of oil — enough to meet about four days’ worth of global demand — is meant to offset some of the energy that is no longer available from the Persian Gulf, where the war has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and natural gas trading route.
“This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the I.E.A., which has 32 member countries, including Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States. “But to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”
The agency did not provide details on Wednesday morning about when its members would start opening their oil stores or how much they would release into the market at once. The I.E.A.’s members last agreed to this type of coordinated action in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Earlier on Wednesday, at least three ships were attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a reminder of the ongoing risks to energy supplies. Natural gas markets are particularly vulnerable, as countries generally do not have the same kinds of reserves of that fuel, which is used by power plants, for home heating and in factories.
“Gas is a more fragile market,” said Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean and professor of energy and environmental policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
International oil prices surged to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday after much of the flow of crude oil and natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz, which is on Iran’s southern border, effectively halted. Prices have since fallen but they remain much higher than they were before the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.
The I.E.A., which was formed by the United States and other industrialized countries after the energy crisis of the 1970s, estimated that its members have about 1.2 billion barrels of oil in reserve. That amounts to about 12 days of global oil demand and does not include an additional 600 million barrels that governments can access from industry stores in emergencies.
China, which is not a member of the I.E.A., also has large reserves and has been buying a lot of oil in recent months. The country’s strategic stockpile stands at about 1.2 billion barrels.
Hisako Ueno, Jim Tankersley, Eshe Nelson and River Akira Davis contributed reporting.
Admiral Cooper, of Central Command said the U.S. attacks on Tuesday included “strike waves nearly every hour from different locations and directions going into Iran.” Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks have “dropped drastically” since the beginning of the war but that Iranian forces were now launching strikes from within densely populated cities “while hiding behind their own people.”
Romania’s president has approved hosting additional American troops and equipment to support U.S. military operations in the Middle East. President Nicusor Dan said only defensive equipment, communications and refueling systems would be allowed at the Black Sea base that has hosted U.S. forces for more than two decades. “I emphasize that they are not equipped with actual weapons,” Dan said.
The commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, said on Wednesday that the United States has hit more than 5,500 targets inside Iran, including ballistic missiles and more than 60 Iranian navy ships. “In short, U.S. forces continue delivering devastating combat power against the Iranian regime,” Adm. Brad Cooper said in a five-minute operational update video posted on social media. He said that U.S. warplanes are “clearly exercising air superiority over vast swaths of Iran,” meaning they could fly most places in Iran without fear of Iranian air defenses.
The fighting was further disrupting flights in the Gulf on Wednesday. The Dutch carrier KLM said it was extending its suspension of flights to Dubai through March 28. Hours earlier, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said two drones had fallen near Dubai International Airport, injuring four people, though officials said air traffic was operating as normal.
Germany will release oil from its strategic reserves in response to the war, at the request of the International Energy Agency, the country’s economy minister, Katherina Reiche, told reporters on Wednesday.
Kaja Kallas, the top European Union diplomat, said on social media that European ambassadors had approved new sanctions against 19 Iranian officials and entities. The action “sends a message to Tehran that Iran’s future cannot be built on repression,” she wrote.
Japan will release oil from its reserves as early as Monday in response to disruptions in the supply of Middle Eastern oil, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters on Wednesday evening in Tokyo. Her announcement came ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations, including Japan and the United States, to discuss jointly releasing oil in consultation with the International Energy Agency.
Britain’s home secretary invoked rarely used powers to ban a pro-Palestinian march that was seen by police and other critics as a demonstration supportive of Iran. But organizers vowed to go ahead with a protest.
The right of pro-Palestinian groups to protest in London and other British cities has been a sensitive issue since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with Jewish groups accusing some demonstrators of stoking antisemitism.
But the annual Al Quds march, which was scheduled for Sunday, was particularly contentious this year against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. During previous marches, some protesters have waved the flag of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which is banned in Britain. Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s home secretary, said in a statement late Tuesday that she agreed to a police request to prohibit the march.
“I am satisfied doing so is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East,” the statement said.
London’s Metropolitan Police described the Al Quds march as “uniquely contentious” because it was organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, an organization supportive of the Iranian regime.
The police said in a statement that the threshold for banning a protest march was high and that the department hadn’t used these powers since 2012.
British law allows the home secretary to ban a protest march from taking place on the basis that allowing it to go ahead would create a risk of “serious disorder” that cannot be managed by commonly used police powers to impose enforceable conditions, such as mandated routes and start and end times.
The Metropolitan Police has resisted calls by some campaign groups to apply for bans on several pro-Palestinian marches, saying the threshold had not been reached, and last triggered the power for a planned march through racially diverse areas of London by Tommy Robinson’s extreme right-wing English Defence League group in 2012.
But the force cited “the extreme tensions between different factions,” as well as “the volatile situation in the Middle East, with the Iranian regime attacking British allies and military bases overseas.”
Its statement said that a man had been stabbed on Saturday “by someone who had opposing views on the Iranian regime” and that allowing the march to go ahead would run the “risk of injury to members of the public, protesters, police officers and damage to property.”
The London Al Quds Day march was the target of a far-right terrorist attack in 2017, but a Metropolitan Police security operation that closed roads around the event prevented a man from ramming his vehicle into the crowd. He went on to attack Muslims leaving prayers at a mosque, killing one victim.
The event was first held in Iran in 1979 by the country’s former supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, after the Iranian Revolution, but has since expanded to multiple countries.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission, which organizes the London event on an annual basis, has criticized the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the opening blows of the U.S.-Israeli war. It said that Ayatollah Khamenei was killed for “standing on the right side of history.”
In a statement, the organization described itself as an independent non-governmental organization, and said it “strongly condemns” the decision to ban the march on Sunday.
“If it was not clear already, the police have brazenly abandoned their sworn principle of policing without fear or favor,” the group said in a statement, adding: “We are seeking legal advice and this decision will not go unchallenged.”
The group also said it would be going ahead with the event, but in the form of a static protest.
The police said they did not have the power to prevent a “static assembly” — as opposed to a moving protest march — but that if one took place, strict conditions would be placed on it “given the concerns around serious disorder.”
Darren Jones, a senior government minister, told Sky News that the ban did not constitute a restriction of freedom of speech.
He added: “You can’t incite hatred or violence, or cause physical damage and those types of things, but you do have the right in our country to express your views, democratically and peacefully.”
Senate Democrats accused Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of ignoring the risk to civilians in combat operations and demanded he disclose whether the United States was responsible for a deadly attack on an elementary school in Iran.
A majority of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Mr. Hegseth on Wednesday calling for a “swift investigation” of an attack on a naval base and elementary school in southern Iran on Feb. 28. The school was mostly destroyed by the strike and at least 175 people, most of them children, were killed.
President Trump has claimed without evidence that Iran carried out the strike. But mangled fragments purportedly recovered from the attack in Minab appear to be from an American-made Tomahawk cruise missile, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
The Pentagon has said the attack was under investigation, but has not given a timeline on when the findings would be released.
The strike drew global condemnation, including from the United Nations, which called it a violation of international humanitarian law.
Senate Democrats said they want the Pentagon to inform them by next week whether U.S. forces carried out the strike.
“There must be a swift investigation into the strikes on this school and any other potential U.S. military actions causing civilian harm, and the findings must be released to the public as soon as possible, along with any measures to pursue accountability,” they wrote.
Mr. Hegseth has said that guidelines for the use of deadly force make it more difficult to defeat enemies. Last year, he eliminated offices and positions focused on preventing civilian harm.
Last week, the secretary said at a news conference that the war in Iran would have “no stupid rules of engagement,” and that the U.S. military would rain down “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
“These actions, combined with your comments and the horrific reports of civilian casualties stemming from the war against Iran, suggest the administration has abandoned its duty to protect civilians,” Democrats wrote to the secretary.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Every senator who caucuses with Democrats except Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania signed onto the letter to Mr. Hegseth. A group of House Democrats is preparing a similar request to the Defense Department for a report to lawmakers on the deadly school strike.
Senators also asked the Pentagon to report back on the current measures in place to prevent and mitigate civilian harm in its operational planning and targeting; the use of artificial intelligence to identify targets inside Iran; the impact of the cuts to personnel tasked with civilian harm mitigation; and the steps the Trump administration has taken to comply with the laws of armed conflict.
No Republicans signed onto the request, and Democrats have no official mechanism to force compliance.
Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the Democrat who led the disclosure request, said he could force a vote on a war powers resolution if the Pentagon does not comply. Democrats are already threatening to force votes on a series of such measures to slow down the legislative priorities of the president and congressional Republicans if Mr. Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio do not testify in public hearings on the escalating war.
“What we’re seeing is a failure to take the precautions necessary to prevent school kids from getting blown up,” Mr. Van Hollen said in an interview. “And that’s the consequence of the attitude that Secretary Hegseth has promoted.”
Several Republicans declined to comment on the reports that the U.S. was responsible for the strike until after the Pentagon concluded its investigation.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was the lone Republican to condemn the attack. “I think we screwed up,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “I think we made a mistake. It was a terrible, terrible mistake.”
In the city of Isfahan, Israeli airstrikes have damaged several of Iran’s most cherished cultural jewels, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage said. The Ali Qapu Palace and the Chehel Sotoun palace and garden, dating to the 17th-century Safavid dynasty, sustained serious harm, photos and videos released by the ministry show.
The blast waves on Monday also sent the turquoise tiles of the iconic Jameh Mosque crashing to the ground, with ministry photographs showing a massive plume of smoke rising from behind the mosque. The mosque, with its brightly colored minarets and domes covered in Persian calligraphy, is renowned as a gem of Persian and Islamic architecture.
The strikes on Isfahan on Monday came a week after another cultural icon, the Golestan Palace, was badly damaged during an attack on a police station in downtown Tehran, according to the ministry. Golestan Palace dates to the 14th century and eventually became the seat of the Qajar dynasty. Its famed hall of mirrors was shattered, and its symmetrical garden was covered in debris, photos and videos show.
Israeli military strikes in Isfahan were targeting the governor’s building, which sits near Naqshe Jahan Square, according to Iranian government officials. Many cultural landmarks also sat in close proximity.
The images of renowned historic sites shattered by missiles has left many Iranians enraged. In interviews and in posts on social media, some are asking how a war waged by Israel and the United States supposedly against the Islamic republic’s government and military has ended up damaging their cultural identity and sites.
“For me, ancient monuments are as important as human lives, because they connect me to my past,” Mojtaba Najafi, a prominent Iranian scholar and researcher, said in one post. “And their destruction means my memory is being demolished.”
A spokeswoman for UNESCO, the United Nations agency that seeks to protect global culture, said her organization had been able to verify damage at several World Heritage sites in Iran. They include the Golestan Palace; the Chehel Sotoun pavilion of the Persian Garden, the Masjed‑e Jameh of Isfahan, as well as on buildings located near the buffer zone of the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley.
“UNESCO is deeply concerned by reports of destruction affecting cultural heritage sites in the Middle East, notably in Iran and neighboring countries,” said the spokeswoman, Monia Adjiwanou.
In a statement last week, UNESCO said “cultural property is protected under international law.” It said it had contacted all parties in the Iran conflict and shared the geographical coordinates for sites on its world heritage list, as well as for national symbols. The hope was that they might be spared.
“These sites carry historical memory that transcend ideology,” said Naghmeh Sohrabi, a professor of Middle East history and director for research at Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies. “They are living breathing monuments to beauty and creation, not just for Iranians but for all of us in the world.”
On Sunday, an ancient hilltop castle and military barracks dating to Persia’s Sasanian era, from the 220s to 650s A.D., was seriously damaged in a airstrike on Sunday, according to Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which said Israel struck the ministry’s local offices in the province. The castle, known as Shapur Khast Castle and Falak ol-Aflak, is in Khorramabad, in Lorestan Province.
The ministry said that the strikes targeted Lorestan’s cultural ministry, destroying the building, and that the blasts had damaged the castle and two museums.
The mosque, the two palaces in Isfahan’s Naqshe Jahan Square and the Golestan Palace in Tehran are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites, with the goal of protecting them from alterations. The castle is on Iran’s list of cultural heritage sites.
Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage said it had installed blue flags, in keeping with international wartime protocol, on all of its cultural and heritage sites to signal to Israeli and American jets that they were protected. But to no avail.
Israel’s military said it did not target these cultural sites directly. But it did not respond to questions about cultural sites being damaged as a result of strikes on nearby targets.
In Isfahan, the blast wave reverberated across Naqshe Jahan Square. The 964,000-square-foot plaza, constructed in 1598 during the Safavid empire, is known for the majestic green garden in its center and the labyrinth of its bazaar, along with its towering palaces, with turquoise domes and minarets adorned with Persian calligraphy.
At the Ali Qapu and Chehel Sotoun palace, videos and images on state television showed painted murals knocked to the ground, floral tiles broken into pieces, hand-carved wooden panels blown out and hanging off walls and ceilings. Tiny mirrors that had been arranged into ornate stars and hexagons shattered across the floor.
A video verified by The New York Times shows the destruction to Chehel Sotoun, a 17-century palace with a Persian garden compound. There, the 20 towers of the palace are reflected in a shallow blue pool in the garden, creating the illusion of 40 accounting for the name. In Persian, chehel sotoun means 40 columns.
The strikes are damaging sites that have remained standing though history’s upheavals. They made it through centuries of different monarchs, of invasions, coups, World War II, the Islamic Revolution, an eight-year war with Iraq and waves of uprisings against the current government.
Iranians are reacting with outrage, sadness and fear.
“What happened to their claims that this was war on the regime and not on Iran and its people?” asked Laleh, a 36-year-old from Tehran, reached by telephone. “They are lying.”
Isfahan is the hometown of Nasim Alikhani, the Iranian American owner and chef of the acclaimed Persian restaurant Sofreh in Brooklyn. Ms. Alikhani said she was devastated when she heard about the Isfahan strikes.
“Isfahan’s Naqshe Jahan Square is not just an extraordinary historical site — it is the heart and soul of every Iranian,” she said in an interview. “It has survived countless invasions, yet it did not survive the brutality of this unjust war. These places do not belong only to Iranians — they belong to humanity, and their destruction must never be accepted.”
Many consider Isfahan the most magical city in Iran. In Persian, it is often referred to as “Isfahan, Nesefeh Jahan” — meaning Isfahan is half of the world. An ode to the city by an Iranian pop star, Moein, is a staple singalong at Iranian parties and family gatherings.
Iran’s Red Crescent Society said Tuesday that since the start of the war on Feb. 28, almost 10,000 civilian structures had been destroyed or damaged in airstrikes. Of those, it said, 7,493 were residential; 1,617 commercial; 32 medical and pharmaceutical facilities; 65 schools and educational sites. Thirteen, it said, belonged to the Red Crescent.
And now at least six cultural gems: Naqshe Jahan Square, Jameh Mosque, Ali Qapu Palace, Chehel Sotoun Palace and Garden, Golestan Palace and Falak ol-Aflak Castle.
The governor of Isfahan, Mehdi Jamalinejad, called the attacks on his city barbaric. “They are targeting the world’s most ancient symbols of civilization with the most advanced weaponry,” he said in a social media post.
Parin Behrooz Behrouz and Arijeta Lajka Lajka contributed reporting.