Israel bombs central Beirut in expanding attack.

People look on as smoke rises from a an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

By EUAN WARD, ADAM RASGON, YEGANEH TORBATI, REBECCA F. ELLIOT and AURELIEN BREEDEN

The Israeli military launched a new wave of strikes on central Beirut on Thursday evening, saying it was targeting infrastructure belonging to the militant group Hezbollah. The strikes came hours after Iran’s new supreme leader struck a defiant tone Thursday, vowing to keep blocking a vital oil route and to avenge “the blood of the martyrs.”

The heavy bombardment, in a neighborhood of hip bars, high-end restaurants and high schools, sent thick plumes of smoke and dust into the air and landed a few hundred yards from the government’s headquarters. It crystallized fears that the conflict was expanding in the Lebanese capital beyond its southern outskirts, where Hezbollah has long held sway. It also deepened the sense that corners of the city once considered comparatively safe were no longer off-limits.

The attacks came a few hours after Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, made his first known public comments since succeeding his father, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28. In written statements carried by Iranian state media Thursday, he said that “the lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must also continue.” His comments were likely to add further instability to oil markets.

Iraq and Oman closed oil terminals Thursday after two tankers were attacked and left burning off Iraq’s coast. Oil prices have surged despite pledges by the United States and other major economies to calm markets by releasing emergency reserves. On Thursday, President Donald Trump said preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons was more important than preventing the rise in oil prices, and claimed the United States would profit.

Qatar said Thursday that it had stopped a missile attack, while Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed two drones that were heading toward the kingdom’s huge Shaybah oil field.

For Lebanese displaced by Israel’s evacuation orders and relentless bombardment, the strikes in Beirut spread fear and uncertainty. “I don’t feel like there is a safe place for us to go anymore,” said Hussain Mansour, 32, standing by the site of a strike in the seaside community Ramlet al-Baida.

People look on as smoke rises from a an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

“Where? Where should we go?”

Here’s what else we are covering:

— Russia shipment: Russia has sent more than 13 metric tons of medicine to Iranian civilians on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations said Thursday, in the ministry’s first announcement of an aid shipment to Iran since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began. Moscow airlifted the aid in an IL-76 aircraft to Azerbaijan, where the medicine was handed over to Iranian officials for transport by land into Iran, the ministry said.

— Lebanon speech: Prime Minister Nawaf Salam gave a televised speech Thursday evening, shortly after Israeli airstrikes rained on central Beirut. “We cannot, under any circumstances, accept that Lebanon once again becomes an open arena for the wars of others,” he said. It was a thinly veiled reference to the country’s history as a battleground in the widening confrontation between Hezbollah and its Iran-backed allies on one side, and Israel on the other.

— Death toll: Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Iravani, told the Security Council on Wednesday that more than 1,348 civilians had been killed. Dozens have also died in Iranian drone and missile attacks on Gulf countries and Israel. In Lebanon, the Israeli bombardment has killed more than 680 people and displaced over 800,000, according to Lebanese officials.

— Tanker attacks: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility for attacking one of the two tankers off Iraq’s coast, a Marshall Islands-flagged ship that Iraqi officials said was owned by an American company. In a statement cited by Iranian state media, the Guard said the ship had “disobeyed and ignored” warnings. Chris Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, told CNBC on Thursday that the U.S. Navy could begin escorting ships through the strait by the end of the month.