Israel vows to seize more territory in Lebanon and strikes hit Iranian port.

Mourners at the funeral of the journalists Ali Choeib, Fatima Ftouni, and Mohammad Ftouni, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Beirut, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

By AARON BOXERMAN and SANAM MAHOOZI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he had ordered his forces to increase the territory they control in southern Lebanon, as 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the Middle East, the latest sign that the monthlong war in the region was far from winding down.

The U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran continued Sunday, with strikes on a TV station in Tehran, the capital, and a port in the country’s south, where at least five people were killed. Iran fired repeated volleys of ballistic missiles at Israel without causing casualties, although a fire was reported at an industrial park in southern Israel that includes a hazardous waste facility.

Diplomats from across the region convened for talks in Pakistan, whose mediators had passed along to Iran a 15-point U.S. plan to end the conflict. But Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, accused President Donald Trump on Sunday of engaging in a front of diplomacy while “secretly planning a ground invasion.”

The Israeli-U.S. military campaign has yet to compel Iran to accept U.S. demands on the country’s nuclear program or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route. Iranian forces have successfully blockaded the waterway — through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil transits — sending the price of oil soaring by more than 50%.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

— Lebanon: The Israeli military said Sunday that troops were “expanding the security zone” over the border in southern Lebanon, from which the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has launched attacks in solidarity with Tehran. Netanyahu said his country was determined to “fundamentally change the situation,” further raising fears that a protracted Israeli occupation may be looming.

— Palm Sunday: All the major holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City have been mostly closed to the public since the war began a month ago, and Israeli police on Sunday prevented two of the most senior Christian representatives in Jerusalem from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they had planned to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass.

— Pakistan talks: Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey convened on Sunday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for further discussions aimed at ending the war. But the warring parties did not take part in the talks.

— Lebanese journalists killed: Crowds of mourners gathered in Beirut on Sunday for the funeral of three Lebanese journalists killed in an Israeli airstrike. They were Ali Choeib, a well-known television presenter for the Hezbollah-owned Al Manar channel; Fatima Ftouni, who worked for Al-Mayadeen, another channel close to Hezbollah; and her brother, Mohammad Ftouni, also a journalist. The Israeli military said Choeib was a member of Hezbollah’s armed wing. It declined to comment on the killing of the other two journalists.

— U.S. options: Trump has been weighing several options to escalate the conflict, each of which could have far-reaching consequences, analysts say. He could carry out his ultimatum to bombard Iranian power plants unless Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz by April 6, which experts say that could constitute a war crime. Another option would be a risky ground assault to seize Iran’s enriched uranium, which U.S. officials say could one day be used in a nuclear weapon.

— Yemen: The Houthis, an Iran-allied rebel group in Yemen, joined the widening war on Saturday with an unsuccessful missile attack on Israel. The Houthis could further ensnarl global shipping, already under stress by the Iranian stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, by threatening vessels passing through the nearby Red Sea.