Iran…Israel…Midday…3/22/2026….The Strait of Hormuz…..

The war, now in its fourth week, has catalyzed fighting on several fronts.

Israel’s military chief said on Sunday that the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group in Lebanon, had “only just begun,” and that Israeli forces would push deeper into Lebanon, while Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, ordered the military to step up the demolition of bridges and houses in Lebanon. The statements deepened fears that Israel is preparing for a long-term occupation of southern Lebanon and a protracted bombing campaign that has reached into the capital, Beirut.

Hours earlier, Iranian missiles hit Dimona, a city eight miles away from Israel’s main nuclear facility, and the nearby city of Arad on Saturday night. More than 10 people were seriously injured and dozens more sustained minor injuries, underscoring Tehran’s ability to inflict damage despite three weeks of devastating airstrikes by the United States and Israel.

The escalating threats U.S. and Iranian toward infrastructure indicated rising potential for civilian danger across a region where more than 2,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran.

After Mr. Trump threatened on Saturday night to “obliterate” Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz were not reopened in 48 hours, Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations declared that such facilities were legitimate targets. Mr. Trump, he told Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” would not allow the Iranian government to “hold the world’s energy supplies or economies hostage.”

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesman, vowed that his country would retaliate against such strikes by targeting infrastructure used by Israel, the United States and American allies — including desalination plants that are a lifeline for much of the Middle East.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament later added in a social media post that “financial entities” that buy U.S. Treasury bonds would also be considered “legitimate targets.”

“We monitor your portfolios,” he wrote. “This is your final notice.”

Here’s what else to follow today:

• Nuclear infrastructure: Iran’s state broadcaster said the strike on Dimona was intended to target the nuclear facility near the city, though U.N. officials said there was no evidence it had been damaged. The Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s security forces, said the missile was fired in retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz on Saturday, as well as the Bushehr nuclear power plant last week.

• No quick end: Mr. Trump’s hopes that an Israeli plan to ignite an internal uprising against Iran’s theocratic government could bring the war to a swift end have so far been dashed. On Friday, the Pentagon dispatched more troops and warships to the region that will not arrive for weeks, but later the president wrote on social media that he was considering “winding down” operations. Israeli officials have told the public to expect a protracted campaign: Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the military chief of staff, told Israelis on Saturday that they would still be fighting Iran during the Passover holiday next week.

• Death tolls: Iran’s U.N. ambassador has said that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Friday, a Washington-based group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,398 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 15 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13 service members.

• Qatar crash: A Qatari helicopter crashed in the Persian Gulf because of a technical malfunction during a routing operation, killing members of the Qatari and Turkish armed forces and Turkish civilians, according to the Qatar defense minister. It was not immediately whether the crash was related to the fighting in the region….