Israel tells Iranians ‘utilizing public transport right now may get you killed’ and oil costs surge as Trump deadline looms: Live updates

Oil prices have surged as investors become increasingly unsure that Donald Trump can end the Middle East war quickly.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose to $111 per barrel. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate, the US’ standard, soared to $115 per barrel – the highest level in a month.

The IDF today issued a chilling warning to Iranians, telling the nation’s citizens to stay away from all trains and train lines.

It said via its Persian-language account on X: ‘For the sake of your security, we kindly request that from this moment until 21:00 Iran time, you refrain from using and travelling by train throughout Iran’.

‘Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life’.

The warning comes several hours before the deadline for Trump’s deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Red Crescent has today said the US and Israel struck 17 civilian targets this morning alone.

In a statement to X, it said: ‘There is no justification for attacking civilians. International humanitarian law has explicitly stated this. Attacking defenceless civilians is a war crime.’

Last night, US president Donald Trump said he was ‘not at all’ concerned about possibly committing war crimes after he threatened to target more civilian infrastructure in Iran if Tehran does not meet his 8pm EST deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The IDF today said it has struck a key petrochemical compound in Iran.

The facility, in the city of Shiraz, was ‘one of the last remaining compounds producing critical chemical components for explosives and materials for developing ballistic missiles in Iran’, the Israeli military said.

Just yesterday, the IDF said it had struck another petrochemical complex in Iran.

The King Fahd Causeway, a key bridge linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, has this morning reopened after it closed for several hours.

Last night, it was feared Iran may strike it.

Overnight, Iran targeted Saudi Arabia with a ballistic missile.

Fatih Birl, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), has today warned that the current oil and gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2022 together.’

In an interview with Le Figaro, he warned: ‘The world has never experienced a disruption to energy supply of such magnitude.’

He said that while developed countries would suffer, the nations most at risk were developing nations which will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.

Last month, the IEA’s member nations agreed to release much of their strategic energy reserves, a process that is still ongoing.

In reaction to the strikes by Israel and the U.S., Iran has almost entirely blocked the traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of world oil and gas regularly flows, creating a surge in energy prices.

Al Jazeera has reported in the last few minutes that its reporters witnessed an attack that struck near its offices in Tehran.

Its reporters added that they have heard air defence systems going off in the latest round of attacks.

Iran chief of police said today his officers had arrested 85 people for aiding the US and Israel in its strikes.

Following the identification of a nationwide network, Police Commander Ahmadreza Radan alleged that its members collected and sent the locations of sensitive sites, including checkpoints and security forces’ positions, to Israel and the US.

He said authorities had seized ‘specialised electronic equipment, Starlink devices, weapons and ammunition’.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said that Islamabad’s ‘positive and productive’ approach to ending the ongoing war in the Middle East are ‘approaching a critical, sensitive stage.’

Without elaborate, Reza Amiri Moghadam added in his post to X: ‘Stay Tuned for more.’

Pakistand has placed itself as the primary peace broker in the conflict, holding meetings with other leaders in the region and offering to host talks between Iran and the US.

Russian satellites have made dozens of detailed imagery surveys of military facilities and critical sites across the Middle East to help Iran strike US forces and other targets, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment.

The conclusions, reviewed by Reuters, also found that Russian and Iranian hackers were collaborating in the cyber domain.

Russian satellites, the undated assessment said, made at least 24 surveys of areas in 11 Middle Eastern countries from March 21 to 31, covering 46 ‘objects,’ including US and other military bases and sites including airports and oil fields.

Within days of being surveyed, military bases and headquarters were targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, the assessment said, in what it described as a clear pattern.

A Western military source and a separate regional security source told Reuters that their intelligence also indicated intense Russian satellite activity in the region and said that imagery had been shared with Iran.

Nine surveys covered parts of Saudi Arabia, including five over the King Khalid Military City near Hafar Al-Batin, in what appeared to be an effort to locate elements of the US-made THAAD air defence system, the Ukrainian assessment said.

Areas of Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also came under satellite surveillance twice, while places in Israel, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain and Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia did once, it said.

In an emerging trend, the assessment added, Russian satellites were actively surveying the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for a fifth of global oil and LNG flows where Iran has imposed a de facto blockade to all but ‘non-hostile vessels.’

An overturned car was seen near toppled scaffolding in the footage taken in central Israel.

The Times of Israel reported that the damage was caused by cluster submunitions.

So far, there are no reports of injuries.