Live Updates: U.S. Closes 2 Gulf Embassies; Israel Advances in Southern Lebanon

The U.S. urged Americans to leave 14 countries, and closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after drones hit them. Israel’s military intensified operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah, which fired rockets into Israel.

by Aaron BoxermanHelene Cooper and Yan Zhuang

Here’s the latest.

The Israeli military said it had seized areas of southern Lebanon on Tuesday in its escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, as the State Department closed its embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after drone attacks and urged Americans to depart immediately from 14 Middle East countries.

As Iran expanded its retaliatory strikes and the regional conflict widened, the Trump administration signaled that the assault on Iran could go on for weeks. The Israeli military said that it was carrying out additional strikes in Iran, and had targeted weapons storage facilities in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, as Hezbollah said it had fired attack drones at Israel.

Israel’s advance in Lebanon prompted fears that it could be weighing a wider ground assault similar to the one it launched during its yearlong war with Hezbollah that ended in late 2024.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, sustained minor damage after an attack by what appeared to be two drones, the Saudi Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. A day earlier, a drone attack caused a fire at the American Embassy compound in Kuwait, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The sources of the drones in both incidents were not immediately clear.

In another sign of the widening conflict, Qatar’s Defense Ministry said its air force had shot down two Su-24 bombers coming from Iran. It was the first report that, in addition to missiles and drones, Iran has also sent warplanes toward its Gulf neighbors.

A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps official vowed that “not a single drop of oil” would pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Traffic has already slowed to a trickle after the Revolutionary Guards warned ships away over the weekend, though Iran had not directly threatened them.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• U.S. advisory: The advisory for Americans to leave the Middle East on Monday cited “serious safety risks” and included Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The State Department separately ordered nonessential staff members and their families to evacuate six countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

• Southern Lebanon: Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said Israeli forces had been ordered to advance and take control of additional strategic locations in Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israeli border communities. Air-raid sirens went off in northern Israel, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Read more ›

• Trump warning: Mr. Trump on Monday offered an open-ended time frame for the U.S. military campaign. In a social media post, he said the United States had a “virtually unlimited” supply of certain types of weapons. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military.”

• Market fallout: The global market rout intensified, as investors braced for a conflict that could last for weeks and cause economic turmoil in energy markets, travel and supply chains. The price of Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, soared above $80 a barrel, the highest level since 2024 and the price of natural gas jumped for a second day. Read more ›

• Death toll: The Pentagon said that six U.S. service members had been killed in Iranian strikes since Saturday, when an American-Israeli attack on Iran killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s Red Crescent Society, the country’s main humanitarian relief organization, said on Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 787 since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attacks. The Lebanese health ministry said that at least 31 people had been killed in fighting. In Israel, at least 10 people have been killed, and in the Gulf, there have been six deaths since Saturday, according to the authorities.

• German leader: Mr. Trump was set to meet with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany in Washington on Tuesday. The meeting was long planned, but is likely to be dominated by discussions of the attack on Iran.