• US president asks Tehran to ‘make a deal or open up’ Hormuz
• Iran missiles land near military headquarters in Tel Aviv, drone sets Israeli tanker on fire
• US, Israel bomb petrochemical facilities, Bushehr nuclear plant; Araghchi warns of radioactive fallout
• Iraq closes border crossing after one person killed in US-Israeli strike
• WHO says over 4.3m displaced, 116 attacks on healthcare facilities; Iran’s minister says 30 varsities hit till date

WASHINGTON: A day after the Iranian forces downed multiple US aircraft, President Donald Trump renewed his threats against Tehran and asked it to “open up” the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade route blockaded by Iran in response to the US-Israeli attacks, within 48 hours or face oblivion.

The new deadline came as Iran struck Israel multiple times on Saturday, including its defence ministry headquarters in central Tel Aviv, while also claiming that it deployed a new air defence system to deny the US-Israeli jets air superiority, as earlier claimed by President Trump.

As the war entered its sixth week, the US president announced that he would “rain down hell” on Iran if it did not open the vital strait within 48 hours. “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.”

Meanwhile, Iran authorised the passage of vessels carrying essential goods to its ports through the Strait of Hormuz, while a second Turkish ship also sailed through the strait.

According to Reuters, Trump has sent mixed messages since the conflict began with a US-Israeli bombardment of Iran on Feb 28, switching between hinting at diplomatic progress to making threats to bomb the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Ages”.

Petrochemical sites targeted

On Saturday, Iran’s petrochemical zone remained a target of the US-Israeli strikes. According to Iranian state media quoted by Reuters, these air strikes injured five people.

A projectile also hit an auxiliary building near the perimeter of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said, killing one person. The operations of the plant were unaffected and the plant remained safe.

As Moscow called the strike “evil”, Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom evacuated a further 198 of its staff from the site on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported, in evacuations already planned before the latest incident.

The Iranian top diplomat warned against these strikes, saying the fallout would not be confined to Iran only. “Israel-US have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on ‘X’. Attacks on Iranian petrochemical facilities also reveal “real objectives,” Mr Araghchi tweeted.

A US-Israeli strike also hit a cement plant in southern Iran, AFP said, adding that operations were not interrupted. “The Amer–ican-Zionist attack against the cement plant of Bandar Khamir did not leave any casualties,” said Tasnim news agency, quoting Ahmad Nafisi, the Horm­ozgan province. According to AFP, a US-Israeli strike hit a trade terminal at the Iran-Iraq border, killing one person. “At 11am, the commercial terminal of the Shalamcheh border crossing in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr was targeted in an air attack by American and Zionist enemies,” Mehr news agency said, citing the deputy governor for Khuzestan province, Valiollah Hayati. Subsequently, Iraq closed the border.

Missiles land in Tel Aviv

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted various areas in Israel in a wave of missiles and drones. Israeli media reported that two warheads from an Iranian cluster missile landed near Israel’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. The Guards also targeted US HIMARS rocket launcher batteries in Kuwait and Patriot missile batteries in Bahrain, according to a statement read on Iranian state TV. Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain, as per AFP.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted an Israel-linked ship in the Gulf in a drone attack, setting it on fire, AFP reports. On their Sepah News website, the Guards said they targeted MSC Ishyka, “owned by the Israeli regime and flying the flag of a third country” at the Khalifa Bin Salman port in Bahrain.

WHO’s regional director for Eastern Mediterranean, Hanan Balkhy said the fighting triggered one of the most “far-reaching crises” in recent decades, resulting in over 3,300 deaths and 30,000 reported injuries. Over 4.3 million people have been displaced and 116 verified attacks on healthcare facilities have been reported. Iran’s science minister Hossein Simai Sarraf during a visit to a university in northern Tehran said, “To date, more than 30 universities have been directly targeted.”

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2026