US and Israel offer shifting justifications for Iran war: what we know on day four

Donald Trump has claimed Iran was going to attack before he did, walking back secretary of state, Marco Rubio’s assertion that Israel triggered the war. “I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Trump told reporters as he met Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, at the White House.

Trump said that the US and Israel are hitting Iran “where it is much more appropriate” adding, “everything has been knocked out”. This comes after the worst mass casualty of the strikes so far, which was on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran. The devastating attack killed at least 168 people (our visual guide is here).

Trump also said he was upset with Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, who has not joined the US-Israeli attack on Iran but did let US forces use UK bases. “I’m not happy with the UK,” the US president said. Referring to Starmer, he added: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Trump also said the United States would cut off all trade with Spain after the country refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran. “Spain has been terrible,” Trump said.

Israel launched further strikes in Tehran and Beirut on Tuesday, saying it was targeting Iranian military sites and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 52 people and displaced at least 30,000 in Lebanon.

Fighting continued in Lebanon, with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, approving a ground incursion into the southern part of the country and the Israeli military issuing new evacuation orders for dozens of locations.

Israel also struck the building of Iran’s assembly of experts, which is responsible for electing Iran’s next supreme leader. Iranian news agencies confirmed that attack and said there were no casualties (the building wasn’t in use at the time).

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 787 people had been killed across Iran. However, in its latest update, the Norway-based human rights group Hengaw said the death toll on day three had reached at least 1,500, including 200 civilians and 1,300 members of the Iranian forces.

Casualties and destruction were reported across at least nine countries, with the United Arab Emirates recording 186 missiles and 812 drones sent toward the country since the start of the conflict and two ports in Oman targeted in drone strikes today.

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday confirmed that the entrance buildings of Iran’s Natanz fuel enrichment plant had sustained some damage in the recent strikes.

Israel’s military said in the early hours of Tuesday that it was working to intercept a new wave of missiles launched from Iran, warning residents in multiple locations to seek shelter. After the latest salvo, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services said they were treating seven people with injuries.

Netanyahu said the war against Iran may take “some time” but would not take years. He told Fox News: “I said it could be quick and decisive. It may take some time, but it’s not going to take years. It’s not an endless war.”

The US embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was hit by a drone strike, causing a fire to break out.

Other countries, including Italy, Germany and France are trying to organise the return of their citizens. The evacuation of Spanish citizens is under way by land and air, and the country expects a first group of 175 citizens to land in Madrid from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday afternoon. A British government charter flight is to take off from Muscat, the capital of Oman, “in the coming days”, according to the UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper.

There was confusion over the status of navigation in the strait of Hormuz after a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to “burn any ship” seeking to navigate the waterway, a vital route for oil and gas shipments. However, US Central Command said the strait was not closed, according to Fox News.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has said that “49 of the most senior Iranian regime leaders” have been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, declaring that “killing terrorists is good for America”. That number includes supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The US military said that it had struck more than 1,250 targets in Iran since operations started on Saturday.