Trump demands Iran ‘surrender,’ says he’s hearing new leader ‘not alive’

Iranian authorities say they have arrested dozens of people accused of spying for Israel across several provinces, according to state media reports over the weekend.

Fars, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported Sunday the West Azerbaijan prosecutor’s office had arrested 20 individuals in the northwestern city of Urmia for allegedly providing Israel with information about military, police and security sites.

On Saturday, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence said it had arrested several "enemy operatives" across the country, including a 10-member group in Mazandaran province and another 10-member network in Khorasan Razavi province, according to Tasnim, a semi-official news agency. 

Authorities said the suspects transferred the locations of military installations and economic infrastructure and shared coordinates of public places, academic institutions and research centers with Israel.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan.

The Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen for “limited movement of people” beginning Wednesday, March 18, according to the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

COGAT said the move follows a security assessment and review of conditions needed to resume operations at the crossing, which has been largely closed since May 2024.

“The decision was made following a security assessment and an examination of the conditions enabling the resumption of operations at the crossing, while maintaining the necessary security restrictions in light of the security situation and the threats in the area,” COGAT wrote on X.

Officials said travel through the crossing will be coordinated with Egypt and supervised by a European Union mission, with prior Israeli security approval required.

"In addition, further screening and identification procedures will be conducted at the ‘Regavim’ route, operated by the defense establishment in the area under IDF control, as part of the required security arrangements,” COGAT wrote.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that countries relying on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz should help keep the vital shipping route open amid the Iran conflict, according to Israel’s Channel 14.

“In keeping the Strait open — yes. They get all the oil. We don’t get anything from the strait, so they should participate," Trump told Channel 14. "The countries that get the oil, should keep the strait open, not the US. We will help them a lot.״ 

Trump was also asked whether another Israeli leader could have achieved what he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accomplished together ahead of the country’s upcoming elections.

“No, I don’t think so,” Trump told Channel 14. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that it struck more than 200 targets across western and central Iran over the course of the day.

"The IDF continues to strike the ballistic missile array and the defense systems of the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran," the IDF wrote on X.

According to the IDF, the strikes targeted headquarters where Iranian military personnel were operating, as well as defense systems and sites used to produce and store weapons.

Former federal prosecutor and former DHS deputy assistant secretary Jonathan Fahey said recent incidents highlight the difficulty law enforcement faces in preventing attacks carried out by individuals acting alone or in small groups.

“They're either lone wolves or like two people working just with each other,” Fahey told Fox News. “So it's really hard to prevent these types of things when there's not sort of a larger coordinated effort.”

Fahey added that “inspiration-based” radicalization presents a unique challenge for authorities.

He noted that some attackers in past incidents were naturalized citizens and that once citizenship is granted, it is extremely difficult to revoke.

“If we're not really vetting these people out on the front end, we're leaving people vulnerable," he said.

Just this month alone, the U.S. has experienced four attacks with ties to naturalized citizenship.

Fox News Digital's Eric Mack contributed to this report.

United Nations peacekeepers came under fire on three separate occasions in Lebanon on Sunday, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“Today, UNIFIL peacekeepers were fired upon, likely by non-state armed groups, on three separate occasions while conducting patrols around their bases in Yatar, Dayr Kifa and Qallawiyah,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

In Yatar, shots landed as close as 16 feet from the peacekeepers. In the other two incidents, the sources of fire were estimated to be about 300 and 600 feet away.

Two patrols returned fire in self-defense, according to UNIFIL.

“We strongly remind all actors of their obligations under international law to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel at all times, and to take all necessary measures to prevent harm to civilians,” UNIFIL said. “Any attack on UNIFIL peacekeepers constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Resolution 1701 and may amount to a war crime.”

Ben Shapiro praised President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran as a historic turning point in U.S. foreign policy on Saturday, calling the operation "the single bravest foreign policy move of my lifetime" while arguing the Iranian regime is now in its "death throes." 

"What you're watching him [Trump] do in Iran is not only unprecedented in terms of its political courage. I think that it is and has the potential to be a true game changer for America's role in the world, not only for the next 10 or 20 years, but for the coming century," Shapiro told Lara Trump on "My View." 

"What he is doing is he's reasserting American authority in the world… He's reinvigorating a vision of America [that's] strong on the world stage, and he understands that on an innate, gut level," Shapiro said. 

Shapiro said the president's foreign policy approach has always been rooted in the "peace through strength" principle he espouses, adding that the "best way" to achieve peace is to make U.S. adversaries realize an iron fist rests inside the velvet glove. 

"You actually have to throw your enemies off their game," Shapiro said. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley.

A Democratic lawmaker is questioning the effectiveness of Operation Epic Fury in Iran and whether the U.S. could seize the regime’s enriched uranium.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., made the remarks during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” saying it’s “a little early to cheer this president.”

“I'm here to tell you there is no military way to extract the uranium from underneath the mountain of rubble in which it is living,” Himes said.

He pushed back on the idea that U.S forces could seize the uranium should President Donald Trump choose to do so.

“The idea that we're going to do a major infrastructure and engineering project, somehow protected in the middle of a very hostile foreign country, that uranium is not leaving because of a military operation,” Himes said. “It will ultimately leave due to a diplomatic solution. And that just doesn't seem to be the way that we're trending right now.”

Himes said there's a reason why former Republican and Democratic presidents did not choose to attack Iran as Trump has done.

“Every American who's filling their tank today at 60 cents a gallon higher than it was two weeks ago is going to understand why that is,” he said. “We've already lost 13 people in the Iran conflict. We could lose more.”

He also said that the U.S. will have to revisit if Operation Epic Fury was a good idea if Trump pulls out of Iran and leaves “a very angry, radicalized regime determined to make sure that this never happens again” by building a weapon.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was expanding its strikes targeting Iran’s infrastructure after completing a wave of strikes on several Iranian regime headquarters.

“The IDF is currently expanding the scope of its strikes against the infrastructure of the Iranian regime in additional areas in western and central Iran, with the aim of broadly and systematically degrading the regime’s command-and-control capabilities,” the IDF said.

Earlier Sunday, the Israeli Air Force completed a wave of strikes targeting the Iran’s infrastructure around Hamedan in western Iran, the IDF said, noting several “key” headquarters belonging to the IRGC and the Basij Forces were struck.

The IDF said these headquarters were where the Iranian regime managed and advanced attacks against Israel and other countries across the Middle East.

The U.S. has forces dedicated to handling weapons of mass destruction should President Donald Trump decide the U.S. must seize Iran's enriched uranium, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said on Sunday.

Waltz made the comments during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” saying that Trump “is never going to take options off the table.”

“I can tell you, as a former special operator, we have forces that are dedicated to handling WMD all over the world, should we have to seize it from a rogue nation or otherwise,” Waltz said.

“But what I can tell you, I'm confident, is that this isn't going to be another 2003 Iraq,” he continued. “There are not going to be hundreds of thousands of troops occupying urban areas somewhere. You know, certainly not Tehran.”

Waltz added that Trump has “all kinds of options” that he can choose from, ranging from diplomacy to seizing the enriched uranium.

“We'll see what he decides to do with the Iranian leadership, however that turns out,” Waltz said of Trump. “But at the end of the day, he's made it clear that Iran can never have a nuke. And I just want to reemphasize, President Trump has been clear on that point for many years in his 2016 campaign, his 2020 campaign, his 2024 campaign.”

Kharg Island is a strategically vital island in the Persian Gulf that serves as the Iranian’s largest oil terminal and a crucial hub for its crude exports, an industry worth $50 billion. 

The island, located roughly 35 miles off Iran’s Bushehr province in the country’s southwest, is about the size of New York City’s Central Park but carries huge importance for Iran’s economy. 

The hub has a loading capacity of about 7 million barrels per day, and roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports pass through it. 

Most of those exports are shipped to China and India, underscoring the island’s importance not only to Iran’s energy trade but also to broader global oil markets. 

The U.S. launched a bombing raid on the island on Friday. 

President Donald Trump said at the time that the U.S. had deliberately avoided targeting the island’s oil infrastructure, while warning that could change if Iran moved to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said that the U.S. bombing raid on Iran’s Kharg Island, home of the country’s largest oil terminal and a crucial hub for its crude exports, was like “checkmate” on the regime.

McCaul praised President Donald Trump’s strategy to target the major Iranian strategic asset during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

“The attack on Kharg Island, which is a crown jewel, 90 percent of the exports out of Iran come from there. It is like a checkmate on the supreme leader,” he said.

He continued: “It was an absolutely brilliant military strategy. So the military objective is very clear, and it's going very well. The president could declare victory there.”

Trump on Friday said the strikes “obliterated” military targets on the island but did not target any oil infrastructure at the hub. The raid came as global energy markets remain rattled over security of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil choke point.

McCaul, however, said he believes that Americans will see “the price of gas go way down” once the U.S. achieves its military objective.

“I think, again, controlling Kharg Island, controlling Venezuela and the oil energy exports there, long term, we're going have more control over energy in this world than we did before the invasion of Iran,” he said.

McCaul acknowledged that while there may be short term economic pain, “long term, it is going to put us far better off for not just my children, but for the future generations.”

Israeli police released video showing the fiery impact of Iranian cluster munitions in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst reported on the impact from Tel Aviv. Israeli officials said there was an explosion at the impact site, but no injuries were reported.

There were reports of injuries, however, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv after cluster munitions hit an apartment.

Israel endured an Iranian ballistic missile bombardment overnight, leading to many Israelis spending the night in bomb shelters.

Other video showed Israeli air defenses intercept some of the Iranian bombardment.

Meanwhile, Israel on Friday began launching new strikes against the Iranian regime, hammering the regime’s ballistic missile launchers and stockpiles.

The United Arab Emirates said it was attacked Sunday by four ballistic missiles and six drones from Iran, a day after Tehran urged three major UAE ports to evacuate in its first threat to attack infrastructure of a neighboring country.

The UAE Ministry of Defense said its air defenses “dealt with” the incoming attack, though did not provide immediate details on damage or casualties.

It was the lightest incoming attack on the UAE since the war with Iran began, Fox News Correspondent Lucas Tomlinson reported.

The ministry said UAE air defenses have dealt with 298 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,606 drones since Iran began launching its own attacks.

The Iranian attacks resulted in the deaths of six individuals of Emirati, Pakistani, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi nationalities, and 142 cases of minor and moderate injuries among individuals of more than two dozen nationalities, the ministry said.

“The Ministry of Defense affirms that it is on high alert and readiness to deal with any threats and to firmly counter everything that targets the destabilization of the state's security, ensuring the preservation of its sovereignty, security, and stability, and protecting its interests and national capabilities,” it said.

Saudi Arabia announced that it intercepted multiple Iranian drones after Tehran threatened to widen its campaign in the war with the U.S. and Israel.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense said it destroyed the seven Iranian drones it intercepted in the Riyadh and Eastern regions.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates warned residents on Sunday that they were working to intercept incoming projectiles, a day after Iran called for the evacuations of three major UAE ports, threatening for the first time a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.

Iran had earlier accused the U.S. of using “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence for the claim. The UAE and other Gulf countries that host U.S. bases have denied allowing their land or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.

Iranian strikes have killed at least a dozen civilians in the Gulf states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israeli intelligence has opened what they are calling the “Quds file,” an effort to systematically target Iran's Quds force and infrastructure across the Middle East, a senior Israeli Security official told Fox News.

The official said Israel has taken out seven Iranian senior officials in Lebanon, while destroying 17 of the Quds force air fleet, which is used to transport weapons and components to proxies like Hezbollah, Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst reported.

“We destroyed almost all of the Quds force’s fleet,” the Israeli official said. “Until now 17 out of 20 cargo planes, and we will reach them all. They won't be flying anywhere anytime soon.”

The official added that Israel also struck the main Quds force headquarters in Tehran “with many Quds forces operatives in it.”

Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Iranian supreme leader, "is in low condition to function" and is injured, a senior Israeli official told Fox News.

The official said Khamenei is surrounded by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel who are managing him, Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst reported.

Israeli intelligence is working to determine the extent of the injuries, according to the official.

Iran has yet to confirm Khamenei’s condition. The new leader has not made a public appearance since succeeding his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The new supreme leader was reportedly injured during the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury — the same salvo that killed his father.

Khamenei released his first written statement on Thursday, suggesting that Iran may open new fronts in the conflict. Experts, however, have said the statement may have been written by IRGC personnel.

President Donald Trump said Iran must “surrender” to end the war and claimed he is hearing the country’s new supreme leader may already be dead.

“I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender,” Trump said of Mojtaba Khamenei in a phone interview with NBC News.

Trump added he is unsure whether the Iranian leader is still living.“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” he said.

The president also said Iran is seeking negotiations but that he is not ready to make a deal.

“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump said.