Middle East crisis live: Israel claims it has killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani

A tanker anchored off the eastern coat of the UAE was hit by debris this morning as the Gulf country came under several waves of Iranian attacks.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre reported the incident, saying the vessel was in the Gulf of Oman off Fujairah. It said the tanker sustained “minor structural damage”, adding that nobody was injured.

The UKMTO later said it appeared falling debris from an interception hit the tanker, rather than the tanker being targeted itself.

Here are some of the latest images coming out of the Lebanese capital of Beirut following Israeli airstrikes:

A Pakistani national was killed by falling debris in Abu Dhabi after the interception of an incoming missile, Pakistan’s embassy said. It was the third announced death of a Pakistan national so far in the UAE since the start of the war.

The UAE’s defence ministry said early this morning that it was responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran. Since the start of the war, the UAE says Iran, which claims its strikes are targeting US assets in Gulf states, has launched over 1,600 drones and 300 missiles.

Ali Larijani had been seen as one of the more pragmatic faces of Iran’s establishment – who helped steer nuclear negotiations with the west – but that image later hardened.

Hours after US and Israeli strikes killed the former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Larijani delivered a defiant message, warning that Iran would make its enemies “regret” their actions and promising a forceful response.

An Israeli official said a strike on Larijani had originally been planned for the previous night but was postponed at the last minute.

Intelligence received on Monday afternoon indicated that Larijani was due to arrive at one of several apartments he used as a hideout, the official said. He was reportedly there with his son when the strike was carried out.

When news he had been targeted began to circulate early on Tuesday, with his fate remaining unclear, another senior Israeli official said “there was no chance he survived this attack”.

Born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1958 he studied in Tehran and after the Islamic revolution rose through the ranks of the state, serving as culture minister, head of state broadcasting and, for more than a decade, as speaker of parliament.

As chief nuclear negotiator, he played a key role in shaping Iran’s engagement with world powers, later backing the 2015 nuclear deal.

Though often regarded as a pragmatist within the system, his stance had hardened in recent months, as tensions with Israel and the US escalated and diplomatic efforts faltered. Reappointed in 2025 as secretary of the supreme national security council, he emerged as a central figure in Tehran’s wartime leadership.

The US had offered a reward of up to $10m for information on senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including Larijani, as part of a list of 10 figures linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. You can read more here:

A handwritten note commemorating Iranian sailors was posted on Ali Larijani’s X account shortly after Israel said it had killed the Iranian security chief in an overnight airstrike. It is not clear when the message was written or who posted it. The message, in reference to the Iranian sailors killed in a US submarine attack on the Iris Dena earlier this month, reads:

On the occasion of the funeral ceremony for the valiant martyrs of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Navy: Their memory will forever remain in the heart of the Iranian nation, and these martyrdoms will strengthen the foundation of the Islamic Republic’s Army for years to come within the structure of the armed forces. I beseech the Almighty God for the highest ranks for these dear martyrs.

Larijani had been seen in public last Friday taking part in Quds Day rallies. Iranian authorities have not officially confirmed his death. After reports of his assassination surfaced in the Israeli media earlier today, Iranian media outlets reported that Larijani would be publishing a message shortly.

We can bring you more comments from the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, who said a short while ago that overnight airstrikes killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani.

“The prime minister and I have instructed the IDF to continue hunting down the leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran,” Katz said in a statement quoted by BBC News.

“US President Trump spoke about the high rate of turnover of Iran’s leadership … we will update him that the high rate of turnover continues and is even increasing following the assassination of two of the most senior remaining leaders.”

In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s head of delegation in Iran, Vincent Cassard, spoke about the devastating humanitarian costs of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Cassard said:

I am seeing the heavy strain that the recent escalation of hostilities has placed on people in Iran, who fear for their lives, the safety of their loved ones and their livelihoods. The heavy loss of life is alarming. Civilian infrastructure has been affected, and many homes have been severely damaged by the hostilities. Daily life in Tehran has been profoundly disrupted: children are not attending school, and many businesses have temporarily closed as a precaution due to the ongoing strikes.

Normally, this is a time when cities across Iran are filled with excitement as families prepare for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. This year, however, families are gathering for funerals instead of festivities.

The images that we have seen from schools, hospitals and impacted Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) facilities exemplify the heavy price that civilians are paying as a result of hostilities. International humanitarian law is clear: Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be spared from attack. Medical workers and first responders, as well as medical transport and facilities and humanitarian personnel must be respected and protected.

Children are among the hardest hit by the Israeli war on Lebanon, with about 290,000 children displaced from their home, according to Unicef.

“We are having explosions, airstrikes on a daily basis from morning to evening. So these children while fleeing in fear and panic heard these explosions. We are extremely worried for them,” Christophe Boulierac, chief of advocacy and communication at Unicef Lebanon, said.

“We provided water, we provided sleeping bags, we provided hygiene kits, especially for young women,” he said, but warned that lives have been upended on a massive scale with the displacement worsening, amid continued Israeli airstrikes.

Boulierac said many of those displaced are staying at friend’s houses while others are in one of the 600 emergency temporary shelters opened by the Lebanese government.

He said he heard of an instance of 14 people living in one room in Beirut, where many people have fled to. Lebanese authorities said more than one million people have registered as displaced since the devastating US-Israeli assault began on 2 March.

Sources have told Al Jazeera that certain centres set up by Lebanon’s ministry of education are only accepting displaced Lebanese people, with others such as Syrian refugees, foreign domestic workers and Palestinian people having to find alternatives.

The Reuters news agency is reporting that Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has said Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani had been killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight (see post at 08.56 for more details).

In a statement, Katz said: “Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated last night and have joined Khamenei, the head of the annihilation program, along with all those eliminated from the axis of evil in the depths of hell.”

However, some Iranian media outlets are reporting that Larijani will be publishing a message shortly. There has been no official confirmation from Iran. We have not been able to independently verify the reporting and will give you more details as we have them.

The IDF said it has killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ all-volunteer Basij force.

The Israeli military said in a post on X on Tuesday that Gholamreza Soleimani was killed in an airstrike in Tehran on Monday. It said that he had acted as the unit’s commander for six years and said the force under his leadership was a “primary instrument” of repression in Iran.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge Soleimani’s killing. If confirmed, Soleimani would be the highest level assassination in the war since joint US-Israeli strikes killed the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei on 28 February, triggering the war.