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Mossad agent tells senior cop he's on a 'blacklist,' augurs his demise in taped call obtained by WSJ, as Israel hopes crippling of domestic security forces will help lead to uprising The post Israel said threatening Iranian officers on the phone as part of efforts to stir unrest appeared first on The Times of Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader vows response over Larijani killing Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has vowed that those behind the killing of security chief Ali Larijani will “pay”. In a rare public statement circulated by Tasnim news agency, Khamenei said he received news of Larijani’s death with “great regret”, describing him as an “intelligent” and “committed” figure. He said the assassination reflected the “hatred of the enemies of Islam”, adding that “the criminal murderers” would soon face consequences.

TEHRAN, Mar. 18 (MNA) – Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum has said they are ready to host Iran’s matches in Group G of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

TEHRAN, Mar. 18 (MNA) – The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force has said that his forces are fully prepared to give a crushing response to enemies of the country.

TEHRAN, Mar. 18 (MNA) – Iran severely targeted the naval fleet the criminal Zionist regime on Wednesday, Army Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani has said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN, Mar. 18 (MNA) – More than 100 targets deep inside the occupied lands and territories were hit in the 61st wave of Operation “True Promise-4”, the Public Relations Office of IRGC said.

Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israel Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. The man was found guilty of providing Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, with photos and information about sensitive sites in Iran, Mizan said. Iran has carried out several executions in recent years of individuals accused of links to Israeli intelligence, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries. On Monday, Iran’s intelligence organisation in Khorasan Razavi arrested 10 suspected foreign-linked “mercenary elements” accused of espionage activities.

Leqaa Kordia, longest-detained pro-Palestine protester, freed from ICE custody MEE staff on Tue, 03/17/2026 - 15:13 A US immigration judge set her bond at $100,000, despite her not being a flight risk Leqaa Kordia poses for a photo after her release from the Prairieland detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, on 16 March 2026 (Gazamom/X) Off After spending two consecutive Ramadans behind bars, Leqaa Kordia was freed from US immigration detention on Monday, in what her lawyers have described as a "staggering" $100,000 bond. Her legal team said the bond was "nonetheless...paid immediately".  The 33-year-old Palestinian immigrant, whose home is in New Jersey, was released from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, after the Trump administration chose not to challenge what was a third release order by an immigration judge.  It had previously appealed the first and second orders for her release.  "I’m free! I’m free! Finally, after one year," Kordia said as she walked out to a group of waiting supporters, with a Palestinian keffiyeh draped around her shoulders.  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “There is a lot of injustice in this place,” she added. “There is a lot of people that shouldn’t be here in the first place.” Kordia's cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, told Middle East Eye on Tuesday that Kordia was in relatively good spirits and already at the mosque for Ramadan prayers by Monday evening.  "It was an extremely emotional day" for me, he said of receiving the call about Kordia's release. Abushaban is based in South Florida. "I had to pull over at a random gas station to process it all, and started crying," he said.  Last month, Kordia had to be hospitalised after fainting, hitting her head, and suffering a seizure. She had never experienced seizures before, her family said. Targeted for Gaza protests: The Palestinian still in US custody Read More » While in hospital for three days, Kordia was chained to the bed before being taken back to the detention centre. Her lawyers also expressed concerns about her weight loss. New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media that he raised Kordia's case with President Donald Trump during their meeting last month, adding that he is "grateful" for her release after she spoke up for "Palestinian rights".  Of all the arrests linked to pro-Palestine campus protests made by the Trump administration last year, Kordia was the last one still languishing in detention.  "This is a one hundred percent Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian liberation issue because she spoke out against Israel," Abushaban told MEE.  "It's heartbreaking...it's not the America I thought I was born in," he added. During a trial last year in a separate case, American Association of University Professors v Rubio, which sought to challenge Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s alleged “policy of ideological deportation”, US officials revealed that they had relied on the pro-Israel doxxing site Canary Mission to identify students for immigration detention. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Legal status The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintains that Kordia did not have lawful status at the time she was arrested in New Jersey on 13 March 2025, and issued a statement the following day, insisting she was "overstaying her expired F-1 student visa", which had been terminated on 26 January 2022 for "lack of attendance". The DHS also cited Kordia's arrest by the New York Police Department in April 2024 during a protest against Israel's war on Gaza, organised by Columbia University students. The police, however, had arrested several students at the time, and Kordia was eventually let go after charges against her were dropped.  She was enrolled at Columbia and had joined the protest as a show of solidarity.  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); "It is true that at that time she did not have lawful status," Amal Thabateh, a staff attorney at Clear, who is working on Kordia's case, previously told MEE.  US appeals court opens door to re-arrest Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil Read More » She thought she was close to becoming a lawful permanent resident because her US-citizen family had filed for that status on her behalf, Thabateh explained. But after receiving "faulty advice" from a mentor, Kordia voluntarily signed a termination notice, withdrawing from the F-1 visa programme and leaving her entirely out of status.  "We all know based on how other cases have gone, and just routinely [that] this happens all the time where people have losses in status," Thabateh told MEE. "They're in transition periods... and that's quickly solved and fixed." But that wasn't the case in what is now the era of enforcement under US President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown targeting pro-Palestine voices.  "The ways in which the government has criminalised the visa overstay is just another attempt to target Palestinian rights activists," Thabateh said. "The question is not whether overstaying a visa is criminal or a violation, but instead it's whether the ways in which Leqaa has been punished and targeted, whether that is a justification for very innocently following false advice about her immigration status."  Kordia arrived in the US from the occupied West Bank in 2016 on a Palestinian Authority passport, and was initially a visitor before adjusting her status to a student, as she began learning English. She has lost 200 extended family members to Israel's genocide in Gaza.  Thabateh told MEE that Kordia voluntarily went to meet with immigration agents after learning that people who knew her were being questioned about her life, and that agents had also approached her home.  It was during that meeting in Newark, New Jersey, on 13 March, that she was served with a notice to appear in court and then taken to the Texas facility overnight.  Kordia frequently described poor and discriminatory treatment at the Prairieland Detention Facility to her legal team, including inedible food, unsanitary conditions, and no religious accommodations.  US Muslims News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - More than 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank were forcibly displaced over a year by Israeli settlement expansion and associated violence, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday. The United Nations said in a report covering 12 months to October 31, 2025, that Israel had accelerated the annexation of large parts of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The report cites monitoring and information gathering by the U.N.'s regional office, government sources and NGOs as its sources.

Iran says it seized hundreds of Starlink devices Iranian intelligence says it has confiscated hundreds of Starlink devices across the country. The official Iranian Mehr news agency, citing the Ministry of Intelligence, reported that authorities seized the equipment sent by the “American-Zionist enemy.” Officials said the devices formed part of foreign efforts to undermine Iran.

By Olivia Le Poidevin GENEVA, March 17 (Reuters) - Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday. "Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right now, hundreds of thousands of people left their homes. Many leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing," said the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza.

Exclusive: Israel to keep Al-Aqsa Mosque closed through Eid al-Fitr and beyond Lubna Masarwa on Mon, 03/16/2026 - 11:19 Sources tell MEE Israel has limited Al-Aqsa access to just 25 Waqf staff per shift for over two weeks A drone view shows the Dome of the Rock in Al-Aqsa Mosque amid heavy restrictions on worshippers accessing the holy site, 6 March 2026 (Reuters/Ilan Rosenberg) Off Israel is set to keep Al-Aqsa Mosque closed through the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and beyond, Middle East Eye has learnt. Sources familiar with the occupied East Jerusalem mosque’s affairs said Israeli authorities informed the Islamic Waqf, the body responsible for administering the site, of the decision in recent days. Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, was closed by Israeli authorities earlier this month, citing the “security situation” amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. The unprecedented closure, particularly during the month of Ramadan, has been condemned by Palestinians as the latest attempt by Israel to exploit security tensions to impose further restrictions and consolidate control over Al-Aqsa. This has been the first Ramadan since Israel seized East Jerusalem in 1967 that Palestinians have been unable to perform Friday prayers at the mosque. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Last week, eight Muslim-majority countries condemned the “unjustified” closure, saying Israel has “no sovereignty” over the revered site and must lift the restrictions immediately. However, the closure has continued unchecked. Friday prayers and Ramadan night prayers remain banned, and Palestinians have been barred from reaching the site, with a heavy presence of Israeli forces in the Old City. Since the closure, no more than 25 Waqf staff members have been allowed inside the vast mosque complex per shift. A source told MEE that Israeli authorities even rejected a request for an additional staff member from the manuscripts department to enter the site. Police reportedly told the Waqf that if any additional employee were allowed in, Israeli settlers would be permitted to resume their daily incursions into the mosque. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The source added that Waqf officials suspect Israeli forces have also installed cameras inside prayer halls within Al-Aqsa Mosque, including inside the Dome of the Rock, enabling constant surveillance of the site. Old City shutdown The closure of the mosque has been accompanied by a near-total lockdown of the Old City, where Al-Aqsa Mosque and dozens of normally vibrant Palestinian-run markets are located. Only residents of the Old City have been allowed inside since the war with Iran began, leaving the area deserted. Meanwhile, life has continued largely uninterrupted just metres away outside the Old City’s ancient walls. Sunday was the Laylat al-Qadr, the holiest night in the Islamic calendar. Israel deployed hundreds of police to block routes to the mosque, forcing worshippers to pray on the streets under the threat of violence. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “Closing the Old City in this manner has never happened before,” said Dr Mustafa Abu Sway, a professor who teaches at Al-Aqsa Mosque and a member of the Islamic Waqf Council in Jerusalem. “There is an inconsistency when you compare what is happening inside the Old City with what is happening outside it, where people are moving freely, praying in mosques, and life in the city continues as normal.” Abu Sway added that if the concern were people’s safety, worshippers could take shelter in the prayer halls beneath Al-Aqsa, which can accommodate thousands. Palestinian worshippers pray outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on Laylat al-Qadr due to Israeli restrictions, 15 March 2026 (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP) Aouni Bazbaz, director of international affairs at the Islamic Waqf, told MEE earlier this month that the closure has raised concerns about long-term change. “This has fuelled fears that what is presented as a temporary measure could gradually become a permanent or semi-permanent arrangement, particularly if people become accustomed to the restrictions or if patterns of access to the site are altered,” he said. Al-Aqsa Mosque has been governed under a decades-long status quo, or international arrangement, preserving its religious status as an exclusively Islamic site. Under this status quo, the administration of the site, including control over access, falls to the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, the Jordanian-appointed religious endowment responsible for managing the mosque complex. However, since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinians say this arrangement has been gradually eroded through increasing restrictions on Muslim access while Jewish presence and Israeli control have expanded. Israel’s control over East Jerusalem, including the Old City, violates several principles of international law, which stipulate that an occupying power has no sovereignty over the territory it occupies and cannot make permanent changes there. War on Iran Jerusalem News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

Israeli attacks displace over 800,000 in Lebanon and kill more than 800, as the UN launches an urgent aid appeal.

Dubai airport operations suspended after fuel tank fire All flights to and from Dubai were suspended following a fire near Dubai International Airport, according to Emirati authorities, who urged passengers not to travel to the airport. Dubai Police said Airport Road and the Airport Tunnel were temporarily closed as emergency operations continued. Earlier, the Dubai Media Office said civil defence teams had successfully contained the fire resulting from an impact on one of the fuel tanks in the vicinity of the airport, following a “drone incident”.  All flights to and from Dubai have been temporarily suspended. pic.twitter.com/m5eIloT2wk March 16, 2026

Iran arrests hundreds accused of sharing information with adversaries Iranian authorities have arrested at least 500 people accused of sharing information with the country’s “adversaries” during the ongoing conflict, according to state media reports. Press TV said 18 detainees were accused by the intelligence ministry of having links to the Iran International news channel, which Tehran alleges is connected to Israel. Officials said another 21 people are facing legal action, while human rights groups have expressed concern over the arrests.

Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said

TEHRAN, Mar. 15 (MNA) – An IRGC commander has said that through people's vigiliance and the operations of the armed forces, the enemy's push for separatism in the west of country failed.

Video: Erdogan condemns 'bloodthirsty network' striking schools and hospitals Recep Erdogan condemned a “bloodthirsty network” striking schools and hospitals across Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Erdogan said the Gaza genocide has seen children sent to school “with smiles and roses” killed by bombs, and such attacks have also claimed the lives of babies in incubators. He said doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have been mercilessly killed, noting that nearly 1,700 medical workers in Gaza have fallen victim to Israel’s state terror. Erdogan said Turkey stands among the countries defending humanity and common sense in the face of the violence, adding that Ankara will continue seeking solutions to crises through dialogue and diplomacy. Recep Erdogan condemned a “bloodthirsty network” striking schools and hospitals across Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/35DuxSpsYa March 15, 2026

Video: Former US Chief of Staff says world will reject Israel like apartheid South Africa Lawrence Wilkerson, Former US Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, appeared in an interview saying that in 20 years Israel would no longer be a state. Wilkerson said that it would no longer be a democracy and that the world would eventually reject it like it did with South Africa. Lawrence Wilkerson, Former US Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, appeared in an interview saying that in 20 years Israel would no longer be a state. Wilkerson said that it would no longer be a democracy and that the world would eventually reject it like it did with South Africa. pic.twitter.com/roCUMM4lJi March 14, 2026

TEHRAN, Mar. 14 (MNA) – The Iranian Army said Saturday it has carried out a drone operation targeting the Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the Zionist regime’s army, knows as Unit 8200.