Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened a surge in attacks against Iran on Saturday (March 21, 2026), and Britain condemned Iran for targeting a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean as the war in West Asia entered its fourth week.

The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia air base — located about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) from Iran — suggested Tehran has in its stockpile missiles that can go far further than it had previously acknowledged.

Iran-Israel war LIVE

Also on Saturday (March 21, 2026), Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, an official Iranian news agency reported, saying there was no radiation leakage.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.” He spoke shortly after fragments from an Iranian missile slammed into an empty kindergarten near Tel Aviv.

Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani posted a video on X of the kindergarten building; no casualties were reported as the place was empty at the time.

Overnight and into the morning, Tehran, Iran’s capital, saw heavy airstrikes, residents said. In Iraq, a drone struck the intelligence service headquarters in Baghdad, killing an officer. No group immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, home to major oil installations. No injuries or damage were reported.

The attacks — and threats of more to come — indicate the Iran war shows no sign of abating. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo news service on Friday (March 20, 2026) that Iran wanted “not a cease-fire, but a complete, comprehensive and lasting end to the war.”

Iran’s attempt to hit the Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean

U.K. officials have not given details of the attempted strike on the ocean air base on Friday (March 20, 2026), which was unsuccessful.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday (March 21, 2026) that Iran’s “lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz ” is a threat to British interests and British allies.

Britain has not participated in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, but has allowed American bombers to use U.K. bases to attack Iran’s missile sites.

On Friday (March 20, 2026), the British government said U.S. bombers can also use U.K. bases, including Diego Garcia, in operations to prevent Iran from attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran targeted the base before that U.K. statement.

Iran vowed at the United Nations on Monday (March 16, 2026) that it would not submit to “lawless aggression”, and said its citizens were in “grave danger” from U.S. and Israeli strikes.

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where countries were discussing the rights situation in Iran — notably following its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent months — Tehran said the focus instead should be on the war in West Asia.

“The most urgent and fundamental human rights issue concerning Iran is the imminent threat to the lives of 90 million people whose lives are in immediate and grave danger under the shadow of reckless military aggression,” said Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.

He called it “an aggression that is carried out by some of the most lawless and unscrupulous actors on the international stage”.

Mr. Bahreini said that if such “reckless militarism” was met with indifference, “Iran will most certainly not be the last country to suffer such treatment”.

On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, that has seen the Islamic republic retaliate against multiple countries in the West Asia.

Iranian cultural heritage under attack

During a session on Iran’s record, Mr. Bahreini urged the UN’s top rights body to instead discuss the Iranian cultural heritage under “indiscriminate” attack and “the innocent children massacred at their school desks”.

United States and Israel conducted a deadly missile attack on a school in the southern city of Minab. Washington has said it is investigating the incident. AFP does not have access to the site.

The ambassador said more than 1,300 people had been killed in Iran and more than 7,000 injured since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began.

“Under such circumstances, what exactly is Iran expected to do?” he asked, stating: “Iran is not a nation that submits to coercion, intimidation or lawless aggression.”

‘Wounded protesters arrested’

The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, plus Jordan, condemned Iran’s attacks on their territories, saying they endangered regional security and civilian lives, and “cannot be justified under any pretext”.

The UN Human Rights Council was holding an interactive dialogue between nations and the council’s special rapporteur on rights in Iran and its fact-finding mission on the country.

Special rapporteur Mai Sato said Tehran’s deadly crackdown on the nationwide protests that began on December 28, in which “over 7,000 deaths have been reported by civil society”, followed a “pattern of persecution” that long predated the uprising.

“What was new and what has left a profound impression on me was the violation of medical neutrality,” she said.

“Hospitals were raided. Wounded protesters arrested from their beds. Medical professionals assaulted and arrested. A state directive instructing hospitals to provide information on injured protesters.

“The result was a healthcare system in which the injured feared seeking treatment more than the injuries themselves, and the act of saving life criminalised.”

She said that the U.S.-Israeli strikes “remain unlawful, no matter the assumed or stated objectives of those strikes”.

She said her mandate exists for the people of Iran, and whether perpetrators are Iranian or foreign, “the people harmed are the same”.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has said the war in the West Asia is likely to result in worsening institutionalised domestic repression of Iranian citizens.

The Israeli Military said on Saturday (March 14, 2026) it had killed two senior Iranian intelligence officials in a strike in Tehran, just days after they replaced the former head of the directorate who was assassinated on February 28.

Israel said the two men, identified as Abdollah Jalali-Nasab and Amir Shariat, were senior officials in the intelligence directorate of the Khatam al-Anbiya, the Iranian Military’s central operations command.

The pair were killed on Friday (March 13, 2026), the Israeli Military said.

They had replaced Saleh Asadi, who served as head of the intelligence department at the Khatam al-Anbiya, after he was killed on the first day of the war, the Military said.

“Following the elimination of the head of the Intelligence Directorate, Saleh Asadi, during the opening blow of Operation Roaring Lion, Jalali and Shariat were appointed to replace them,” the Military said.

“Both were close to the leadership of the Iranian terrorist regime,” it said, adding that the intelligence branch of the Khatam al-Anbiya Emergency Command is responsible for analysing intelligence.

“The intelligence is presented to senior officials in Iran’s security system during frequent situational assessments, on the basis of which the war against the State of Israel is conducted,” the Military added.

The Military says several top Iranian officials were killed in an initial wave of strikes launched alongside the United States on February 28, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.