Iran sharply escalated its military campaign on Wednesday, striking commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and targeting Dubai's international airport with drones, as U.S. and Israeli warplanes carried out new waves of airstrikes on the Islamic Republic. Kuwaiti air defenses shot down eight Iranian drones, and Saudi Arabia intercepted five heading toward its Shaybah oil field. Senior Iranian officials warned of a prolonged "war of attrition" that could produce global economic chaos by throttling energy supplies from the region.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 634 people and injured more than 1,500 in less than ten days of fighting, with over 816,700 families registered as displaced with the Lebanese government. On Wednesday night, Israeli warplanes bombarded Beirut's southern suburbs and south Lebanon after Hezbollah launched a coordinated barrage of drones and rockets alongside Iranian missile strikes against Israel — the first time the two forces have synchronized attacks since the current conflict began. Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said the campaign would continue "without any time limit, as long as required, until we achieve all objectives."

Iranian officials acknowledged for the first time that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei — who succeeded his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Khamenei was killed in the opening strikes of the U.S.-Israeli offensive — was wounded in the same attack that killed his father, mother, wife, and a son. Tehran's ambassador to Cyprus told the Guardian that Khamenei, 56, sustained injuries to his legs, hand, and arm and is believed to be hospitalized. He has not appeared publicly or issued any direct statement since the war began.

Israel also struck the Taleghan facility at the Parchin military complex, a site the Institute for Science and International Security assesses as linked to Iran's nuclear weapons development program. Iran had only recently rebuilt the facility after Israel destroyed it in 2024; Tehran has consistently denied pursuing nuclear weapons. Separately, the Kremlin confirmed that Moscow and Washington are in discussions about coordinating to stabilize energy markets disrupted by the conflict and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, though a Kremlin spokesman said it was "too early to speak about any effective cooperation."

The broader conflict is drawing intensifying international concern over energy security, with the Strait of Hormuz — through which a significant share of the world's oil transits — effectively closed to normal commercial traffic. Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that any U.S. or Israeli ground action against Iranian islands would cause Iran to "abandon all restraint" and threatened that "the Persian Gulf" would "run with the blood of invaders." NBC News reported that President Donald Trump has privately expressed interest in deploying a small contingent of U.S. troops to Iran and that seizure of Kharg Island, Iran's primary crude export terminal, has been under discussion, though no such action has been announced.