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Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gas field on Wednesday, marking a major escalation of the war hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades.

The attack on the Pars site in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar and constitutes the world’s largest natural gas field, prompted Tehran to warn neighbouring states their energy infrastructure could be targeted “within hours” and triggered furious rebukes from Qatar and other nations in the region.

Located off the coast of the southern Bushehr province, the field holds an estimated 1,800tn cu ft (51tn cu metres) of in-situ gas, accounting for about 70% of Iran’s domestic supply and a vast portion of Qatar’s exports.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, described the targeting of the gas field – an extension of Qatar’s North Field – as a “dangerous and irresponsible step”. In a rare rebuke, the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack, calling the strike a “dangerous escalation”.

“Targeting energy infrastructure poses a direct threat to global energy security … It also entails serious environmental repercussions and exposes civilians, maritime security, and vital civilian and industrial facilities to direct risks,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

As the war intensifies, fresh evidence is raising questions over the purpose of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran. A day after Joe Kent, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his role in protest, the US national intelligence director told Congress that Iran had made no attempt to rebuild its uranium enrichment programme since it was destroyed in the June 2025 strikes.

“As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme was obliterated. There have been no efforts since then to rebuild that capability,” Tulsi Gabbard said in testimony to the Senate.

Israel’s strike against South Pars was coordinated with and approved by the Trump administration, the American news website Axios reported, citing two senior Israeli officials. The report said a US defence official also confirmed the claim.

The attack on the heart of Iran’s gas infrastructure marks a significant stepping up of US and Israeli military operations. Until now, both countries had largely spared Iran’s oil and gas sector, in a bid to contain global price shocks, but oil climbed towards $110 (£83) a barrel on Wednesday as growing threats to Gulf energy infrastructure and the continuing blockade of the strait of Hormuz raised fears of further supply disruption.

In a statement shared by Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency on Wednesday, Iranian authorities said five facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar “will be targeted in the coming hours”.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has now entered its third week, with at least 2,000 people reported killed and no clear end in sight. The strait of Hormuz remains largely closed; US allies have resisted calls from Donald Trump to help reopen the vital shipping lane, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass.

In a post on his Truth Social network on Wednesday, the US president appeared to suggest that the US could “finish off” Iran and then leave responsibility for securing the strait to allied countries that depend on it, a familiar nod to his longstanding complaints about burden-sharing.

“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’” Trump said. “That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”

The strike on the South Pars gasfield came as Iran confirmed the death of the intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, after Israel said it had killed him in an overnight strike, making him the third senior Iranian figure assassinated in 24 hours.

Khatib’s death follows those of Ali Larijani, the head of the supreme national security apparatus, and the commander of the Basij militia, Gholamreza Soleimani.

Khatib was appointed as Iran’s intelligence minister in August 2021 by the then president, Ebrahim Raisi. A cleric with deep roots in the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus, his career spanned roles within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the judiciary, and he was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 over alleged cyber operations targeting Washington and its allies.

The Israeli military said the intelligence ministry led by Khatib was “the Iranian terrorist regime’s primary intelligence organisation, which also played a key role in supporting the regime’s repression and terrorist activities”.

His killing removes yet another pivotal figure from the core of Iran’s political and security establishment at a moment of acute crisis, after the deaths of Larijani – a linchpin of the system, and the most senior figure to be killed since Ali Khamenei – and Soleimani, along with other senior paramilitary figures.

Taken together, the three killings suggest Israel retains detailed intelligence on the movements of Iran’s leadership inside Tehran, and is able to act on it, leveraging near-total control of Iranian airspace alongside the US to strike with apparent precision.

In Lebanon, Israel hit central Beirut, destroying apartment buildings in some of the most intense airstrikes on the Lebanese capital for decades. It also bombed two bridges over the Litani river, marking an expansion of attacks against civilian infrastructure in the south of the country. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said it blew up the bridges to prevent Hezbollah from transporting fighters towards the south of Lebanon, where they are engaged in intense clashes with Israeli soldiers.

The destruction of the two bridges, one of which led into the major city of Tyre and the other just south of the city of Nabatieh, further cut off the area south of the Litani river from the rest of the country. Israel has bombed two other bridges over the Litani, gas stations and major roads in the region in recent days, while issuing sweeping displacement orders for the area 25 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israel’s announcement that it would soon bomb bridges triggered a renewed flight of residents from Tyre. Cars packed with families and with mattresses strapped to their roofs headed northwards as civil defence members directed people towards the last remaining bridge out of the city – the other already struck by Israel. The Lebanese army withdrew from their checkpoints on the bridges ahead of the strikes, wary of being caught in the blast.

Meanwhile Hezbollah continued to announce rocket launches at Israel and claimed it was holding strong against an advancing Israeli army in southern Lebanon. People wounded by Israeli strikes streamed into hospitals throughout the day. At least 968 people – including 116 children – had been killed and more than 2,432 people wounded by Israeli strikes over the last 16 days of fighting, the Lebanese ministry of health said.

Despite heavy Israeli and US strikes on its missile infrastructure, Iran appears to retain the ability to launch targeted attacks. Israel’s medical service said two people, a couple in their 70s, had been killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.

According to Israeli officials, the couple were killed by Iranian cluster munitions, which Tehran has been firing at Israel since the start of the war. Even when intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems, such weapons can remain highly dangerous: their submunitions disperse mid-air and may fall over urban areas, detonating on impact or remaining unexploded, posing a lethal risk long after interception.