Iran-backed Houthis enter the monthlong war and could further threaten global shipping

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the monthlong war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel. About 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region. And Pakistan's government said regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

On Sunday, Iran for the first time issued a threat to strike Israeli and American universities in the region.

The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.

There could be limited relief after Iran on Friday agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the strait following a United Nations request. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has given Iran until April 6 to reopen the strait.

Witnesses in Tehran reported heavy strikes late Saturday. Israel's military earlier said it targeted Iran's naval weapons production facilities that it would finish attacking essential weapons production sites within “a few days." The U.S. said it has struck more than 11,000 Iranian targets in the war.

Iran fired missiles toward Israel, while air defenses early Sunday intercepted missiles and drones across Gulf countries.

Two Israeli strikes early Sunday in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians, including three policemen. One attack hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes.

Israel’s military said early Sunday that an American-Israeli soldier, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, had been killed while three Israelis were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon. The death raised the total to five soldiers from Israel’s military killed there since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited March 2.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned in a statment Sunday that Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets” without safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.

“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o’clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said, adding a demand that the U.S. stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers, which have been attacked in recent days.

Iran’s threat of escalating attacks to regional universities came after claiming the monthlong U.S.-Israeli air campaign hit universities in Tehran and Isfahan. Israel’s military has acknowledged striking universities it says are connected to weapons development.

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on the rebels' Al-Masirah satellite television station that they launched missiles toward “sensitive Israeli military sites” in the south.

If the Houthis increase attacks on commercial shipping, as they have in the past, it would further push up oil prices and destabilize “all of maritime security,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market.”

The Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is crucial for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through it because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.

Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025. The group said it acted in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

The Houthis' latest involvement would complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft carrier that arrived in Croatia on Saturday for maintenance. Sending the ship to the Red Sea could draw attacks similar to those on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry S. Truman in 2025.

The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014. Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Houthis on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015 and they now have an uneasy ceasefire.

Egypt Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar met in Islamabad on Sunday. Pakistan is hosting two days of talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In a stop in Qatar Saturday, Abdelatty said their efforts aim to establish a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on Saturday.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington delivered a 15-point “action list” to Iran for a possible ceasefire, with a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restrict Iran’s nuclear program, which is the issue at the heart of tensions with the U.S. and Israel.

Tehran rejected the list and presented a five-point proposal that included reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the waterway.

U.S. ships with around 2,500 Marines trained in amphibious landings have arrived, adding to the largest American force in the region in more than two decades. At least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, trained to land in hostile territory to secure key positions and airfields, have been ordered to the Middle East.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Gulf nations Saturday as his country offers defense help with drones.

More than two dozen U.S. troops were wounded in Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base in the previous week, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to comment publicly.

Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at the base Friday, injuring at least 15 troops, five of them seriously. The base, about 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the Saudi capital Riyadh, was attacked twice earlier in the week, including a strike that wounded 14 U.S. troops, according to the people briefed on the matter.

More than 300 U.S. service members have been wounded in the war. At least 13 have been reported killed.

Iranian authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.

In Lebanon, where Israel has started an invasion in the south while targeting the Hezbollah militant group, officials said more than 1,100 people have been killed in the country since the start of the war.

In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.

In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Madhani from Washington. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington, Cara Anna in Lowville, New York, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza, contributed to this report.

In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, left, shakes hands with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar prior to their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

The mother of Jawad Younes,11, who was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike, mourns over his body during a funeral procession in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents carry personal belongings as they leave a building damaged in a missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Abed Driss, displaced with his family from Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, holds up his son Benin, 3 months, next to a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People donate money following a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to support Iran and Lebanon during the war with the U.S. and Israel, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Babylon, Iraq. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

A first responder assists an injured boy following a strike that hit a residential building amid the U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sajad Safari)

Regional powers plan to meet Sunday in Pakistan to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East as about 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the monthlong war.

Pakistan said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will send top diplomats to Islamabad for talks. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.

The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices.

The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.

Here is the latest:

Kuwait says air defense systems intercepted four drones attacking the oil-rich country Sunday morning.

Radar systems at the Kuwait International Airport were damaged in a strike Saturday.

The Israeli military says residents in “relevant areas” have received warnings and air defenses are working to intercept the incoming fire.

The Israeli military says it struck targets in Tehran and other parts of the country.

Egypt’s top diplomat met Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad Sunday to discuss efforts to help bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table and ease tensions in the region, officials said.

Ishaq Dar and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will hold bilateral talks on regional developments, according to a statement by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said that the meeting will discuss “the developments of the military escalation … and de-escalation efforts in the region."

During a stop in Qatar Saturday, Abdelatty said their efforts aim to establish a “direct dialogue” between the United States and Iran.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Pakistan late Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat is expected in Islamabad Sunday.

The Revolutionary Guard’s warning on Sunday said it would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets,” state media reported.

“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o’clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said in a statement, urging the evacuations of American and Israeli educational facilities and telling students and staff to stay at least one kilometer (0.6 miles) away.

The Guard also demanded the United States stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers, which have been attacked in recent days. Israel’s military has acknowledged striking Iranian universities it says are connected to weapons development.

This is the first time Iran has threatened to strike Israeli and American universities.

The Israeli military identified the dead soldier as Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, originally from New Haven, Connecticut.

Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, a relative in Connecticut, spoke to Israel’s Army Radio station, describing his great nephew as a “very special young man” who was religious, a good student and “enjoyed every moment of life.”

Katz was killed in combat in southern Lebanon as Israel expands an invasion there.

Israel’s military said early Sunday that a soldier had been killed while three others were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon.

This brings the total to five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited after the militant group fired rockets into Israel on March 2.

Two Israeli strikes early Sunday killed six Palestinians, including three police officers, in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.

One strike hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on the strikes.

The people killed were the latest fatalities among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Interceptions and drone activity were heard for hours overnight Saturday across Irbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, including drones shot down while attempting to target the U.S. consulate and nearby bases.

AP journalists in the area reported nonstop loud explosions and saw at least one drone headed toward American facilities, in one of the most intense days of attacks since the war began.

Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have stepped up repeated drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases, including in Irbil.

In a statement on Saturday, the U.S. condemned what it called “despicable terrorist attacks” by Iran’s militant groups, saying the strikes on Kurdish regional President Nechirvan Barzani’s residence in Irbil earlier that day were “a direct assault on Iraq’s sovereignty, stability and unity.” The attack caused material damage but no casualties, and the residence was empty at the time.

Hezbollah's al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Jezzine with other journalists on Saturday, March 28, 2026, speaks on his mobile phone in Marjayoun town, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society stands at Hypercar, an auto service center, amid damages which according to the company's officials were caused by strikes on March 1, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People collect leaflets scattered on the ground at a site where a projectile carrying them hit an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)