Trump says 'Task Force Iron Gate' is now fully active on Iran's land borders

US President Donald Trump said a newly formed American task force aimed at cutting off land routes into Iran is operating at full strength. The Times of Israel reported that Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the Iron Gate unit was "in full force and effect" in Iran, and that, alongside what he called the greatest naval blockade in history, very little was getting into or out of the country.

The statement was carried within minutes by several Hebrew-language outlets. N12's foreign desk and News.co.il both described it as Trump's first comment on what they termed the land blockade of Iran, and Ynet flagged it as a breaking alert.

What the task force is meant to do

According to The Times of Israel, US Central Command (CENTCOM), the American military headquarters responsible for operations across the Middle East, announced the creation of the unit on Saturday. It is a 20-member team made up of both civilian and military personnel and is based in Florida.

The command's stated purpose for the team is to build on the existing US naval blockade of Iranian ports by targeting overland traffic. CENTCOM said the group would coordinate with other US government agencies to stop sophisticated arms, technology with both civilian and military uses, goods under sanctions and unlawful income from moving across Iran's land frontiers and the Caspian Sea, the inland body of water on Iran's northern coast.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM, said in the Saturday statement that the force would further restrict Tehran's capacity to "finance terrorism", as well as its efforts to rebuild weapons plants and resupply its armed forces, The Times of Israel reported. The US military says the land routes being targeted are used to move weapons and illicit goods.

A blockade by sea, now extended to land

The task force adds an overland dimension to a campaign that until now has been described chiefly in maritime terms. The Times of Israel placed the announcement in the context of what it called the eight-month war, during which the United States has enforced a naval blockade of Iran's ports. Trump's post presents the two measures together, the sea blockade and the new land-focused effort, as a combined squeeze on Iran's trade.

The Hebrew coverage framed the development in the same way. Israeli outlets used the phrase "mitzur yabashti", Hebrew for "land blockade", and rendered the unit's name as "Sha'ar HaBarzel", a direct translation of Iron Gate. That framing is the outlets' own: CENTCOM's announcement, as quoted, describes a coordination team rather than a physical cordon, and the reports do not say whether any US forces are deployed on or near Iran's borders.

Why Israeli media are following it

Iran's weapons production and its funding of armed groups are central concerns for Israel, which is why American efforts to choke off supply to Tehran draw close attention from Israeli newsrooms. Several major Israeli outlets relayed Trump's post quickly. None of the Israeli reports carried comment from Israeli officials on the new task force.

Iran's response

The Times of Israel began to report a reaction from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite military force that answers directly to Iran's supreme leader, but the text available to us breaks off before the substance of that response. We are therefore not able to say what the IRGC said about the task force.

What the reports do not say

• The reports do not explain how a 20-person team based in Florida would enforce restrictions on land borders and the Caspian Sea in practice, or which agencies and partner countries are involved.
• Trump's claim that very little now enters or leaves Iran is his own assertion; none of the reports provides figures or evidence on trade volumes since the blockade began.
• The full content of the IRGC's response is not available in the material.
• There is no reported reaction from Iran's neighbours, whose borders and waters the task force says it will monitor.