attacks

The US military’s 11th consecutive night of strikes extended to Iranian provinces not previously hit, marking a broadening of the campaign. As Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reports from Tehran, rising civilian casualties and mounting economic pressures are fueling questions about whether diplomacy is possible.

President Donald Trump has promised that the United States will “help” Lebanon as he met with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun amid continued occupation of the south of the country by Israeli forces.

The US president did not announce any concrete policies towards Lebanon as he spoke to reporters alongside Aoun at the White House on Tuesday.

Asked whether there will be a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal from the country, Trump said: “They’re in the process of doing that. They’re in the process of redeploying [to] other sections.”

In reality, Israel has not pulled back from any area it has occupied since March. On Monday, the US State Department announced the establishment of the first “pilot zone” under a Lebanon-Israel framework.

Such areas are supposed to see the Lebanese army deploy to previously occupied towns and ensure that there is no Hezbollah military presence, so reconstruction can begin and residents can return. But the three towns announced in the first pilot zone were not under Israeli control, so Israel did not withdraw from them.

Israel has been systemically razing entire villages in south Lebanon, with Israeli officials openly declaring the objective of erasing Lebanese border towns out of existence.

On Tuesday, Aoun did not mention Israeli abuses in his comments next to Trump. Instead, he heaped praise on the US leader and hailed the US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which conditions Israeli withdrawal on disarming Hezbollah.

“I would like to thank President Trump, really, and his team for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together by signing the framework with the ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever,” the Lebanese president said.

‘We’re going to help it a lot’

Israel has killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon since the all-out regional war broke out earlier this year, targeting hundreds of medics and journalists as it invaded the country.

In his opening remarks, Trump said that Lebanon had been “badly treated” for decades without elaborating on the source of the mistreatment.

“We’re going to help it. We’re going to help it a lot,” the US president said. “So it’s an honour to have the president and your representatives here.”

Trump also renewed his suggestion that neighbouring Syria should intervene militarily in Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah – a proposal that has been repeatedly rejected by Syrian authorities.

Hezbollah and the current government in Damascus – led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa – fought on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war.

The Lebanese group backed the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and al-Sharaa was a rebel commander who, early in the war, led the al-Qaeda branch in the country.

Trump took the opportunity on Tuesday to express his admiration of al-Sharaa once again.

“He’s pulled Syria together. He would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah. You know, they’ve been fighting. He’s been fighting Hezbollah for a long time. I think it’d be very effective. So it’s something I think about,” he said.

A Lebanese reporter asked Trump what concrete support he may offer Aoun during the visit. The US president said, “You’ll find out.”

‘I would speak to Hezbollah,’ Trump says

Trump also said he is open to speaking directly with Hezbollah.

“I would speak to Hezbollah. I speak to everybody,” he told reporters.

“I would say this: If the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah – you know, he’s lived with Hezbollah for a long time – and if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would,” Trump added, referring to Aoun, who previously served as Lebanon’s top general.

Aoun had called for assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), saying that the military remains the “backbone of security and stability”.

Hezbollah has been highly critical of Aoun’s decision to engage in direct talks with Israel, as well as the framework in which Lebanon agreed not to pursue accountability for Israeli abuses in international courts and at the United Nations.

For his part, Aoun has accused Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon to war on behalf of Iran, stressing that the Lebanese military must be the sole armed force in the country.

Southern Lebanon – Dozens of displaced residents have begun to return to villages in southern Lebanon, as Israel, Lebanon, and the United States announced on Monday that the so-called “pilot zone” project had begun.

The pilot zone plan is part of a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, signed in Washington last month. It will see Israel withdraw from a small number of areas in southern Lebanon, even as it remains in others it has invaded since escalating its war on the country in March, killing more than 4,300 people.

Israel has been fighting the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which it insists must be disarmed before a full Israeli withdrawal.

Al Jazeera spoke to people in Froun and Ghandouriyeh, neighbouring villages in southern Lebanon to which residents began returning on Monday after Israeli bombardment forced them to flee. The US said Froun was one of three villages that were part of the first phase of the pilot zone plan, while Ghandouriyeh is believed to be in the second phase.

However, some locals have questioned the villages’ inclusion in the plan, saying they were never occupied by Israeli forces. To them, the inclusion of their villages is evidence that Israel is in fact not giving anything up despite the framework agreement, and is instead able to remain in the areas it has occupied.

Lebanese security sources back up that narrative, telling Al Jazeera that the two villages had not been occupied by Israeli forces.

Perched on hills overlooking several Israeli-occupied towns in the Nabatieh and Marjayoun districts, the two villages face the town of Zawtar el-Gharbiya, which is also part of the plan’s first phase.

The road connecting Ghandouriyeh and Froun is fraught with danger: The stretches overlooking the Hujeir Valley continuously come under Israeli fire, and occupying Israeli forces stationed in Odaisseh al-Qusayr, Qantara, Alma ash-Shaab and elsewhere can monitor anyone passing through.

Still, many families have not waited for the outcome of the framework agreement and have begun gradually returning. They include the family of Abu Ali Miqdad, who owns heavy machinery that allowed them to start clearing the rubble of a building they own – containing residential apartments and storage warehouses at the entrance to Froun – in an effort to salvage whatever materials remain.

Abu Ali founded the family business decades ago, before his sons and grandsons joined him. After hours of work, they managed to pull tyres, oil drums and spare parts from the debris.

The grandfather shows little optimism about the current situation, but says he has grown weary of constant displacement. Watching his grandchildren haul an oil drum from the rubble, he says he will keep “clearing the rubble and rebuilding, even under bombardment”.

He says that the presence of the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping patrols brings him some comfort despite the circumstances.

Anxious

Across from the demolished house, one home did survive the destruction. On its doorstep sits a woman in her 70s, dressed in traditional southern Lebanese attire, with her grandson beside her wearing a Spain national team football jersey.

Spanish troops had been patrolling the area opposite Froun as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) deployed south of the Litani River, though its mission is set to end by year’s end under a UN Security Council resolution.

Despite the destruction around her, Sumaya Haidar says she is relieved to be back home, sitting beside her grandson – even though there is no water, electricity or phone service.

Like everyone else in Froun, she is anxious about the town’s fate. Sumaya’s worry also stems from the continued displacement of her children’s families to different towns, leaving them unsettled.

“We put our trust in God,” Sumaya says. “We sit here, we’re not afraid, and we’ll stay. Look at these people – living in schools after losing their homes, and my children are scattered, too.”

State authority

Meanwhile, Lebanese army patrols have been visible for three days in the area of Ghandouriyeh, with soldiers from the Fifth Intervention Regiment standing at the village’s southern entrance.

Ghandouriyeh has suffered even more destruction than Froun: 250 of its 260 homes are fully or partially destroyed, according to municipal council head Mohammed Nader. Along with several council members, he has set up damaged chairs under the shade of a tree for their daily meetings.

Nader, who used to live in Paraguay but returned to serve his small hometown, grows visibly angry when asked whether the village might be included in the second phase of the pilot zones.

Pointing towards the Israeli position just a few kilometres away, he rejects the idea outright, saying Israel wants “to sell us and the state empty walnut shells, calling it a pilot zone, when they never even entered it in the first place”.

The army granted Al Jazeera permission to film its positions in Ghandouriyeh and Froun twice, to affirm its control over the area and its designation as a zone under military oversight. Army patrols were seen repeatedly moving along the line stretching from Kfar Dounine to Froun via Ghandouriyeh, and a checkpoint was observed where service members searched vehicles and checked residents’ identification.

“Extending state authority” is expected to top the agenda when Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meets with US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

For the Lebanese government, its presence in Froun and Ghandouriyeh is evidence of that state authority, even if Hezbollah continues to insist that its weapons are necessary to confront Israel if the Lebanese army is not willing to do so.

Washington vows revenge for US military casualties, while Iran claims attacks on US sites across the region.

The United States is carrying out its 10th consecutive night of attacks against Iran, with Iranian media reporting explosions in Sirik, Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, and Isfahan.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the operation on Monday evening, claiming that the strikes are “designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement claiming to have retaliated by launching ground-to-ground missiles at “US HIMARS missile systems” stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Two Greek-owned oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz were struck earlier on Monday, while the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors attacks on ships, reports that another tanker has been hit off the coast of Oman’s port city of Limah.

Shortly before the night’s bombing began, US President Donald Trump took to social media to warn that Iranian attacks on US military personnel would be paid back “many times over”. On Friday, two US soldiers were killed, and a third was reported missing when an Iranian missile struck a military site in Jordan, while another US service member was killed in northern Iraq.

Trump also reiterated earlier warnings that continued Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz would be met with a stronger response.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s pro-Iranian Houthis have declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia, escalating tensions and sparking fears that the Yemeni conflict, which had been relatively quiet for four years, may be about to reignite and threaten shipping in the Red Sea.

The United States has attacked Iran for a ninth consecutive night after the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) announced a US soldier had died in northern Iraq in a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.

Here is what happened over Sunday night and Monday morning and what officials on both sides have said:

Where was Iran attacked?

CENTCOM announced in a statement on X that it completed the ninth wave of attacks against Iran at 02:00 GMT on Monday.

It said it “targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.

The US military did not provide details about the actual sites hit in Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers “exploded” and were halted in the southern Strait of Hormuz late on Sunday, according to a report by the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency on Monday.

The IRGC stated the vessels were trying to transit through the strategic waterway under what it described as US coercion.

“This passage is unsafe for the transport of chemical fertiliser or even a single drop of oil and gas,” the group warned, adding that the corridor would remain unsafe as long as US military operations in the region continue.

An MQ-9 drone was intercepted and shot down over Eslamabad-e Gharb in western Iran’s Kermanshah province, according to the Mehr News Agency on Monday.

Mehr said the drone was targeted by an advanced air defence system operated by the IRGC aerospace force.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday that US strikes targeted an area in the town of Khormoj in southwestern Iran. It quoted a local official.

Where did Iran strike, and where were warnings issued?

Jordan: The IRGC said on Monday that it launched ballistic missiles at US C-17 transport planes and P-8 aircraft at Aqaba airport, claiming several were heavily damaged. In a statement carried by the state-controlled IRIB broadcaster, the IRGC also said 20 hangars housing US forces in the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq were destroyed.

Bahrain: The US embassy in Bahrain said it has information suggesting Iran may seek to target unspecified locations in central Manama. It urged Americans to remain vigilant, follow instructions from local authorities and immediately seek shelter if warning sirens sound or explosions are heard.

US soldier in Iraq: A US service member was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from an Iranian drone, CENTCOM said.

What happened in the Strait of Hormuz?

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency reported late on Sunday that a vessel about 8 nautical miles (15km) northwest of Kumzar, Oman, had caught fire.

It is unclear whether this happened due to an attack by Iran. The UKMTO said the cause of the fire had not been verified and advised vessels in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity while authorities investigate.

What have Iranian and American leaders said?

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US is hitting Iran to honour American service members who have been killed.

“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the, probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington, DC, after the World Cup final in New Jersey. At least two US soldiers were killed in Jordan last week after Iranian missiles struck a US base there, and the third soldier Trump referred to was killed in Iraq during the detonation of the Iranian drone.

“We feel very badly,” he said when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with state media that Tehran would end the war with the US when it had “the upper hand in the field”, local news reported on Monday.

Talking with the IRNA news agency, Araghchi said the most critical decision in crisis management was identifying the precise moment to halt hostilities and begin negotiations.

“The end of the war is possible either through absolute military victory or through negotiations. The right time to negotiate is precisely when you have achieved a reliable field and strategic achievement on the military front,” Araghchi said.

“You cannot take risks with the lives of the people and the fate of the entire country. Decisions must be made based on accurate and complete calculations,” Araghchi said.

Mojtaba Khamenei says Trump’s signature is ‘worthless’ and that ‘bullying’ is a core element of US foreign policy.

Iran’s supreme leader has warned that the United States will suffer “unforgettable lessons” at the hands of Tehran and its regional allies, accusing the US of repeatedly violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries.

A written statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei was read out on state television on Saturday, in which the supreme leader said Washington’s breaches of last month’s MoU showed that President Donald Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and invalid”.

“The repeated breach of agreements by the Great Satan vis-a-vis the accord has once again proven to all that the signature of the President of America is now utterly worthless and invalid, and that bullying, hegemonism and savagery are inseparable components of the American creed and doctrine,” the statement read.

“Now that the American enemy is seeking to foment war and suffer heavier costs and further humiliation, it should know that the dear nation of Iran and the Resistance Front hold unforgettable lessons for it,” it added.

The US dramatically escalated its attacks on Iran this week by targeting civilian infrastructure, including bridges, railway lines and water desalination plants.

Tehran has responded by successfully striking civilian infrastructure in Kuwait, with authorities there urging everyone to ration electricity.

The US-Israeli war on Iran, which began in February, is seen as existential by the country’s senior leadership.

Tehran has shown no sign of caving to the increasing demands from the Trump administration, as regional countries continue to push for an end to the conflict behind the scenes.

Khamenei said the US has “revealed its true face,” exposing its “deceitfulness, irrationality, unreliability and wickedness”.

He called on Iranians to trust the leadership to protect the country, urging people to remain “vigilant” and “active” as the fighting grinds on.

Reports have surfaced in recent days that the Houthis in Yemen could close the Bab al-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea in support of their crucial ally Iran. That would further destabilise global energy markets, increase inflation and apply additional pressure on Trump to halt attacks.

The war is deeply unpopular in the US and has inflicted economic harm on Americans.

The MoU mediated by Qatar and Pakistan and signed last month aimed to create the conditions to bring the war to a permanent end.

However, Tehran and Washington have since declared the accord “over” after accusing each other of violating it.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Wednesday unleashed a new wave of strikes on Iranian targets. The attacks, on Iran’s Greater Tunb Island, came as the newly restored blockade on Iranian ports entered its first full day and the command began ordering ships headed to Iran to turn around. Meanwhile, Iran claims it damaged several U.S. military facilities in new rounds of missile and drone attacks in the region.

“CENTCOM launched precision munitions against coastal defense systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island during the 90-minute wave,” the command stated on X. “The strikes further degraded Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.” The island, located at the western mouth of the Strait, sits about 30 miles south of the Iranian coast and about 50 miles northwest of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which also lays claim to it, along with the Abu Musa and Lesser Tunb islands that Iran seized in 1971.

Greater Tunb Island was a frequent target during Operation Epic Fury. A little more than two miles across at its widest point, it hosts a “vast network of underground bunkers,” created by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the Israeli Alma Research and Education Center think tank. “These underground facilities are believed to be storing anti-ship missiles and other weapons threatening freedom of navigation and commerce through the Strait of Hormuz.”

In a subsequent X post, CENTCOM stated that since “restarting the naval blockade against Iranian ports 17 hours ago, U.S. forces have redirected 2 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade. The U.S. military remains vigilant and prepared to ensure full compliance.”

In its announcement on Tuesday that the blockade had been reimposed, CENTCOM stated that there are “currently more than 20 U.S. Navy warships and hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East. American forces remain vigilant, lethal, and ready.”

Control over the Strait has been at the center of most of the flare-ups of violence that have taken place after a shaky ceasefire was agreed to by the U.S. and Iran on April 8. They’ve often involved Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait followed by U.S. kinetic responses. However, these kinetic encounters have been intensifying over the past five days, leading President Donald Trump to order the resumption of the naval blockade on Iranian ports. It went into effect at 11:30 PM local time on Tuesday.

As we have frequently noted, the blockade was lifted on June 17 when the U.S. and Iran signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU provided a 60-day extension of the ceasefire to iron out an agreement to end fighting throughout the region, including Lebanon, prevent Iran from seeking nuclear weapons, end U.S. sanctions and resume the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, among other points.

Iran, as we noted earlier in this story, said it carried out a number of retaliatory strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan as it has over the past five days. All three nations host an array of U.S. military facilities.

The Iranian Army’s public relations office said it “launched a seventh wave of drone strikes on U.S. bases in the region on Wednesday, targeting F-18 facilities and support infrastructure at al-Azraq in Jordan,” Iran’s official Mehr news outlet stated on Wednesday. The strikes “were part of ‘Operation Thunderbolt’ and followed six earlier waves of drone attacks on U.S. positions since the American violation of the ceasefire and the start of ‘brutal attacks’ on Iranian territory.”

TWZ cannot independently confirm Iran’s claims and CENTCOM declined comment.

“Jordan’s military intercepted three Iranian missiles,” The New York Times reported, citing a statement carried by the official Petra news agency. “The Kuwait Army said earlier that its air defenses were intercepting hostile targets, while Bahrain’s interior ministry said warning sirens had been activated. None of the countries have reported damage or casualties from strikes on Wednesday.”

However, images and videos have emerged online purporting to show damage at several installations in the wake of Iranian attacks over the past several days.

The following post on X uses satellite imagery from Iranian state media to claim damage to an anti-drone radar system at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan; however, its low resolution makes it hard to confirm that claim.

July 15 (UPI) — The United States attacked Iran on Wednesday, and Iran struck U.S. assets across the region into Thursday morning, marking the fifth straight day of strikes between the two nations as they fight over the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command launched two waves of attacks seeking to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten vessels transiting the vital chokepoint between Iran and Oman.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said early Thursday that it was conducting missile and drone strikes targeting U.S. assets at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.

“Once again, we remind the honorable people of Kuwait that the United States is committing these crimes against Muslim Iran from your soil,” the elite military unit responsible for protecting Iran’s Islamic regime said in a statement.

The IRGC-aligned Fars News Agency reported early Thursday that U.S. bases and facilities in Bahrain, as well as in Kuwait, were being struck. It separately said it was attacking U.S. assets at the Al-Azraq Base in Jordan.

The extent of potential damage could not be independently verified. However, the Kuwait Army said its air defenses were confronting drone attacks, and the Jordanian Armed Forces said they downed eight Iranian missiles early Thursday. Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior urged residents to find shelter as sirens blared, suggesting an incoming attack.

CENTCOM said in a statement that its second wave ended at 9 p.m. EDT, hitting command centers, air defense sites, coastal surveillance facilities and missile ad drone capabilities.

In announcing the strikes hours earlier, CENTCOM had said they were “targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the commander in chief’s direction,” the post said.

The U.S. attacks followed earlier strikes on Greater Tunb Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a key site for Iran’s coastal defenses and missile storage, during a 90-minute wave. The U.S. military also said it fired on the Curacao-flagged Belma vessel transiting international waters toward Iran.

CENTCOM accused it of violating a military blockade of Iran’s coast that Trump reimposed Tuesday afternoon to deny Iran maritime trade.

The IRGC said Ahvaz, a southwestern Iranian city, had come under U.S. attack, with missiles reportedly hitting near Baghaei Hospital, which treats children with cancer, requiring all but the most ill patients to be transferred to another medical facility.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf told state media that Iran had “no reason” to abide by any deal with the United States if it did not benefit from it, but he left the door open for possible diplomacy, stating: “We must utilize diplomacy and negotiation to achieve and stabilize our national interests.”

While the war began in late February with President Donald Trump seeking to dismantle Iran’s nuclear and conventional weapons programs while encouraging regime change, the current chapter of the war is over the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting to restore freedom of navigation through the waterway, down which about one-fifth of global energy supplies flow. Tehran is fighting to preserve its ability to restrict passage through the chokepoint as leverage and has previously suggested it could charge vessels that transit it.

The U.S. attacks came as Trump told reporters that Iran’s leaders “better behave” on Wednesday, one day after he threatened that the United States would strike bridges and power plants if Iran did not return to the negotiating table.

“They want to settle so badly,” Trump said later Wednesday at a defense summit in Pennsylvania. “They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them or we just finish it off.”

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, has declared that the country’s armed forces have “complete freedom of action” against the “enemy’s aggression”, after a day of attacks by the United States killed seven Iranian troops.

The attacks on Wednesday were the latest in days of escalating hostilities between Washington and Tehran that appear to have doomed an interim peace deal they agreed to on June 17.

The US announced several rounds of air strikes on Iran overnight on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, saying its forces hit military targets in Iranian coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz and on the Greater Tunb island.

Iran’s army said one attack struck a barracks in Bampour in the country’s southeast, killing seven personnel from the 388th Brigade and injuring several others. It pledged to deliver “a decisive response… at the appropriate time”.

Iranian media also reported that an overnight US attack hit a wheat storage facility in the  western Khuzestan province, which the US military denied.

The US announced its latest wave of strikes on Wednesday had begun at 10:30pm Iranian time (19:00 GMT), as Iranian media reported explosions in or near Bandar Abbas, Chabahar and Ahvaz.

Earlier, the US military also said it had redirected two commercial vessels as part of a renewed blockade on Iranian ports, which it began enforcing the night before.

Return to negotiations ‘extremely difficult’

Tehran said the repeated waves of US attacks had voided the memorandum of understanding with Washington that had underpinned the fragile ceasefire. Ghalibaf said Iran was “in an essential and existential war with America” and had no reason to continue adhering to the terms of the peace agreement.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran had abandoned its commitments under the memorandum because the US had reneged on its side of the deal.

“Our commitments remain in effect only as long as the other side fulfils its pledges,” Baghaei said.

He said Tehran had no plans to engage in further talks with Washington and was focused solely on defending the country.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said the latest escalation made a return to negotiations “extremely difficult”.

“There’s now a low-intensity war, new sanctions are back on Iran, and there’s a US blockade again,” Serdar said.

However, he said, “if the Americans commit to the articles of the memorandum of understanding, then the Iranians say they’re open to engaging diplomatically”.

Iran renews attacks on Gulf neighbours

On Wednesday morning, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain as part of a “crushing response”. It said it also targeted a major US military logistics hub in Mina Abdullah, Kuwait.

Kuwait’s Ministry of Defence said later on Wednesday that it had downed at least four cruise missiles and 21 drones from Iran throughout the day.

Jordan’s military said it had downed three missiles from Iran.

Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem AlBudaiwi condemned the latest “treacherous” Iranian attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, saying they “reveal Iran’s determination to drag the region into further chaos and instability”.

Zeidon Alkinani, founding director of the Arab Perspectives Institute, said that Iran’s continuing attacks on its neighbours had tested the patience of Gulf states, who oppose the US-Israel war on Iran and have staunchly advocated for diplomacy.

“The patience within the Gulf and the view of Iran may fall apart very soon,” Alkinani told Al Jazeera.

Trump says Iran ‘better behave’

US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that US attacks against Iran would intensify if the country’s leaders did not return to negotiations, even threatening to “knock out” Iran’s power plants and bridges.

But Trump declined to give Iran a firm deadline when asked on Wednesday, saying: “I don’t ⁠like giving deadlines, but ⁠they pretty ⁠much know; they ⁠know the story… they better ‌behave.”

Ghalibaf said Iran was still balancing diplomacy with military action in pursuit of its national interest.

While Iran has “never welcomed war… we must always be prepared for battle and stand firm to protect our national security and interests”, Ghalibaf said.

“We must also use the tools of diplomacy and negotiation to achieve and solidify our national interests.”

July 15 (UPI) — The United States and Iran traded attacks Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning as their war over the Strait of Hormuz continued to spiral, with President Donald Trump renewing threats to target civilian infrastructure.

The two nations have been trading nearly nightly strikes since last week, when Iran struck commercial shipping transiting the vital energy route.

While the broader war began in late February with the United States seeking to dismantle Iran’s military and nuclear programs and encourage the overthrow of its government, the current chapter is centered on control of the Strait of Hormuz. Washington is fighting to restore freedom of navigation through the chokepoint, while Tehran is fighting to preserve its ability to restrict passage as leverage.

Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said in a statement Wednesday that more than 30 civilians were killed in southern Iran in the U.S. strikes.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps early Wednesday claimed to have hit U.S. military assets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, as U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday that it had completed a seven-hour wave of strikes, hitting Iranian naval capabilities, coastal defense systems and missile and drone sites near the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere along Iran’s coast.

CENTCOM said the strikes were intended to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews” within the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM earlier said that in the last seven days, Iran attacked seven commercial ships, resulting in nearly a dozen civilian casualties. An Indian national was killed in a strike on a ship on Monday.

The IRGC said in separate statements carried by its official Sepah News that it had “destroyed” shelters housing F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets at Al Azraq Air Base in Jordan; and “destroyed” a satellite communications center, missile and air defense radar, a Patriot air defense complex and logistical facilities at a U.S. base in Kuwait.

The Fars News Agency reported that at least one Iranian drone struck U.S. assets in Kuwait.

The extent of any of the damage was unknown.

The Kuwait Army said its air defenses were confronting drone attacks, and Jordan’s Armed Forces said it had intercepted and shot down three missiles launched from Iranian territory. Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said sirens had been activated.

Trump earlier Tuesday told Fox News that the U.S. military was going to hit Iran “very hard tonight” and again on Wednesday and Thursday, with civilian targets to be struck next week, a potential violation of international humanitarian law.

“Next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” he said. “We’re gonna knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”

Trump has, since his first administration, tried to coerce Iran to the negotiating table on a new agreement aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon. Last month, a fragile cease-fire was agreed to for the purpose of implementing a memorandum that could lead to ending the war, but the Strait of Hormuz has been a sticking point.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military reimposed a blockade of Iranian ports that Trump removed after the MOU was reached.

CENTCOM said its round of strikes against Iran began at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, an hour before the naval blockade resumed operations.

Ukraine says drones hit 11 Russian vessels in the Azov Sea, targeting tankers, dry cargo ships, and a tugboat overnight.

Russia says it is working to reroute ⁠grain shipments from the Sea of Azov after its vessels came under Ukrainian attacks in the sea, as Kyiv claimed it hit 11 more Russian vessels in overnight strikes.

Russia was preparing to use “alternative shipping routes” and may redirect cargo “to other modes of transport”, Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry added that “the situation in the Azov Sea will not affect the domestic market’s food supply or our country’s export capabilities.”

Ukrainian military commander Robert Brovdi said on Telegram on Tuesday that drone attacks hit 11 Russian vessels in the Azov Sea overnight. The targets included five tankers, five dry cargo vessels and a tugboat, bringing the total number of vessels struck in the past nine days to 116, he said.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of carrying out “acts of terrorism”.

“What the ‌Ukrainian regime is doing goes beyond even piracy. Pirates, at least, plunder and keep the spoils for ⁠themselves. But here, it ⁠benefits neither them nor anyone else – the goal is simply ⁠to cause damage and ⁠intimidate. It is ⁠terrorism, pure and simple,” Lavrov said.

The attacks come as Ukraine steps up long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries and other energy infrastructure, triggering a fuel crisis in Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences intercepted 288 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight. Russian authorities said falling debris from a drone attack injured one person and damaged houses in several villages.

One attack sparked a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery, authorities in Russia’s Krasnodar region reported.

Ukraine also struck another oil refinery in the republic of Bashkortostan, which had been hit twice in September 2025. Governor Radiy Khabirov said on Telegram that the attack hit an industrial area in the city of Salavat.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries have contributed to a fuel crisis, leading Moscow to ban some fuel exports amid a global surge in energy prices.

Russia’s Defence Ministry also said it hit targets in Kyiv, port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, and fuel storage facilities for Ukrainian forces in the port of Yuzhny.

Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said ⁠Russian forces struck ⁠a civilian vessel ⁠near Ukraine’s Black Sea port ‌of Odesa. Pletenchuk ⁠reported no casualties ⁠in the ⁠attack.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials said their forces shot down seven missiles and 108 drones across the country.

US is carrying out more attacks on Iran, with Iranian media reporting explosions in Kish Island, Jam Island, Qeshm Island, Bushehr and Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has targeted US military facilities in Bahrain, claimed it has destroyed radar systems in Oman and hit Jordan and Kuwait in its latest round of overnight retaliatory strikes against the United States.

Tehran’s attacks on Monday came as a response to Washington’s escalating strikes as prospects of peace between the two countries recede.

Here is a recap of the latest attacks:

Where were the latest Iran attacks?

Oman: The IRGC said it attacked Oman as part of its latest phase of retaliation. It said it targeted “the FPS long-range aerial radar and the vessel detection radar in Oman”, adding that these radar systems were destroyed.

Bahrain: The IRGC also said it launched missile and drone attacks targeting “installations and infrastructure of the aggressive US army” in Juffair, Bahrain.

Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior said on Monday that sirens had been sounded in the country as it warned people to remain calm and head to the nearest safe place.

The IRGC earlier said it targeted several facilities at the Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.

Jordan: Jordan’s military said on Monday that it intercepted and downed “four missiles that entered Jordanian airspace” and came from Iranian territory.

Earlier, the IRGC said it targeted Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base with missiles and drones and set fire to several fuel depots and ammunition storage facilities.

Kuwait: The IRGC said on Monday that it also targeted a US surface-to-surface missile base in Kuwait, “setting fire to two HIMARS missile launchers and missile-packed warehouses, completely destroying them”.

HIMARS stands for high mobility artillery rocket systems, which are mobile rocket launchers manufactured by the US.

Earlier, the General Staff of Kuwait’s Army said air defence systems were engaging “hostile aerial targets” inside the country’s airspace.

It said any explosions heard were the result of air defence systems intercepting the attacks and urged the public to follow safety and security instructions.

Where was Iran hit?

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) earlier said it hit “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”.

These targets included “Iranian military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats”, it said.

CENTCOM said it deployed “US fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time”.

Valiollah Hayati, the deputy governor for security and law enforcement in western Iran’s Khuzestan province, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency on Monday that US forces attacked at least eight locations across Khuzestan overnight.

Hayati also said one person was killed and four were injured when a projectile hit an agricultural water-pumping station in Mahshahr, according to the IRNA news agency.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday that a US-manufactured LUCAS (low-cost uncrewed combat attack system) suicide drone was “accurately hit and shot down” in Bandar Abbas, a city on the Strait of Hormuz.

What has each side said?

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Monday condemning the US strikes on targets in Iran.

US President Donald Trump insisted that the Strait of Hormuz was open during an appearance on the NBC TV network’s Meet the Press programme on Sunday.

“They’re very, very evil and sick people. We had meetings with them. They agreed to a deal yesterday, a perfect deal for us. No nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything. And then after that, they left the room. And then within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship,” Trump said.

When did the conflict reignite?

On July 6, the IRGC struck three commercial vessels, including a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker, off Oman. Iran accused the ships of trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without its permission. Tehran’s interpretation of a key clause in the June memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US gives it the authority to manage traffic through the waterway.

The following day, the US said it carried out strikes on Iranian military targets. Tehran in turn responded with missile and drone attacks on military bases across the Gulf where US forces are deployed.

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters the MoU was over, and on Saturday, the IRGC said the Strait of Hormuz was closed yet again.

How has this impacted the Strait of Hormuz and shipping?

The number of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to its lowest level in five weeks, according to shipping data.

Six ships sailed through the strait on Sunday, according to data from the trade intelligence firm Kpler, including the Humanity and the Capetan Andreas, transporting 2 million barrels of Iranian oil and 500,000 barrels of Kuwaiti petroleum products, respectively.

Three empty tankers also entered the Gulf to load oil, according to the data.

Oil prices have jumped amid the latest outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the main international benchmark, rose more than 4 percent on Monday as Washington and Tehran traded attacks amid their escalating standoff over control of the critical waterway.

Brent futures for September delivery stood at $79.26 a barrel as of 05:00 GMT, the highest since June 22.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday that it had carried out dozens of strikes on Iran to degrade its ability to attack vessels in the strait, hours after striking hundreds of targets in the country.

US forces launched the earlier round of strikes after accusing Iranian forces of “blatantly” attacking a Cyprus-flagged container ship, the MV GFS Galaxy, as it was transiting the strait.

“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade. Iran does not control it,” CENTCOM said in a statement late on Sunday.

“US forces are postured and prepared to ensure that freedom of navigation remains available to commercial shipping despite Iran’s continued unwarranted aggression, harassment, threats, and arbitrary declarations.”

Iranian forces on Sunday launched a wave of missile and drone attacks against the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain in response to the US strikes.

Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which claims the right to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, earlier reiterated that vessels attempting to cross the waterway without using its preferred route would “not be covered by safe passage guarantees”.

“The consequences arising from transit through unauthorized routes shall be the responsibility of the owner, operator, and vessel commander,” the authority said.

After ticking up following Washington and Tehran’s signing of a memorandum of understanding on ending the war last month, maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has declined sharply amid the renewed fighting between the sides.

Just six vessels were tracked crossing the strait between 18:00 GMT on Thursday and 06:00 GMT on Friday, compared with 18-22 daily crossings earlier this month, according to maritime intelligence platform Windward.

Nine vessels were tracked in the waterway between 18:00 GMT on Saturday and 06:00 GMT on Sunday, four of which were flying the Iranian flag, according to Windward.

Roughly 130 vessels transited the strait, a conduit for one-fifth of the global oil trade in peacetime, each day before the start of the war.

Oil prices, which had returned to pre-conflict levels following the signing of the memorandum on June 17, are now about 9 percent higher than before the US and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran in late February.

Mukesh Sahdev, founder and chief oil analyst at XAnalysts in Sydney, Australia, said he expects the per-barrel price of Brent to remain in the upper $70s during August and September amid the heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

“There could be occasional spikes and dips outside that range,” Sahdev said in a note to clients on Saturday.

“Long-haul procurement forces refiners to make supply decisions weeks in advance,” Sahdev added.

“Those decisions have already reduced immediate reliance on the Middle East, and the latest escalation is likely to reinforce rather than reverse that trend.”

Fabien Yip, a market analyst at IG in Sydney, Australia, said prices are unlikely to approach the much higher levels seen earlier in the war despite the latest turmoil.

“Oil’s return towards pre-war levels in June reflected markets pricing in a best-case outcome for the fragile US-Iran arrangement; last week’s re-escalation exposes how fragile that assumption was,” Yip said in a note to clients on Monday.

“Near-term, the risk premium should keep prices supported, though a repeat of the earlier spike appears unlikely, as demand remains slow to recover while stranded-tanker releases and OPEC+ output quota expansion continue to add barrels to an already oversupplied outlook.”

Major Asian stock markets fell on Monday amid the renewed fighting in the Middle East.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell more than 2 percent in afternoon trading, while South Korea’s Kospi plunged more than 8 percent.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index dipped about 0.2 percent.

As rights advocates decry the detention of United States Congressman Ro Khanna by armed Israeli settlers, Israel and its allies are launching political attacks to discredit the progressive legislator.

Israeli officials have already ruled out apologising to Khanna or holding the settlers accountable. Instead, several have gone on the offensive against the congressman.

Khanna said he was travelling to a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday when armed settlers stopped his van for 20 minutes. The settlers were later joined by Israeli soldiers who continued to block the road.

The whole ordeal lasted more than an hour, according to Khanna, and was only resolved after he reached out to the US embassy in Israel.

On Sunday, Michael Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, appeared to blame Khanna for the mistreatment he received, saying that the California Democrat had failed to coordinate his trip with the Israeli government.

“He decided to coordinate his trip not with Israel, but with Palestinian activists and with J Street,” Leiter told CBS News, referencing a Jewish nonprofit.

Leiter went on to claim, without evidence, that Khanna may have waited to release his video of Wednesday’s incident to distract from his support for politician Graham Platner.

Platner dropped out of the Senate race in Maine on Friday amid sexual misconduct allegations. Khanna published his video on Saturday.

“Maybe this had more something to do with his support of Graham Platner beforehand and the difficulties he had with that, and trying to shift the focus to something else. Perhaps? I’m asking a question,” Leiter said.

Khanna is not backing down, however. He said he did inform Israel of his travel and has called for the arrest of settlers who held up his van.

Khanna responds

The Israeli military has disputed Khanna’s version of the events, saying that it “dispersed” civilians who were blocking the road. But in an appearance on Sunday with NBC News, Khanna refuted that account.

“The [Israeli military] is lying,” Khanna said.

“What happened was unprecedented. They had violent settlers detain American citizens, including an American government official. You had these settlers brandishing M4s [rifles], kicking the tyres of our van, laughing at us, mocking at us, videotaping us.”

He added that the Israeli military participated in blocking their path and detaining them.

“How dare they mistreat people with an American passport that way?” Khanna said.

Pro-Israel politicians, however, claimed that Khanna provoked his own detention by carrying out a political stunt.

“Sounds like another plea for publicity. Anything to get in front of the camera. Why else would you be there? It isn’t your country,” Republican Congressman Greg Murphy wrote in a social media post.

Critics were quick to point out that Murphy’s first trip as part of a congressional delegation was to Israel.

Khanna also responded to Murphy, urging him to be on “Team America” and join the push for any settlers and soldiers who mistreat US citizens to face consequences.

“I would be calling for that if you had been in our shoes,” Khanna said.

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson was among those who came to Khanna’s defence. He criticised Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, for failing to speak out about the incident.

“An American member of congress is threatened by foreign terrorists carrying American rifles, backed by a foreign military paid for by American taxpayers, and the US ambassador to that country says not a word in defense of his own countryman,” Carlson wrote on the social media platform X.

“It’s too much, too insulting and humiliating to America.”

Still, many pro-Israel figures in the US expressed scepticism about Khanna’s experience. David Friedman, a former US envoy to Israel, accused Khanna of “self-victimization”.

Friedman argued, without evidence, that Khanna had purposely entered a restricted zone to provoke the incident.

“As was entirely predictable, he was asked a few questions and sent on his way. But he got the photo op and all he needed for his pre-conceived false narrative,” Friedman said in a social media post. “Well played Ro.”

Several other pro-Israel advocates echoed that take.

Attacks on US citizens

Israel’s military and settler presence in the occupied West Bank is illegal under international law.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2024 that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza, is unlawful.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” the top United Nations tribunal said.

Israeli settlers – often under the protection of the Israeli military – regularly attack Palestinian communities in the West Bank, ransacking farms and property and assaulting people who come in their way. That includes Americans.

One year ago, for instance, Israeli settlers beat 20-year-old US citizen Sayfollah Musallet to death.

Three weeks later, another American citizen, a father of five from Chicago named Khamis Ayyad, was also killed in a settler attack.

No suspects have been charged with crimes after the two attacks.

Despite well-documented abuses against US citizens, Israel was added to the US visa waiver programme in 2023, allowing Israelis to travel visa-free to the US.

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid in history, having received more than $21bn in the last two years alone.

The Israeli military has released video showing huge explosions and detonations in villages in southern Lebanon. Israel says they were targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and tunnels. Meanwhile a US military delegation has met with Lebanon’s army in Beirut to discuss Israel’s planned withdrawal from a ‘pilot zone’ in occupied territory.

Tehran, Iran – Several days of military attacks by the United States across Iran have marked the most intense rounds of bombardment since the two sides reached a vague memorandum of understanding last month.

US fighter jets and warships have hit hundreds of military targets and a number of civilian ones in nearly a week of strikes, with Iranian authorities reporting attacks in at least 10 provinces, mainly in southern Iran near the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

In Tehran, life for more than 10 million people has carried on mostly as usual since the capital has not been recently attacked. But the economy is in the doldrums and the outlook is increasingly uncertain, more than four months after the US and Israel began their aerial campaign.

“Everything is too chaotic right now to guess what will happen next but it doesn’t look good,” Farshad, a 21-year-old resident of eastern Tehran, said on Sunday.

“I just really hope all-out war doesn’t start again because I don’t have the nerve for daily bombing on top of everything else,” he told Al Jazeera.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said overnight into Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz was once again considered closed due to US military intervention. Two vessels opting to transit using the Western-backed southern route near Oman, rather than Iran’s designated path to the north of the strait, had been struck, the IRGC added.

Iran said it had also attacked US interests across the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Oman, in response to US strikes, as prospects for negotiations to replace military escalation remained slim.

Another Tehran citizen, Nastaran, said the overnight escalation felt more serious than previous attacks.

“I didn’t expect it would be this bad when I picked up my phone this morning to check the news,” she said. “I think there will be more attacks soon.”

Growing US aggression

The US military has been expanding its attacks over the past week.

US Central Command said more than 300 military targets were hit during three waves, including coastal surveillance, logistics, communications, as well as missile, drone and naval assets. It has not acknowledged striking civilian objectives.

As with other flare-ups over recent weeks, numerous attacks were launched on the province of Hormozgan, including the major port city of Bandar Abbas, as well as on Siri, Qeshm and Jask overlooking the strait. Port, fishing, coastal-control infrastructure and air defences were extensively bombed, reportedly killing a soldier and leaving multiple fishermen dead or wounded in separate strikes.

US projectiles have also targeted multiple areas in Bushehr province, with one attack impacting the perimeter of Iran’s only nuclear power plant without damaging it.

Provincial authorities in the southwestern province of Khuzestan said three areas were hit, but not the capital, Ahvaz. Local authorities in the provinces of Kohgiluyeh, Boyer-Ahmad and Lorestan also reported projectile attacks.

In Sistan and Baluchestan to the southeast, attacks were reported in Chabahar, Konarak and Iranshahr, where a strike on airport facilities killed a firefighter. Video recorded by a local from Chabahar and shared online showed the destruction of the city’s renowned maritime control tower.

Over the past week, the US military has launched some of its deepest strikes into Iranian territory since full-scale military operations were suspended by the “ceasefire” agreed in April.

One of them was in the northern province of Golestan, where the Aq Tekeh Khan railway bridge was struck on the Gorgan-Incheh Borun line.

Authorities said the bridge, which carries both passengers and cargo, was repaired and services resumed quickly. However, the attack showed that inland corridors could also become targets to increase pressure on Iran by limiting its trade, including imports of essential goods.

The transit route connects Iran to Turkmenistan and onwards to Kazakhstan, Russia, China as well as Eurasian rail networks. Crucially, during the US naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports, it provided an overland alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Last week, when assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was being buried in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, authorities said the US struck a bridge about 55km (34 miles) from the city, disrupting passenger journeys to the funeral procession.

Iranian authorities say electricity infrastructure – which Trump has repeatedly threatened with more strikes – has also been significantly impacted since the start of the war, worsening the long-running energy crisis.

The attacks have reduced Iran’s capacity for electricity generation by about 4,200 megawatts, just as summer temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this week, Mohammad Allahdad, head of Tavanir, the government-owned parent company for the operation of Iran’s power grid, said on Sunday.

After the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, a statement from new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen public since succeeding his father, emphasised the necessity for revenge.

Similar messages continue to be broadcast by state media and hardline religion-backed factions supporting the Islamic Republic, who on Sunday also cheered the death of US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. State television hailed what it called the “dispatching to hell” of a pro-war hawkish politician.

For its part, Israel has effectively undermined the MoU signed between Iran and the US on June 17 by pushing deeper into southern Lebanon and signalling readiness to return to military strikes in Iran.

Speaking to an Israeli programme on Saturday night, Defence Minister Israel Katz, who has threatened to assassinate Mojtaba Khamenei, said “southern Lebanon would become Gaza” and that the Israeli army will “apply the Rafah model” of conquest there.

Since a US-brokered truce in October, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,098 Palestinians in Gaza.

An Israeli drone attack and gunfire in Gaza have killed at least five people, including a nine-year-old girl, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Tala Abu Matar died when Israeli gunfire targeted an encampment on the eastern side of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, medics said.

Also on Sunday, a drone attack on a blacksmith’s shop in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City killed at least four Palestinians and wounded another, according to officials at al-Shifa hospital where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military acknowledged striking the area, saying without elaborating that it targeted “terrorist infrastructure”.

Following shooting on Friday, a Palestinian man died of wounds sustained from Israeli fire near Al-Bureij camp, said a health official. Another Palestinian succumbed to injuries from an Israeli drone strike east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The continued attacks in Gaza are in violation of the ceasefire agreed last October by Israel and Hamas. While fighting on the ground has mostly stopped since then, Israel has continued carrying out air strikes in Gaza, killing at least 1,098 Palestinians and wounding 3,535 during the so-called ceasefire, health ministry data shows.

Since October, Israel has expanded its control over the enclave beyond the so-called “Yellow Line”, which demarcates territory occupied by Israel from the rest of Gaza under the ceasefire agreement. Last week, Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israeli forces now control about 80 percent of Gaza.

The latest ⁠violence comes as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for further talks on implementing the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

The discussions include Hamas disarmament ⁠and Israeli army withdrawals, according to sources close to the talks, who said no breakthrough has been achieved.

Since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the health ministry said at least 73,118 Palestinians have been killed.

Iran has mounted attacks on Gulf states and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed after the United States conducted its third round of strikes in a week, in a serious escalation as the ongoing conflict spirals.

Tehran on Sunday claimed attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and Oman, calling them its response to renewed US bombings on cities along its southern coast.

The widescale US strikes came after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway and one of the biggest flashpoints in the conflict — accusing Washington of violating a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two sides last month.

So, where is the conflict headed? Here is everything we know.

Why has Iran attacked Gulf states and closed Hormuz?

Iran launched missile and drone attacks targeting US military bases and facilities in several Gulf states, while the US Central Command (CENTCOM) carried out a third round of strikes targeting radar, missile, and drone sites across southern Iran last week.

The US attacks came after Iran opened fire on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and announced the closure of the strategic waterway until further notice, with one crew member missing, according to CENTCOM.

Iran’s powerful parliament speaker and key peace negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Sunday, “The era of one-sided deals is over.”

“We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking,” Ghalibaf posted on X with an image of Article 5 of the MoU, which relates to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced that the ceasefire with Iran was over. His statement was followed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei pledging to avenge his father’s killing.

How did we reach here?

The fragile MoU reached between the US and Iran had several glaring gaps, keeping the door to escalation ajar.

The tensions spilled over into the Strait of Hormuz again last Monday, when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) struck three commercial vessels, including a Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker off the coast of Oman.

The next day, the US carried out strikes on Iranian military targets, and Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks on US bases across the Gulf, prompting Trump to call off the ceasefire.

The tit-for-tat attacks continued. On Saturday night, the IRGC announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz until further notice after attacking a container ship using what it called an unapproved route. On Sunday, a second vessel on the strait was hit.

Where did the latest US strikes hit?

CENTCOM said its third round of strikes on Iran last week was “holding Iranian forces accountable” for their recent attack on a Cyprus-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

It said it hit about 140 military targets that “included Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations”.

It added that more than 300 targets were struck over the course of three nights throughout the week “to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait”.

Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said the US launched air attacks on the outskirts of the city of Veysian, in the western Lorestan province, while another strike hit a military base in Iran’s Khondab.

Officials from Bushehr, on Iran’s southern coast, told local media that US forces attacked five cities in the province, including Asaluyeh, Dir, Bushehr, Dashti and Tangestan.

Tehran has said the loss of lives and the extent of damage are under review.

Where did Iran hit back overnight?

Since the start of the ongoing conflict in late February, Tehran has accused the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of actively supporting US military operations by hosting its bases and allowing it to use their airspace.

Oman

The IRGC claimed a “heavy and surprise” attack on logistics support centres and refuelling platforms used by US aircraft carriers at the port of Duqm in Oman, according to IRIB.

The IRGC’s public relations office told IRIB the sites were “destroyed” in the attack.

Qatar

The IRGC said it also targeted Qatar’s Al Udeid airbase with ballistic missiles and claimed to have destroyed a fighter plane maintenance centre, as well as a command-and-control centre at the base.

Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire. Three people, including a child, were wounded as a result of falling shrapnel from the interception of Iranian attacks, Qatar’s Ministry of Interior said.

Kuwait

Iran’s army said it used explosive drones to target a Patriot air defence system, an ammunition depot and a radar site belonging to the US military in Kuwait.

Bahrain

In another wave of drone attacks, Tehran targeted a US communications system and radar site in Bahrain.

Jordan

The IRGC said it targeted US military facilities at Prince Hassan airbase in Jordan with several ballistic missiles, and claimed to have destroyed a command-and-control centre at the base, as well as hangars housing MQ-9 drones.

What’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz?

Iran has closed down the strait after firing a warning shot that struck a vessel travelling on an unapproved route, and said on Sunday it had disabled a second vessel.

The strait will remain closed until “the end of US interference in this region”, the IRGC said.

Iranian officials told state media the US military has been trying to create an “illegal route” through the Strait of Hormuz, causing insecurity in the area.

The narrow-yet-vital waterway — touted as the artery of global trade, hosting 20 percent of energy flow — has been at the centre of tensions between the US and Iran since the preliminary deal was signed.

Tehran has consistently insisted that only routes approved by Iran shall be taken up during transit through the strait. It says it is open to managing the strait only with Oman, the other coastal country.

The US and the GCC countries have rejected Iran’s claim on the strait and demanded that navigation be freed of interference or any sort of fees.

On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Oman, where the leaders discussed the shipping and management of the Strait of Hormuz, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

How have Gulf countries reacted?

Some countries had sirens blaring on Sunday afternoon, with governments asking residents to stay indoors.

Oman condemned Iran’s attacks and said it is taking “all necessary measures to deal with the developments to preserve the safety of the country and its residents”.

In Qatar, the Interior Ministry said the country’s security threat level is high and urged everyone to remain in safe places and avoid unnecessary movement.

The Kuwaiti army said its forces were responding to “hostile aerial targets” in the country’s airspace, adding that the sounds of explosions are the result of its defence systems intercepting the attacks.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said air raid sirens were activated, urging residents to remain calm.

The IRGC has promised a “crushing response” to any further US attacks on its territory. It follows a third round of US strikes on Iran in a week, which was met with retaliatory strikes from Iran on US military targets across the region.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi shares the latest details from Doha.