Al Jazeera

By Alex Milan Durie and Rached El-Moctar

    The US has continued to hold off on its attacks against Iran, leading Tehran to halt its retaliatory strikes in the region after nearly two weeks of bombing.

    US President Donald Trump has dismissed reports that the military is running low on ammunition, telling domestic media that US stockpiles are vast and exceed what is needed.

    Tehran and Washington are exchanging messages through intermediaries, despite the US previously “betraying” negotiations, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says.

    Raids, arrests, and home demolitions have escalated across the occupied West Bank as Israeli troops and settlers intensify operations around key areas, including Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron, and Jerusalem.

18 Updates

More than 120 Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in two days

    Israeli forces have detained more than 120 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank over the past two days, the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy (Samidoun) reports.

    The arrests come as part of Israel’s sweeping campaign to exact revenge after an Israeli settler assault on a Palestinian family’s land resulted in four Palestinian and two Israeli deaths.

    Arrests were concentrated in Nablus, Tulkarem and Hebron, where troops raided homes, damaged property and beat detainees during field interrogations.

    Some raids were carried out alongside armed Israeli settlers under military protection.

    Samidoun describes the campaign as part of a policy of “collective punishment and retaliation against the Palestinian people”.

    It has called on the UN, the Red Cross and rights organisations to provide urgent protection for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel arrests dozens of Palestinians in West Bank amid settler attacks

Israel divides southern Lebanon with West Bank-style checkpoints and Gaza-like ‘Yellow Line’

    Israel has set up checkpoints in southern Lebanon, similar to those in the occupied West Bank. It has also created a “Yellow Line” restricted zone, much like the one established in Gaza.

    Through these checkpoints and military lines, Israel is actively dividing and partitioning southern Lebanon.

    Our colleagues at AJ+ have more:

    Lebanese families have found widespread destruction in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, with Israeli forces still positioned nearby.

    Watch the video below:

Why are Israeli settlers on a rampage in the occupied West Bank

    Israeli settlers, backed by the military, have been on a rampage in the occupied West Bank, torching at least two mosques and detaining dozens of Palestinians days after killing four of them.

    Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been on edge for the last two days after Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians in the town of Tal, near Nablus, during a settler incursion on their land.

    Two Israelis were also killed in the confrontation.

Pentagon removes fallen US troops from official Iran war count, AP reports

    The Associated Press reports that four American service members killed during the recent escalation in fighting between the US and Iran have been removed from Washington’s official war casualty tally and reclassified under a separate category.

    The Defense Casualty Analysis System, previously cited by military officials as the primary record for casualties in the conflict, omitted the four deceased troops alongside scores of injured personnel from its main count last week.

    Instead, the AP report said, records now appear under a newly designated header labelled “Overseas Operations”, which lists the names of the four dead soldiers along with 207 wounded personnel. It remains uncertain whether every listed injury stemmed directly from the war on Iran.

    Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said on Thursday that the reduction in published casualty numbers stemmed from “anomalies” and “temporary data disruptions” that were being addressed “imminently”.

    The shift in categories coincided with growing scrutiny over transparency, as military officials provided far fewer details on strategy and casualties following the resumption of clashes. The Defense Department had not hosted an official news conference on the war since early May, and US Central Command ceased issuing routine casualty reports to journalists, according to the AP report.

Senator Sanders says US ‘complicit in everything that is happening in Gaza’

    US Senator Bernie Sanders has condemned the continuing “suffering of the Palestinian people” despite a ceasefire, in a statement posted on X.

    “The shameful fact is that the United States is complicit in everything that is happening in Gaza”, Sanders wrote. “We have funneled tens of billions of dollars in military aid to an Israeli government that has consistently violated international law and whose leader is a war criminal.”

    Sanders highlighted that Israeli military actions in Gaza have continued despite a ceasefire being in place, pointing out that “Israel now controls an estimated 70% of Gaza, well beyond what they agreed to, and has built dozens of military outposts inside Gaza since the ‘ceasefire’ began”.

    The Vermont senator said that “the good news is that the American people are catching on. More and more Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are demanding that we stop all military aid to Israel and use our considerable leverage to end the suffering of the Palestinian people”.

    “Congress must listen to the American people,” Sanders added. “NO MORE US MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL”.

Iran insists on ‘service fee’ in Omani-led talks on Strait of Hormuz

By Resul Serdar Atas

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    There has been progress in the diplomatic engagement between Iran and the United States. The Omani delegation was in Tehran, where they exchanged ideas on how to create a mechanism for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.

    But we haven’t seen a radical change in Iran’s position regarding the Strait of Hormuz. Still, Iran opposes alternative corridors through the strait.

    According to some reports, the Omanis have suggested a regional consortium to manage this mechanism without collecting tolls.

    However, reports indicate that the Iranians are still insisting on a “service fee” and want the mechanism to be managed by Iran.

‘All for Israel’: US lawmaker says Iran war has weakened country

    US Congressman Thomas Massie has accused the Trump administration of severely damaging the nation’s stability and resources in its war on Iran.

    “The US has been significantly weakened by the war with Iran,” he wrote on X.

    “This administration depleted our missile defenses, drained our oil reserves, sacrificed our men & women, inflated the price of consumer goods, increased our debt, and neglected our domestic needs… all for Israel,” he added.

Israeli forces raid Tal, arrest father of killed Palestinians

    Israeli forces have raided the village of Tal and arrested the father of two men killed in a shooting incident involving Israeli settlers, an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground reports.

    On Friday, Israeli forces shot dead Ibrahim and Jawad Ramadan, along with two of their cousins, when a settler incursion on their land in the village of Tal turned deadly. Two Israelis were also killed during the confrontation.

    The Israeli government has since instructed the military to conduct sweeping operations across the West Bank, raiding dozens of towns and arresting dozens of Palestinians.

Red Sea shipping falls after Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia

    Ship traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait has slowed following Houthi attacks on Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and their announcement of a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports, citing shipping data from analytics platform Kpler.

    Eleven commodity vessels passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Sunday—the lowest level in months—according to the data. Seven of those vessels were oil tankers, with three entering the Red Sea and four exiting on Sunday.

    Meanwhile, Kpler data also shows that fewer than 10 vessels per day passed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, despite the US and Iran pausing their attacks.

    On Saturday, only three vessels passed through with their transponders switched off, while seven vessels transited on Sunday, including three Iranian-linked oil products tankers exiting the strait, according to the Reuters report.

Palestinian President Abbas urges international action to stop Israeli settler attacks

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on world leaders to act urgently to stop the increasing attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian presidency said in a statement.

    Abbas sent letters to several leaders from Arab and European countries, as well as the EU, the secretary-general of the League of Arab States, the president of the UN Security Council, and the State of Palestine’s Mission to the United Nations.

    In his letters, according to the statement, Abbas said the occupied Palestinian territory is witnessing a “dangerous escalation” and that “the situation has gone beyond isolated incidents of violence”. He described it as “a systematic Israeli policy aimed at creating new realities on the ground through settlement expansion, escalating colonist violence, and undermining and weakening the Palestinian National Authority”.

    Abbas also affirmed his continuing belief in a “comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution” and called on international actors to “implement relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, which affirms the illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, and to provide international protection for the Palestinian people”.

UK prime minister backs Saudi security following Houthi Red Sea attacks

    The UK’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, condemned recent Houthi attacks and their threat to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea during a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Press Agency reports.

    The two leaders also discussed recent regional and international developments, with Burnham affirming the UK’s support for Saudi Arabia’s security and sovereignty.

Tanker explodes in Hormuz as Iran demands ‘full coordination’

By Resul Serdar Atas

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

    Iranian officials are confirming that an oil tanker attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz exploded after hitting naval mines.

    They said that the reason the explosion occurred was that this ship was not following the designated lanes by Iranian authorities.

    Iranian authorities are warning that any ship that attempts to pass through the strait needs to be in full coordination; otherwise, Iran cannot guarantee the safety of that ship.

    This is coming after two days of calm. In the last two days, we have seen no attacks on Iran, and no response from Iran.

‘A chance for diplomacy’: US and Iran suspend strikes for second day

By Rosiland Jordan

Reporting from Washington DC

    The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, confirmed on Sunday what had been widely reported: that after 13 straight nights of US strikes on Iranian military targets, the Trump administration has decided to take a pause of indeterminate time in order to allow diplomacy to take effect.

    This is because, even though the US says that Iran broke the terms of the memorandum of understanding by striking at least two or three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz just three weeks ago, there has been concern from interlocutors, like Pakistan and Qatar and other countries in the Middle East, that there could be the risk of a wider regional war if diplomacy is not reinstated.

    These countries have been working to get the US and Iran to back away, speak about their problems, and restore the ceasefire that was the centrepiece of the memorandum of understanding signed in the middle of June.

    These interlocutors have been working towards this, and this has now been confirmed by the US president, Donald Trump, as well as by Iranian officials, but it’s not clear yet if these conversations will lead to a resumption of the memorandum of understanding.

    Residents hope the ISF can help rebuild Gaza and allow them to return home after months of bombardment and displacement.

A recap of recent developments

    The US president has rejected reports of dwindling military stockpiles in the ongoing war on Iran, telling The Wall Street Journal that the nation’s supply of munitions far exceeds its current needs.

    Hopes for diplomacy have emerged as both the US and Iran suspended military attacks for a second day, breaking a two-week cycle of escalating strikes.

    Global oil prices dropped by more than 5 percent after the US suspended its two-week bombing campaign against Iran, signalling a potential shift towards diplomacy.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that a strike on an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea “cannot go unanswered,” accusing Ukraine of the attack that killed a crew member.

    Violence mounted across the West Bank today, during a broad Israeli military push, with settlers storming villages, spray-painting property, and attacking Palestinian residents.

    The Lebanese military has accused Israeli forces of violating agreements by demolishing homes and launching strikes in southern Lebanon.

Welcome

    Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

    Stay with us for the latest news and analysis from across the Middle East and beyond.