Al Jazeera

By Mariem Bah and Zsombor Peter

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran is continuing talks with Oman on shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, but warns reopening the waterway will depend on the US upholding the MoU signed in June.

    Israel continues to bombard southern Lebanon, killing at least 11 people in the worst attacks since a US-brokered ceasefire in June.

    The USS George Washington has arrived in the Arabian Sea and is expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln amid growing concerns over conditions on board the latter carrier.

    Qatar denies Iran’s claims that it is holding captive three Iranian pilots whose planes crashed in the Gulf state in the early days of the US and Israel’s war.

Iranian parliament to debate bills on foreign influence, oversight of Hormuz

    Iran’s parliament is set to convene virtually later today to review key security and legal proposals, according to the IRIB state broadcaster.

    It said lawmakers are scheduled to examine a bill to combat international crimes and a separate plan to counter foreign influence within the country. Members of the parliament’s National Security Committee will also study the details of a “Smart Management Plan” for the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global oil and gas shipments, it said.

    IRIB said today’s public session of the parliament will be held in a virtual format.

X users say US military published map showing Gaza, West Bank as part of Israel

    X users say the US Central Command published a map of the Middle East that showed Palestine’s Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank as part of Israel.

    The map accompanied a statement by CENTCOM on Commander Brad Cooper’s 10-day trip to the Middle East, and screenshots posted online showed Israel as including Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

    Social media users were quick to point it out, with one saying, “How dare you show the West Bank and Gaza as a part of Israel. This was done intentionally.”

    Russia’s Sputnik outlet also weighed in, saying CENTCOM “appears to have failed geography again, posting a map of the Middle East in which the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are shown as Israeli territory”.

    CENTCOM appears to have amended the map since. When Al Jazeera accessed the statement, the occupied West Bank was shown as separate from Israel, though Gaza was not marked as separate.

    Palestine is currently recognised as a sovereign state by 157 of the UN’s 193 member states.

Israel claims it killed senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

    The Israeli military says it has killed Abu Hassan Alaa, whom it described as a senior commander in Hezbollah’s “Badder Unit”, in southern Lebanon.

    In a post on X, the military accused Alaa of helping to advance attacks against Israeli soldiers, including the launch of explosive drones targeting troops in southern Lebanon.

    It said Alaa was killed in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s actions against Israeli soldiers in the “Security Zone”.

    Hours earlier, Israel had claimed to have killed Hezbollah commander Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan in a strike on the southern village of Ansar. At least seven people, including two women and three children, were killed in that strike.

US says Hezbollah bears responsibility for Israeli presence in Lebanon

    A spokesperson for the US State Department tells Al Jazeera that Hezbollah bears responsibility for the Israeli presence on Lebanese territory.

    The official described Hezbollah as the main obstacle to Lebanon’s economic recovery and said the “pilot zone” programme – under which Israeli forces withdraw from certain areas and Lebanese soldiers move in – remains the only viable path to peace.

    The statement came after Israeli forces killed 11 people in southern Lebanon in the deadliest attacks since the US-brokered framework agreement between the two countries in June.

Arab League condemns Israel’s latest strikes on Lebanon

    The Arab League has condemned Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon, calling the attacks that killed 11 on Saturday “a dangerous escalation that threatens to derail any efforts aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict”.

    Israel’s policies and practices, he added, “blatantly expose the occupation’s intentions to prolong the confrontations, obstruct negotiations, and impose a new reality on the ground that is completely unacceptable and rejected”.

    The spokesman also warned that the conflict could spread unless the international community, and Washington in particular, stops Israel’s “war machine” and compels it to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

    The resolution, adopted in 2006, calls for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, with the immediate end of all attacks by Hezbollah and of all offensive military operations by Israel.

    The governments of Lebanon and Iran had also condemned Saturday’s strikes earlier.

Israel’s policy in Lebanon ‘has been to collectively punish the Lebanese population’

    We have more from Ziad Abu Rish, the Middle Eastern studies professor at Bard College.

    He noted that Israeli forces have killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon since March 2 and wounded more than 12,000. Some 90,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, while some 600,000 people remain displaced.

    “People’s lives have been broken,” Abu Rish said. “And it is clear that the Israeli policy has been to collectively punish the Lebanese population, and in particular Shia majority parts of Lebanon and south Lebanon, as it wages a campaign not just against Hezbollah but against the Lebanese people.”

    The professor said Israel’s actions in Lebanon should be put in the context of what is happening in Gaza.

    “We saw that Israel was able to continue its genocide in Gaza with no consequences,” he said. “So people should really not be surprised to see that it is really able to carry out a campaign of effectively depopulating and making south Lebanon uninhabitable, as has been documented by numerous journalists and human rights organisations,” he added.

Fire extinguished in southern Syria after Israeli forces fire flares

    Civil defence teams have extinguished a fire that broke out near the town of al-Rafid in Syria’s Quneitra region following Israeli incursions into the area, according to local authorities.

    The Quneitra Media Directorate said in a post on Telegram that “the fire was caused by flares fired” by Israeli forces.

    “No injuries were reported,” it added.

    The Anadolu news agency meanwhile reported that Israeli forces had raided al-Rafid and searched several homes there. The raid is part of a string of Israeli incursions into southern Syria since 2024, when Israel moved troops into a UN-monitored buffer zone and seized Syrian territory there.

What’s the latest in the efforts to end the US-Israel war on Iran

    Iran has said for weeks now that it is nearing a final pact with Oman that will define new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. But it maintains that any resumption of shipping still depends on the US meeting its conditions under the MoU signed in June.

    Here’s where things stand:

    Iran’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Tehran and Oman “may reach an outcome soon” on a new route in the Strait of Hormuz. But Araghchi said those negotiations and the reopening of the waterway are “two separate issues”.

    He said: “Whether the strait will be reopened or not will depend on the fulfilment of other conditions” by the US, including ending sanctions and releasing Iranian assets.

    On Friday, Araghchi said “no decision” had been made yet on a return to talks with the US and Qatar and Pakistan were “exchanging messages” between the two nations.

    Trump, meanwhile, said that after “defeating Iran”, he would declare the Strait of Hormuz as US territory. Tehran responded by saying on X that the strait “has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian”.

    Separately, US officials said Washington can keep up its naval blockade of Iranian ports “indefinitely” and apply new economic measures to pressure Iran.

• This came after Trump signalled he would rather rely on squeezing Tehran’s economy than returning to a military offensive

US-brokered truce allows Israel to attack Lebanon ‘without any consequences’

    Ziad Abu Rish, an associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Bard College, says most observers believe Netanyahu wants to escalate strikes on Lebanon “to demonstrate an undeterred resolve” to occupy the country’s south and to “pummel” Hezbollah and Lebanese civilians.

    He told Al Jazeera that Saturday’s attack, which killed 11, “follows a pattern that has been in place since the so-called ceasefire”, in which Israel is “allowed by the US” to attack Hezbollah and civilians in Lebanon “without any consequences”.

    Abu Rish said the ceasefire has been “in name only” and held only between June 19 and 23, when Iran pushed for an end to Israeli attacks on Lebanon as part of its MoU with the US.

    He said the deal offered to Lebanon’s government in the separate US-brokered talks with Israel involved Israel limiting its strikes and occupation to the south and Bekaa Valley in exchange for sparing the capital, Beirut.

    As a result, “the population of southern Lebanon has continued to live under Israeli occupation, under Israeli strikes, and we should note that the majority of destruction of civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon has occurred in areas Israel has controlled during the ceasefire”, Abu Rish said. “That includes homes, hospitals, schools, forts and agricultural lands.”

Hamas delegation heads to Cairo for talks on Gaza ceasefire

    Hamas political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya is due to arrive in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for talks on the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, according to the Anadolu news agency.

    A Hamas source told Anadolu the “high-level leadership delegation” headed by al-Hayya will meet Egyptian General Intelligence Service chief Hassan Rashad to discuss issues tied to the Palestinian cause, chiefly efforts to solidify the ceasefire agreement.

    The delegation also includes Hamas Shura Council chief Mohammed Darwish, head of the movement abroad Khaled Meshaal, West Bank chief Zaher Jabarin, and Basem Naim, head of the Arab and Islamic Relations Office.

    The move comes after Netanyahu rejected a deal announced by Trump that called for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza as Hamas disarms and an International Stabilization Force takes over security in the Palestinian enclave.

    A Board of Peace official told Al Jazeera last week that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will be travelling to Jerusalem next week for talks with Netanyahu. Kushner will be accompanied by Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who sits on the Board of Peace, as well as Nikolay Mladenov, a former UN envoy who is now serving as the board’s high representative for Gaza.

    The officials said the trio will also travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian leaders following the talks in Jerusalem.

Araghchi says talks with Oman and reopening of Hormuz are ‘two separate issues’

    We can now bring you the Iranian foreign minister’s latest comments to Shahrara News on the status of the talks with Oman.

    Araghchi said:

    “Our negotiations with Oman are ongoing. That is a completely separate matter. It is a technical issue concerning the designation of maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz for the passage of ships.”

    “The routes that existed previously are no longer functional, so a new route needs to be defined. For now, we are designing a temporary route, which can then, at a later stage, be turned into a final route.”

    “We may reach an outcome soon, but I want to emphasise that these negotiations and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz are two separate issues. This is a technical negotiation concerning the designation of a maritime route.”

    “Once this route has been determined, whether the Strait will be reopened or not will depend on the fulfilment of other conditions to which the United States must adhere.”

Houthis launch sixth ballistic missile at government-held Marib

    The Marib governorate in central Yemen has accused the Houthis of launching a sixth ballistic missile attack on the city of Marib.

    It said in a post on X that the ongoing assault “threatens the lives of civilians, displaced persons’ camps, and residential neighbourhoods”.

    It published photos of a crater in the ground as well as the mangled remains of a vehicle.

    As we’ve been reporting, the escalation between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government has raised fears of a return to large-scale war in Yemen.

Israeli official says latest strikes on Lebanon should ‘jumpstart’ talks

    A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel wants new and more ambitious talks with Lebanon, after Israeli forces carried out their deadliest strikes on the country since a US-brokered truce in June.

    Doron Spielman told the AFP news agency that the strikes should “jumpstart” the talks, “not do the opposite”.

    Lebanese authorities say 11 people were killed in the strikes on Saturday, including several children.

    Israel said that it carried out the strikes after a Hezbollah attack that seriously wounded three of its soldiers, and claimed to be targeting a headquarters of the armed group. It acknowledged that family members of the targeted Hezbollah fighter were present at the time of the attack.

    Spielman said Israel was still upholding the US-brokered framework agreement with Lebanon.

    “We believe in the agreement. We very much hope that the Lebanese Armed Forces are going to be able to step into the foray, and together we’re going to remove Hezbollah from the picture,” he told AFP.

    The agreement calls for the Lebanese army to “restore effective sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory, pending the verified disarmament” of Hezbollah, after which Israeli forces would “progressively redeploy out of the Lebanese territory”.

    Hezbollah has rejected the deal, with the group’s chief Naim Qassem saying it “grants Israel everything it wants, and the Lebanese authorities relinquish their sovereignty, leaving nothing for Lebanon”.

Explosions in south Lebanon as Israeli forces continue air raids

    Footage, verified by Al Jazeera, shows flames and smoke rising from the area between Ali al-Taher Heights and the Dabsha area in the Nabatieh district amid the sound of explosions.

    Al Manar TV said the blasts were a result of Israeli air attacks in the area, while the Nabatieh Channel said the raids took place in the vicinity of the town of Kfar Reman.

    The attacks follow the deadliest day of Israeli raids in Lebanon since a US-brokered ceasefire, with at least 11 people killed. Earlier, the Israeli military said three Israeli soldiers were wounded in a drone attack by Hezbollah.

Flights resume at Iran’s Bandar Abbas airport

    Flights at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas have resumed after repeated interruptions during US attacks on the southern city.

    Kazem Tavassoli, director general of airports in Hormozgan province, told IRNA news agency that scheduled flights on high-traffic domestic routes resumed on Saturday, following “limited flights in recent days”. Passengers can now book tickets on the Tehran-Bandar Abbas, Mashhad-Bandar Abbas and Bandar Abbas-Isfahan routes, in both directions.

    Before the war, the airport handled 35 to 40 domestic and international flights a day, Tavassoli said. It has been repeatedly closed since the US launched its war on Iran.

Israeli forces, settlers continue attacks in occupied West Bank

    Israeli forces have arrested several Palestinians as settlers wounded several people amid continuing violence in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

    Here’s some of the incidents:

    Israeli forces raided al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, and fired tear gas after settlers attacked the Shaab al-Loz neighbourhood of the village.

    Israeli forces arrested five Palestinians across the northern West Bank, including a man, his wife, and daughter in Jenin, and raided homes in Bir al-Basha, Tulkarem, and villages near Ramallah and Bethlehem.

    Israeli settlers wounded five people, including a child, in an attack on Umm al-Khair village, south of Hebron, released livestock onto a family’s property, and vandalised crops.