As Hamas disarms in Gaza, Iran and US strikes continue in the Gulf

Israel’s military said its forces have detained over 200 people and confiscated tens of thousands of Shekels in the occupied West Bank over the past week.

It claimed, with no evidence, those apprehended were wanted on suspicion of crimes including “inciting terrorism,” smuggling and weapons dealing, and accused others of unspecified links with Hamas.

Israel's far-right national security minister on Friday slammed as "unacceptable" a deal agreed by Hamas that includes the group handing over its weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on Telegram, saying: "The assassinations in Gaza must continue, the encouragement of immigration must happen, Israel must win."

Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body established by Iranian authorities to manage passage through the Strait of Hormuz, said that "due to the ongoing operations of American forces in the area, movement through the Strait of Hormuz is not possible."

Only moments after the announcement of Hamas accepting the second phase of the deal, an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza has killed at least one Palestinian, according to medics on the ground.

The New Arab has learned that Britain has not yet responded to Saudi Arabia's request to participate in a new international coalition it is proposing to protect maritime security in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

A British government source said London "is reviewing the proposals" suggested by the Saudi government statement regarding a "multinational maritime defensive coalition".

The Saudi Defence Ministry announced that 14 countries, including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Djibouti, support the formation of the maritime coalition for the Red Sea region.

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In a post on X, The Gaza Board of Peace said Israel "shall fully complete, without delay" all commitments it made as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal last year, "particularly the cessation of military operations".

It also said "Hamas and the Palestinian factions shall complete the cessation of all military operations in accordance with Sharm Sheikh Protocol and the Peace Plan."

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments documented the violation and attack on 13 mosques in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli army and settlers since the beginning of 2026.

It also recorded settler attacks on 45 mosques in the occupied West Bank during 2025, under the protection of the Israeli army.

The Ministry strongly condemned these  "heinous crimes," asserting that targeting and burning mosques are part of a systematic and planned campaign targeting the Palestinian presence and religious rights, under the protection and with the tacit approval of the Israeli army.

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One Palestinian was shot and wounded during an Israeli settler attack through several West Bank Palestinian towns Friday.

"Our crews in Nablus are treating a young man who was shot with live ammunition in the abdomen during an Israeli army and settler raid on the al-Junaid area," the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Israeli settlers stormed the area Friday morning in the northern West Bank to mark clashes in the Palestinian town of Tell, near Nablus, during which four Palestinians were also killed, last week.

ExxonMobil's second-quarter profits more than doubled to $14.5 billion on surging oil prices and refining margins due to the US-Israeli war on Iran, the company reported on Friday.

With revenues of $116 billion, up 42 percent, ExxonMobil pointed to higher oil prices as a factor but described the level as "within historical ranges," citing the effects of reduced refining capacity and crude inventory releases as offsets that kept crude prices from rising more.

But refining margins, the profit from gasoline and other products minus crude oil costs, "reached record levels in the quarter," ExxonMobil said in prepared remarks that cited a nearly nine percent drop in global capacity because of war-related dislocations.

"The market environment was clearly supportive. But market conditions alone do not explain results," said the company, which also touted "reliable operations, optimization in advantaged assets and high-value products across our businesses."

Kuwaiti forces destroyed Iranian drones targeting "vital and military facilities", the defence ministry said on Friday.

"The hostile targets were engaged and destroyed. This resulted in material damage due to falling shrapnel, without any human casualties being recorded," it said in a statement.

President Donald Trump convenes a Cabinet meeting on Friday at his Camp David retreat as he grapples with how to resolve his war against Iran and bring down gasoline prices that are threatening Republicans in November midterm elections.

This will be Trump's third trip to Camp David in his second term.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing last week that this would be the 13th Cabinet meeting of Trump's second term and that it would be "a lot of fun and something different for the cabinet to experience together."

The agenda for the meeting will likely focus heavily on foreign policy. Trump is engaged in tit-for-tat strikes against Iranian targets with no end in sight to a conflict that the president initially projected would last just a few weeks but is now five months old.

After the meeting, Trump is scheduled to go to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club for the weekend.

According to the British Telegraph, the US and Israel are discussing the possibility of imposing a land blockade on Iran.

According to the report, this is one of several options mulled by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase economic pressure on Iran "through kinetic and non-kinetic means," during their recent meeting at the White House.

At least 11 Palestinians have been injured during attacks by Israeli army forces and fanatical settlers in Nablus and several surrounding villages as Israel's pogroms in the occupied West Bank continues. 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday that they had struck two tankers attempting to pass though the strategic Strait of Hormuz under the "air escort" of the US military.

The IRGC said the "non-compliant oil tankers... were struck and brought to a halt, while four other oil tankers quickly changed course and returned to their previous positions".

The Guards said the tankers had attempted to pass the strait via "an undeclared route", the US-backed alternative to Tehran's designated waterway closer to its own shores.

Iran has effectively maintained control over navigation through Hormuz since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on 28 February, requiring vessels to obtain permission and pay transit fees before using the waterway.

On Thursday, the Guards said two oil tankers attempting to transit the Strait had turned back after one caught fire.

Several Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza hours after US President Donald Trump announced a deal on Hamas disarmament, according to health officials in Gaza.

The two very large crude carriers (VLCC) carrying oil loaded from the Gulf exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, with traffic through the waterway remaining thin, according to Kpler ship-tracking data.

The Spain B vessel is carrying crude oil loaded from the Saudi Arabian port of Ras Tanura on 12 July, and is currently anchored off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile Noble, which loaded Iraqi Basrah crude on 25 July, is heading to China.

Both VLCCs are carrying about 2 million barrels of crude each. They were among four commodities vessels that have transited the strait so far on Friday. All four exited the waterway.

By comparison, three commodities vessels passed through the strait on Thursday, the data showed.

Separately, PetroChina has provisionally chartered the VLCC Jamaica Prosperity to ship from the Gulf region to China, with loading to take place around 3 August at Iraq's Basra port, according to shipping fixtures and trade sources.

The oil major did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel must approve the phased disarmament agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace before Hamas will implement it, Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official involved in the negotiations, told Reuters.

Once both sides approve the agreement text, Israel must begin implementing the agreement's first phase, Hamad said. 

A London man has been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of spying on a UK air force base on the Mediterranean island on behalf of Iran, British police say.

London's Metropolitan Police force says 44-year-old Rashad Sultanov, a UK-Azerbaijani national, is alleged to have conducted "hostile surveillance" of RAF Akrotiri and shared information with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

He was arrested on 17 July, and British police are seeking his extradition.

Police say Sultanov lives in London, and British media said he works as a taxi driver.

Akrotiri is the UK's main air base for operations in the Middle East and in recent years has been used by British warplanes on missions against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq and to strike Houthi targets in Yemen. It was struck by an Iranian-made drone in March, early in the US-Israel war with Iran.

British prosecutors have authorized charges under the National Security Act. The arrest followed an investigation led by counterterror detectives into incidents at RAF Akrotiri in May and June 2025.

"This case shows we are able to use the National Security Act overseas when British military bases are allegedly targeted by hostile state activity," says Commander Helen Flanagan of London’s counterterror policing unit.

Data from Kpler, a company specialising in maritime shipping, showed that 25 cargo ships loaded with primary goods crossed the Bab al-Mandeb Strait yesterday, Thursday, while shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained at low levels, as only two tankers crossed it.

According to the data, 18 ships entered the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, while seven ships exited it, and the transit movement included a number of oil tankers.

On the other hand, only two empty tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz and entered the waterway.

The company noted that some ships may continue sailing after turning off their transmitters and receivers, which means that they are not counted among the statistics.

Israeli forces carried out a series of detonations overnight near the UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle in southern Lebanon, Lebanese state media reported Friday, with Israel saying it had destroyed tunnels used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

"Israeli forces triggered very powerful explosions around midnight," specifically "in the area of the Beaufort fortress," the official National News Agency (NNA) said.

The Crusader-era castle, located in the southern area occupied by Israel, was added last week to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

In a joint statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed that the army had destroyed "terror tunnels in the Beaufort area" using approximately 700 tons of explosives.

Iranian state media said on Friday that the bodies of five members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed in joint US-Saudi strikes in Iraq this week had been returned.

"The bodies of five IRGC members killed in the recent US-Saudi attacks on Iraq were brought into the country through the Mehran border crossing," in western Ilam province, the IRNA state news agency reported.

The United States and Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday they had struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq in response to recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom.

The strikes targeted positions belonging to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi armed coalition that includes several powerful pro-Iran groups, killing at least 20 militants, including the five Iranians.

President Trump's campaign against the ICC exposes US double standards on international law, sovereignty and accountability, warns Khalil E. Jahshan.

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Hamas said Friday it agreed to a deal to end the war with Israel that included provisions addressing its weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

The group's disarmament has been one of the key sticking points in the advancement of a ceasefire deal that has been in place in Gaza since October.

US President Donald Trump announced late Thursday an agreement for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza.

Hamas officials told AFP a committee established by Trump's Board of Peace to govern Gaza would oversee the process of storing the Islamist movement's weapons.

The group said it expected mediators and the Board of Peace to ensure Israel complied with the deal's terms, which included Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

Ghazi Hamad, a member of the group's negotiating team, said the movement was making "concessions for the sake of our people in the Gaza Strip, to save them from killing and displacement".

"Israel will not intervene in the issue of disarmament. The National Committee is the body that will undertake this task," he said, referring to the National Committee for Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

Iran's military said on Friday it launched drone strikes targeting US military facilities in Kuwait, as fighting resumed between Washington and Tehran in the war after a nearly week-long lull.

The army said in a statement it targeted "fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base in Kuwait".

There was no immediate comment from the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

The Iranian army said the strikes came "in response to the recent aggression by the terrorist US military against our country and its brutal attack on a residential home on Qeshm Island".

Local media reported on Thursday that three members of a family were killed in US strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz waterway crucial for oil and gas trade.