Iran attacks Bahrain, Kuwait, after exchange of fire with US in Gulf

Iran did not take part in technical talks slated for Sunday due to recent attacks on the country and unfulfilled conditions of the MoU with the United States, a member of the Office of Preservation and Publication of the Works of Iran’s Supreme Leader told state TV on Sunday.

"For example one of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds, if there is no access then this condition has not been fulfilled," Mehdi Fazaeili said.

• Iran launched drone and missile strikes targeting US-linked military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain, according to regional reports.
• The strikes were described by Tehran as retaliation for earlier US airstrikes on Iranian military targets.
• US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had struck 10 Iranian military sites, including air defence and surveillance infrastructure.
• Bahrain and Kuwait reported activating air defences, with missiles and drones intercepted in several cases.
• No major confirmed casualties among US personnel have been reported so far, according to US officials.
• Some reports indicated civilian damage in Bahrain, while Kuwait said debris from intercepted missiles fell in residential areas.
• Tensions escalated further around the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil shipping route, amid disputes over navigation corridors.
• Iran warned against alternative maritime routes near Oman, saying they could “increase tensions” in the region.
• Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reportedly fluctuated as security risks rose during the exchange of fire.
• The latest violence has raised concerns over the fragility of the recent US–Iran ceasefire agreement brokered earlier this year.
• Both sides have accused each other of violating de-escalation understandings, with talks now under renewed strain.
• Gulf states including Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the attacks as violations of sovereignty and regional stability.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday he was expecting a team of US negotiators to come to Moscow, once Washington had reached an agreement with Iran over the Middle East conflict.

"We expect that after all the events are over, after the active phase on the Iranian track has passed, we will see the arrival of those representatives of the US administration with whom we have already met in Moscow repeatedly," Putin said in an interview published by the Kremlin.

"We are ready to continue negotiations and ready to continue negotiations and discuss all the details," he added.

Putin was responding to a question on the state of Russian-US relations after the G7 summit in France, when US President Donald Trump said Russia should "make a deal with Ukraine".

On Wednesday, Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was doing well in the war against Russia, having previously said he lacked the "cards" to win.

The Israeli military has destroyed underground infrastructure used by Lebanese group Hezbollah in a village in southern Lebanon, according to a joint statement by the Israeli prime minister and defense minister on Sunday.

The U.S. was informed ahead of the attack, which targeted a 200 meter (656 ft) long tunnel in the town of Majdal Zoun, according to the statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. 

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed at least four Palestinians, including a 13-year-old girl, local health officials said.

The first strike targeted a group of people in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, killing two and wounding another, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

Another Israeli strike in southern Gaza killed a man, according to health officials at Nasser hospital.

And the 13-year-old girl, Eileen al-Farra, was killed by shrapnel from Israeli tank shelling in southern Gaza, according to Nasser hospital.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes but said one of them targeted a “Hamas terrorist," without elaborating.

Palestinians on Sunday reported heavy tank shelling across Gaza and quadcopters — a type of unmanned aerial vehicle — buzzing overhead.

Israel renewed its attacks on Lebanon on Sunday, wounding at least two people, two days after the countries struck an agreement that a Hezbollah lawmaker warned would lead to "internal conflict".

The strikes come a day after one person was killed in an Israeli strike on the south, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah members near its self-proclaimed "security zone", which reaches 10 kilometres (six miles) into Lebanon.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes on Sunday.

In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said that two people were wounded "a stun grenade thrown by the Israeli enemy at the town of Burj Qalawayh" in southern Lebanon wounded two people.

The Israeli army said one of its soldiers "fell in combat" in southern Lebanon, and later said it killed a "Hezbollah terrorist" that clashed with its forces.

The Israeli military said a soldier was killed on Sunday in fighting in southern Lebanon, two days after Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement aimed at ending hostilities.

Captain David Hazutt, 21, a platoon commander "fell in combat" in southern Lebanon, the military said.

Hazutt was killed when soldiers encountered a "Hezbollah terrorist after entering a suspicious structure in the area of Deir Seryan in southern Lebanon," a military official said in a separate statement.

In the incident an additional Israeli soldier was lightly injured, the official said.

"Following the incident, the soldiers began searching for the terrorist and struck targets in the area," the official added.

Later on Sunday, in a separate statement, the military said "the terrorist was located in one of the structures near the point of the encounter and was eliminated by the soldiers."

On Sunday, the Lebanese state news agency reported a new Israeli attack targeting the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Taybeh in southern Lebanon.

Hazutt's death brings Israel's military losses to 38 soldiers and one civilian contractor since the war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in early March.

Tens of thousands of people in Gaza have suffered significant hearing damage due to Israeli bombing since October 2023, the UN said Saturday.

It also said that many people with disabilities have lost their assistive devices such as hearing aids and wheelchairs because of the war.

The UN published the report to mark the International Day of Deafblindness on 27 June.

UN agencies say the war has increased the vulnerability of people with disabilities amid widespread destruction, repeated displacement, a collapse in healthcare services and a severe shortage of medical devices.

Doctors have seen a "dramatic increase" in hearing-related injuries among children and adults since the start of the war, Ramadan Hussein, of the Gaza-based Aftaluna Society for Deaf Children, told The New Arab.

"We are seeing cases of ruptured eardrums, inner ear trauma, severe tinnitus, dizziness, and both partial and profound hearing loss," Hussein said.

"In many cases, the damage is permanent, particularly when patients cannot receive immediate medical treatment or rehabilitation."

The report highlights a lesser-reported impact of what is regarded to be one of the heaviest bombing campaigns of modern history.

Human rights monitor Euro-Med estimates that Israel dropped about 70,000 tons of munitions on Gaza in the first six months of the war, far exceeding the combined bombings of London, Hamburg and Dresden during World War II. Gaza authorities put the figure at 100,000 in May 2025.

Hearing damage caused by the powerful blast waves could mean life or death for a population under almost constant attack by Israeli forces.

A large, white scar stretches up Yousef Atwi’s left calf. His vision in his left eye is permanently damaged, the pupil clouded with a thin, milky film - injuries Atwi attributes to white phosphorus.

The 73-year-old sat at the edge of his bed, his voice low as he recounted the incident to The New Arab.

It was the summer of 2024, and like most summers before, Atwi was harvesting watermelons on his family's land in Khiam, a mountaintop village on Lebanon’s eastern border with Israel.

Then, without warning, a jet flew overhead, showering a white chemical over the rows of ripe watermelons. 

You can read more of this piece from Hanna Davis here:

Lebanon's health ministry has said that the number of people killed by Israel in it's war on the country has reached 4,247 people, with 12,195 also wounded.

There is heavy artillery and tank shelling west of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Italy's FM has condemned an Iranian attack on Bahrain and Kuwait, saying on a post on X that "it is essential to avoid any escalation that could jeopardise the understandings painstakingly reached."

The GCC has condemned Iran's attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait, with Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi saying that the strikes "undermine international and regional efforts aimed at establishing security and peace and resolving the crisis," according to Al Jazeera.

He was quoted as saying that the attacks "constitute a direct threat to the security, stability and safety of citizens and residents on the lands of Bahrain and Kuwait," and that they violate international law and the UN charter.

Although the United States and Iran reportedly made progress during their first round of talks in Switzerland, the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) remains fragile.

The remainder of the 60-day negotiating period is likely to be turbulent. Further military threats from US President Donald Trump and Israeli efforts to sabotage US-Iran diplomacy in Lebanon, the main regional flashpoint, could complicate the path forward.

What the “Islamabad MoU” ultimately produces remains uncertain. Yet many observers anticipate that the conflict and subsequent negotiations could accelerate the emergence of a new regional order in the Middle East.

While the war has reshaped perceptions of power, vulnerability, and deterrence, the fundamental drivers of Tehran’s foreign policy are unlikely to change. If anything, Iran may emerge from this period with greater confidence in the effectiveness of its deterrence capabilities.

You can read more of this article from Giorgio Cafiero here:

Gaza's Ministry of Health has said that in the last 24 hours, three Palestinians have been killed and another 43 have been injured by Israel over the last 24 hours.

Qatar's foreign ministry has condemned what it called "Iran's repeated attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait."

In a statement released on Sunday, Qatar said that it considers the attacks against the two "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the two countries and a flagrant breach of the rules of international law."

Statement | Qatar Strongly Condemns Iran's Repeated Attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait

Doha | June 28, 2026

The State of Qatar strongly condemns the repeated Iranian attacks on the fraternal Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Kuwait with a number of missiles and drones, considering… pic.twitter.com/TlLVEBr0Ns

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) June 28, 2026

Two Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on northern Gaza, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which said that a drone struck the al-Salatin area, west of Beit Lahia, on Sunday.

The Israeli military said a soldier was killed on Sunday in fighting in southern Lebanon, two days after Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement aimed at ending hostilities.

Captain David Hazutt, 21, a platoon commander "fell in combat" in southern Lebanon, the military said, adding that another soldier was injured in the incident.

On Sunday, the Lebanese state news agency reported a new Israeli attack targeting the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Taybeh in southern Lebanon.

Iran's foreign minister warned on Sunday that any challenge to the country's control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz would increase tensions despite ongoing peace negotiations to end the Middle East war.

"Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions, as we witnessed in the past two nights," Abbas Araghchi said at a news conference on a visit to Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Tehran's top diplomat called on all parties to "adhere to the memorandum of understanding and not to allow this MoU to deviate from its course" after both sides traded attacks in recent days.

Iraq's foreign minister said in a meeting on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart that it was important to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift the US naval blockade on Iran.

Iraq does not support expanding the scale of the war on the Gulf states, and does not back attacks on Iran, Fuad Hussein told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is visiting Baghdad.

CMA GGM's Galapagos container ship exited the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning, the shipping giant said.

The United States and Iran had signed an interim deal to end their four-month-old war, with the strait poised to reopen, but Washington and Tehran have since resumed attacks and have traded accusations that the other has violated the pact.

"This crossing marks an important milestone in a regional context that remains complex and requires constant vigilance," CMA CGM said in a statement.

Kuwait's foreign ministry denounced on Sunday a new Iranian attack on its territory, after Tehran said it had launched strikes against US bases in the Gulf in retaliation for American attacks.

The ministry said in a statement that it "expresses its condemnation and denunciation of... in the strongest terms, the recurrence of Iran's heinous aggression against the State of Kuwait, the latest of which was at dawn today, in a flagrant violation of its sovereignty".

Bahrain's air defences intercepted Iranian missiles and drones on Sunday, the Gulf kingdom's military said, after the US carried out new strikes against Iran.

The Bahraini military said it had "intercepted and destroyed a number of projectiles used in these treacherous Iranian attacks", adding that it was on "maximum alert".

Iran announced earlier that it had launched strikes against the US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain and another base in Kuwait, in retaliation for US strikes on its territory.

Iran said on Sunday it was determined to defend its sovereignty after the latest US strikes on the country, as a fragile truce in the region hung in the balance.

"Iran strongly condemns the airstrikes by the terrorist US army on several monitoring and surveillance facilities on the southern coast of the country in the early hours of Sunday," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it "stresses its determination to defend Iran's national sovereignty" against US attacks.

Iran and the United States have accused each other of violating their truce, straining negotiations meant to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Lebanese state news agency reported a new Israeli attack on southern Lebanon on Sunday, two days after the countries signed an agreement to pave the way to peace talks.

"An Israeli warplane carried out an airstrike targeting the outskirts of the towns of Deir Seryan and Taybeh in southern Lebanon," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.