Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill seven amid US-Iran escalation

The toll from days of fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen climbed past 300 on Sunday, as hundreds of families fled their homes to escape the violence.

Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces told AFP that 84 of their troops were killed between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, mostly in missile attacks. Four Houthi military sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period.

The two sides have been fighting for days over control of a gateway to the Red Sea, in the deadliest flare-up in the Arabian Peninsula's southernmost country since a 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July.

Iran will raise the price of gasoline for users surpassing 110 litres per month starting on Tuesday, a government spokesperson said on Sunday, as it steps up efforts to tackle problems created by the war and crippling U.S. economic sanctions.

The price of the first and second quotas, which include 110 litres, will remain unchanged, but the price of the third quota will be raised to 100,000 Iranian rials per litre (around 4 U.S. cents based on the free-market rate), Fatemeh Mohajerani said in comments carried by state media.

The increase in Iran's gasoline price, which is one of the lowest in the world, was discussed by the government and postponed amid concerns it could trigger new protests. Iran experienced widespread protests in 2019 over the same issue.

Iran's top negotiator on Sunday threatened a more forceful response to any further US attacks after Tehran targeted American warships in their latest round of clashes.

The exchanges of fire, which began with US raids last week, come amid a deadlock in the six-month war between the two foes.

Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz while Washington continues a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

Washington is also seeking to choke Iran's economy, rolling out sanctions on entities with financial links to the Islamic Republic in a bid to force it into submission.

"The Americans must have understood that the era of proportionate responses has come to an end," said Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has acted as chief negotiator in talks to end the war.

"Any aggression against Iran's interests and security will receive a faster, more intense and more painful response," he added, in a speech carried by state media.

A restricted zone will be announced outside the Strait of Hormuz in coming days, Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday according to state media.

He added that the zone would include areas in the Gulf.

Iran's top security chief Mohsen Rezaei on Sunday said his country would establish a "prohibited zone" near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

"In the coming days, a prohibited zone will be announced outside the Strait of Hormuz. This zone will start from the US Navy's blockade line and include areas of the Persian Gulf. Any ship entering this new zone will be placed on the sanctions list" of Iran, Rezaei told the state TV.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks, which killed at least seven people on Sunday despite a truce and a framework deal aimed at halting the violence.

Aoun said Sunday's strikes, which damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were "a dangerous escalation...reaching Lebanese state institutions" and health facilities.

He called on the international community, particularly the United States, which has sponsored direct Israel-Lebanon talks and a framework agreement between the sides in June, "to urgently act to stop these violations".

An Israeli strike killed a man and his teenage daughter in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said.

Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Al Shifa Hospital, the enclave's largest medical facility, said the airstrike hit a vehicle in western Gaza City, killing Youssef Akila and his daughter, Wafaa, and wounding six others.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.

Greece will press ahead with its strategic defense cooperation with Israel but also wants to deepen relations with other states in the Middle East, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Sunday.

Greece-Israeli ties and defense, security and energy cooperation have become increasingly close over the past decade and Mitsotakis enjoys a friendly rapport with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. Shared concerns about Turkey have helped boost ties. The two countries signed a 3-billion-euro ($3.5 billion) deal on 31 August for Israel to build an air defense shield in Greece.

Mitsotakis told reporters in Thessaloniki that Greece is only one of five NATO countries spending at least 3.5% of its GDP on core defense.

Greece's traditionally high spending has been fueled by almost constant tensions with Turkey, and its questioning of Greek sovereignty over parts of the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece recognizes only the demarcation of the two countries' respective maritime zones as an issue to be negotiated or sent to international arbitration.

Mitsotakis also said he planned to visit Saudi Arabia soon, and that the recently concluded Mecca Joint Defense Agreement among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey changes nothing in Greece;s relations with Riyadh.

Greece has maintained an air defense battery in Saudi Arabia since 2021, and has used its Patriot missiles four times since July to down drones and ballistic missiles, allegedly from Yemen, aimed at the kingdom's oil refineries.

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed three people on Sunday, the Lebanese health ministry said, bringing the day's death toll to seven despite a fragile ceasefire between the two countries.

The drone strike hit a parking lot in a town near Nabatieh, the ministry said in a statement. State media earlier reported a lower death toll of two people killed in a strike on a car.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered unauthorised settler outposts in the West Bank to be dismantled, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, amid pressure from the US to crack down on settler attacks on Palestinians.

The order applies to outposts established by settlers without official authorisation from the Israeli state, the sources said. Outposts typically consist of prefabricated caravans and house a small number of settlers. The state has from time to time demolished such structures and also formally recognised others, allowing them to access government funding.

It was not immediately clear when the operation would begin.

UN bodies and most governments deem all Israeli settlements illegal under international law and consider the West Bank to be occupied territory under military control. Israel argues the territory is disputed, not occupied.

Iranian claims to have struck an unmanned US vessel are a "total lie," according to a spokesperson for US Central Command.

"The report came from Iranian state media, and it's a total lie," Tim Hawkins said, according to Al Jazeera.

The denial comes after Iranian said it struck the vessel in retaliation for US strikes on IRGC linked oil tankers.

Fighting between Yemeni government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen killed more than 140 combatants between midday Saturday and early Sunday morning, military sources said.

Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces told AFP that 84 of their troops were killed, mostly in missile attacks, while four Houthi military sources said 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period.

Israeli strikes on the Shati Refugee Camp west of Gaza City has wounded several Palestinians, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The agency said that several people were taken to hospital, including some in critical condition, after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of people.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that it is continuing to enforce a maritime blockade of Iran, announcing in a post on X that it has redirected 92 vessels, disabled three and boarded two.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighter jet patrols over regional waters as CENTCOM forces continue to enforce the maritime blockade against Iran. As of Sept. 6, U.S. forces have redirected 92 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure strict compliance. pic.twitter.com/oXNN5zKx1t

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 6, 2026

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Washington and the international community to help stop Israeli attacks after strikes on Sunday killed at least four people despite a truce and an Israel-Lebanon deal.

The strikes, which also damaged government premises and destroyed an out-of-service hospital, were "a dangerous escalation... reaching Lebanese state institutions" and health facilities, Aoun said in a statement, calling on the US and other countries "to urgently act to stop these violations".

Eight Islamic and Arab countries on Sunday condemned Israeli plans for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip saying the designs, voiced by ministers, jeopardise a US-backed peace in the territory.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday the government had plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza but was waiting for US approval on where to displace the territory's population.

A day later, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said the plan aimed to remove 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the roughly two million residents over the following six years.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey said they condemned in "the strongest terms" the "plans and mechanisms they proposed aimed at forcibly expelling Palestinians from their land".

"Such measures directly challenge international efforts to achieve peace, particularly President Donald Trump's comprehensive plan to end the conflict in Gaza, which includes a firm rejection of forced displacement," they added referring to a US-backed, October 2025 peace plan for Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes have damaged a building of Lebanon's Finance Ministry in the city of Nabatiyeh, according to Al Jazeera, citing the ministry, which said on Facebook that it had taken "the necessary measures" to protect files, documents, and ensure "the continuity of work."

The US should understand that the rules of the game in war against Iran have changed "before it is too late", Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday, a day after the US struck several Iranian tankers in the Gulf.

"From now on, any attack against Iran’s interests and security will receive a faster, heavier and more painful response,” he said in a speech published on his Telegram channel.

Iranian authorities have arrested a number of people accused of appearing in a rare video waving the flag of an outlawed opposition group, state television said Sunday.

Videos circulating online in recent days showed individuals riding motorbikes on empty streets in Iran while waving the white-and-red banner of the banned People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK).

On Sunday, state television said authorities had identified and arrested "all the individuals who appeared in this clip" and that they were "associated" with MEK, without specifying how many.

It said the motorcade had been travelling near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, but it was not clear when the footage was recorded.

OPEC+ is set to keep ​its oil output policy unchanged for October at a meeting on Sunday, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters, as the producer group needs to agree new quotas before deciding its next output steps.

The meeting comes as the Iran war continues to ​disrupt oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, limiting OPEC+'s influence over prices and market ​share. Unlike in the past, the group's supply decisions have had a limited impact on the market.

In August, OPEC+ agreed its production boost for September, completing a phased rollback of a 1.65 million-barrel-per-day supply cut first agreed in 2023. Despite the agreed production increases, the group made up of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, including Russia, still produces far below its targets because of the war.

OPEC+ still has another layer of production cuts in place, covering most members of the ​21-country group until the ​end of 2026. Before the group decides how to unwind the cuts and return production to the market, it needs to review members' oil production capacity to set 2027 output baselines, which form the basis for quotas.

This debate will likely happen later in 2026 and hence OPEC+ is likely to pause its output increases for the fourth quarter, sources earlier told Reuters.

Iran has announced the launch of an economic war task force set to resolve monetary issues in the country, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency.

According to Deputy Economic Minister Morteza Zamanian, the ministry will identify problems facing business, trade, financing, and other economic areas and solve them.

Iran is facing a hard currency shortage following decades of extensive US sanctions, which have only been tightened since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on Sunday killed four people in the south, while Israel said it carried out raids after Hezbollah launched drones at its soldiers.

The ministry reported two people killed in south Lebanon's Nabatieh al-Fawqa and two women killed in Arab Salim nearby. Twenty people were also wounded in several locations, including women and three children.