Trump vows to 'keep' Hormuz as mediators push for Iran talks

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Germany's former ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, levelled unusually sharp criticism at the Israeli government and what he labelled its "disastrous" settlement policy in the occupied West Bank in a media interview released Wednesday.

Israel's policy in the Palestinian territory amounts to "displacement through psychological and physical violence", he was quoted as saying by news weekly Die Zeit.

Modern Germany, at pains to atone for the horrors of the Nazi era and the Holocaust, has long been a steadfast supporter of Israel.

Seibert, the former spokesman of then chancellor Angela Merkel, qualified her stance that "Israel's security is part of Germany's reason of state", noting that this commitment applied to Israel within its internationally recognised borders.

"But that does not apply to the settlers in the Jordan Valley," he told Zeit.

"Under international law, these are illegal settlements driven by the ideology that this land belongs solely to us - that God gave it to us.

"The concept of 'reason of state' does not extend to that; it does not support a sense of superiority over another population."

Israeli forces on Wednesday detained a Palestinian journalist who worked for news outlets including AFP, his family and witnesses said, in the latest arrest of a reporter in the West Bank.

Mohammed Awad, 38, who has shot videos for AFP in the occupied Palestinian territory, was taken away from his home near Ramallah at 6:00 am, his wife Iman Shalash said.

Israeli soldiers "blindfolded him, handcuffed him and took him" to a military vehicle, said Shalash.

The Israeli military, contacted by AFP multiple times on the reasons for Awad's detention, did not immediately comment. Awad was not reachable.

US airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians, according to a Pentagon review of the attacks, which comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties during military campaigns under the Trump administration.

The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News. A Pentagon official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the US campaign against the Houthis, which were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.

Those strikes targeted hostile forces in or near Yemen's rebel-held capital city of Sanaa as well as the Ras Isa port, the report said. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday accused the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking to "remove Palestine" from the world's agenda.

"The aim of the Netanyahu government is to remove Palestine from the common agenda of humanity by profiting from chaos and new conflicts in the region," Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas.

"No matter what they do, they will not succeed. The Palestinian cause will continue to grow in people's hearts as they try to destroy it," he said, vowing Turkey would fight for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

A strong advocate of the Palestinian cause, Erdogan has repeatedly lambasted Netanyahu's government, accusing the Israeli prime minister of committing genocide in Gaza and of pursuing expansionist policies in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and beyond.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday condemned Israel's "systematic destruction" in the country's south as a violation of international law, as Israel's defence minister said its military was "destroying all the houses" there.

Salam said Israeli "attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes", infrastructure, government buildings and places of worship "represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law".

Claiming that villages and towns "are entirely 'military facilities' does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning," he said in a statement.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon on Wednesday, vowing to keep troops in a so-called "security zone" there and saying the Israeli military was "destroying the underground infrastructure" in the area and "destroying all the houses".

An oil spill from a tanker that ran aground off Oman's coast has reached the mainland, state media reported, while monsoon winds were obstructing containment efforts, the United Nations' maritime agency said on Wednesday.

An AFP investigation previously found that the ship had been stranded for weeks near Oman's Al-Qibliyyah island after it was damaged by explosions.

The Oman News Agency (ONA) quoted the country's environment authority as saying that "today's monitoring results showed that some beaches in the Ras Madrakah area were affected by oil pollution".

The Indian Ocean town sits more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Al-Qibliyya.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the UN's International Maritime Organization said it was "closely monitoring the oil leakage from the crude oil tanker CAROLINE BEZENGI, which grounded off the coast of Oman on 30 June 2026 and is currently around 22 nautical miles offshore of Sharbithat, Oman".

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz visited southern Lebanon on Wednesday, vowing to destroy infrastructure and keep troops in a so-called "security zone" as well as in Syria and Gaza.

The comments came almost two months after Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-sponsored framework deal that involves the disarmament of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones".

The United States plans new talks in early September in Rome between Israel and Lebanon.

Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have repeatedly vowed not to withdraw from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon -- a strip of territory where Israeli forces operate that reaches around 10 kilometres (six miles) into Lebanon.

"As the prime minister and I have clearly stated, we are not withdrawing from this security zone," Katz said during a visit to troops, according to a statement from his office.

Israel on Wednesday carried out its first air strike in more than a week in Gaza, both sides said, breaking a lull as the United States pressed a peace plan.

"We carried out a strike to remove a threat," an Israeli military spokesperson told AFP, while the Gaza civil defence agency said that one person was killed and several injured and taken to a Gaza City hospital.

Welcome to our new live page, where we're continuing to track developments in the Middle East.

Visit our previous live page to catch up on developments earlier today.

• Mediators are pushing Iran and the US to resume negotiations ahead of the expiry of the 60-day memorandum of understanding on 17 August.
   
• Both countries are continuing to claim control over the Strait of Hormuz. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said US forces will "keep" control over the strategic waterway, while Iran reiterated it will remain closed until the US ends the blockade, releases frozen Iranian assets and upholds a regional ceasefire.
   
• Yemen’s Houthis targeted a Saudi ship carrying military equipment in the Bab al-Mandeb strait and has hit several sites across Yemen.
   
• Israel is continuing to launch attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, south Lebanon, and southern Syria.