US-Iran strikes escalate as Iranian attack hits Kuwait energy site

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Israeli strikes in Gaza City on Saturday killed at least nine Palestinians, including three children, hospital officials said.

A strike on an apartment in the Nasr neighborhood killed at least five people, including the children between the ages of 8 and 18, said Mohammed Abu Selmiya, director of Shifa Hospital where the bodies were taken. Six other people were wounded, including four children between the ages of 8 and 16, he said.

Another Israeli strike hit a group of people in the Zeitoun neighborhood, killing four and wounding another critically, health officials said.

• US-Iran fighting escalates: Both sides exchanged fresh strikes as the conflict entered another day, with tensions spreading across the Gulf.
• Gulf disruption: Kuwait Airways rescheduled flights after air traffic was temporarily suspended following attacks, while Iran said it targeted US-linked facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.
• Regional strikes: Jordan said it intercepted 10 Iranian missiles, while Bahrain reported air defence activity and air raid sirens amid heightened tensions.
• Lebanon developments: President Joseph Aoun travelled to Washington for talks with Donald Trump, while an explosion in southern Lebanon was attributed to an interceptor missile.
• Iran suspends MoU: Tehran said it had halted its commitments under the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, accusing Washington of violations.

The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned recent Iranian attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan on Saturday, saying strikes on civilian infrastructure amounted to "war crimes".

"Iran's actions constitute a highly dangerous escalation, a grave violation of international law and the United Nations (UN) Charter, as well as war crimes requiring international accountability and prosecution, given the deliberate targeting of infrastructure and civilian facilities," Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said, in a statement.

Iran’s Fars news agency has quoted an informed official from the country’s armed forces as warning that Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, along with the ports of Fujairah and Jebel Ali, should be evacuated if the United States targets Iranian civilian infrastructure overnight.

The official said the move would be necessary to protect civilians from what he described as an expected Iranian response.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the situation in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call on Saturday with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the RIA state news agency reported.

The pair discussed the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the region, RIA said.

The sound of church bells ringing in the village of Al-Quniyah, west of Idlib, marked a significant moment for a community displaced for more than a decade by the Syrian civil war.

After years of silence caused by conflict and displacement, Christian families have begun returning to their villages in the Jisr Al-Shughour area of western Idlib countryside, carrying the keys to homes they were forced to leave behind, along with old photographs of weddings and holiday celebrations held before the war scattered their communities.

On the ground in Al-Quniyah and the neighbouring villages of Al-Yacoubiyah, Al-Jadidah, Hallouz, Al-Ghassaniyah and Qastal al-Burj, residents are beginning to restore their homes and communities after years of displacement.

Homes are being reopened, farmland is being cleared, and churches damaged during the war are being repaired.

For many returning families, the process is not only about repairing damaged buildings but also rebuilding their lives in places they were forced to leave behind.

US strikes have disrupted the drinking water supply to 20 villages in Iran's Jask county after damaging desalination infrastructure, according to a local official.

Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, chief executive of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company, said the attacks affected communities with a combined population of nearly 10,000.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted Hamzehpour as describing the strikes as “a series of crimes and terrorist attacks”.

He said a seawater pumping station and a power transformer at the Bunji desalination plant had been “completely destroyed”, leaving thousands without access to drinking water.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal, saying he belongs “in The Hague” and noting that he “has been charged by the International Criminal Court”.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly in September.

Speaking to a US media outlet, Mamdani said it remained unclear whether he had the legal authority to instruct the New York Police Department, which falls under his oversight, to arrest a visiting foreign leader such as Netanyahu.

He added that he was in “an active conversation” with the city's Law Department on the issue.

Iran has, for the first time, declared that the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU) is effectively over, signalling it will no longer implement any of its provisions.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran has suspended its commitments under the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU) following what it described as repeated US violations.

“The US has violated and suspended all its commitments within the framework of the Islamabad MoU,” Gharibabadi said, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

He added that Tehran had halted its own implementation of the agreement and was now “busy defending the country”.

His remarks mark the first official confirmation from Tehran that it considers the Islamabad MoU to have collapsed.

Iranian authorities said Sunday they have executed a man convicted of killing a member of security forces during the 2022 nationwide protests that erupted after the death of a woman in custody of the country’s morality police.

Authorities said the fatal shooting took place during unrest in Tehran, where protesters blocked roads and clashed with security forces.

They said Aref Khoshkar was armed with a pellet gun and fired at security personnel, wounding Salman Amirahmadi, who later died in a hospital.

According to the authorities, Khoshkar confessed that he fired the gun from the roof of a house and threw it in a trash bin.

The execution is the latest reported in connection with the 2022 protests, which had spread after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.

Rights groups have criticized the trials over the deaths of security forces during the protests, saying defendants were denied due process.

Israel killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza City on Saturday morning, medics said, as its forces continue with deadly attacks despite a 'ceasefire' proclaimed in October 2025.

The victims were killed by artillery fire in the Zeitoun neighbourhood and were taken to the Al Shifa medical complex in the western part of the devastated city.

This comes a day after 12 people were killed in separate Israeli attacks, including eight in a drone strike on a market in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the strike coincided with a funeral procession that was taking place in the area.

The attack took the total number of civilians killed over the previous three days to more than 25, the Gaza Government Media Office said.

Kuwait has condemned what it described as “heinous Iranian aggression” after attacks targeted the country on Saturday, according to state news agency KUNA.

The foreign ministry said the repeated strikes on vital facilities represented a “systematic, aggressive approach” aimed at civilian infrastructure and threatened the safety of residents.

“The State of Kuwait reserves its full right to take all necessary measures to preserve its security and defend its territories and vital facilities, based on its inherent right to self-defence,” the ministry said.

Iran’s Health Ministry says US attacks on the country have killed at least 50 people and injured more than 500 others since 6 July.

The ministry’s figures come as US-Iran hostilities continue to escalate, with both sides exchanging strikes amid growing regional tensions.

The US embassy in Beirut has advised American citizens against travelling to Lebanon and urged them to reconsider travel plans to or through the Middle East amid rising regional tensions.

“Due to high tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation,” the embassy said in a statement.

The US embassy in Jerusalem issued a similar warning, advising Americans against travelling to Gaza, northern Israel and the Egyptian border area, except through the Taba crossing.

Kuwait's state oil firm on Saturday reported injuries and damage after an Iranian attack targeting an oil facility, according to the state news agency.

"A vital location in the oil industry was struck by repeated brutal Iranian attacks that resulted in a number of injuries and significant material losses," news agency KUNA cited the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation as saying, adding that the site was evacuated and the injured received medical care.

Kuwait's fire service said Iranian attacks on Saturday sparked fires at two locations in the country, with several firemen injured, after an attack was reported at a power and water plant.

The fire service said on X that it was dealing with "two fires that erupted in two different locations" following the latest Iranian attacks, adding that this "resulted in injuries among firemen and a worker", who were taken to receive care.

Recent US attacks on Iran’s southern Hormozgan province have killed around seven to eight people, all of them civilians, according to a provincial representative cited by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

The report said the strikes took place over the past two nights, with one attack targeting a bridge in the province and hitting two family vehicles, killing six people.

The Tappeh Allaho Akbar neighbourhood in Bandar Abbas was also struck, killing a woman and leaving a one-year-old child with an amputation injury. A driver delivering fuel to petrol stations was also killed after a fire broke out.

An explosion was heard in the Marjayoun plain in southern Lebanon and was later identified as the sound of an interceptor missile, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

The agency said the blast coincided with Israeli media reports that air defence systems had been activated in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, near the Lebanese border. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation.

NNA had earlier reported that a drone was flying over Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Jordan's army said on Saturday it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage, as Tehran retaliated against American strikes by pressing attacks on US allies.

"Air defense systems... intercepted 10 Iranian missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace and were targeting the Kingdom's territory (which) were intercepted and shot down," the army said in a statement, adding that there were no casualties or material damage.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and First Lady Nehmat Aoun departed Beirut for Washington on Saturday following an invitation from US President Donald Trump.

According to the Lebanese presidency's media office, Aoun is due to hold a Lebanon-US summit at the White House with Trump.

He will also meet several senior US officials for talks focused on the situation in Lebanon and efforts to consolidate the ceasefire, restore security and stability across the country- particularly in the south- secure Israel's withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory, and extend state authority throughout all parts of Lebanon.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a site where US combat aircraft were gathered at Sheikh Isa Air Base and an intelligence data centre in Bahrain known as Batelco, Iran's state media reported.

The guards also targeted a US naval fuel-support pier at Al Ahmadi Port and a US signals and communications centre in Kuwait, state media reported.

Kuwait Airways said on Saturday it has rescheduled most flights after the country temporarily suspended operations at Kuwait International Airport following Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The airline had earlier said the rescheduling was due to the closure of Kuwaiti airspace.

The New Arab is providing live coverage as fighting between the United States and Iran intensifies, with both sides launching fresh attacks overnight into Saturday in a rapidly escalating regional conflict.

The latest exchanges mark the seventh consecutive night of US strikes on Iran, prompting renewed Iranian missile and drone attacks targeting US military facilities and allies across the Gulf.

Air raid sirens have sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait and Jordan say they intercepted incoming projectiles, underscoring the widening scope of the confrontation.

The strategic Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed amid conflicting claims over attacks on oil tankers, fuelling concerns over global energy supplies and pushing oil prices higher.

Meanwhile, casualties have been reported in Iran, explosions have rocked several provinces, and Tehran has warned it will launch a "full-scale offensive" if US attacks continue.

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