8:00CET🔽Sirens blast in northern Israel linked to alleged joint Hezbollah-Iran attack
In the past hour, sirens have blasted in northern Israel in what Israeli authorities believe to be a joint attack from Hezbollah and Iran targeting northern Israel at the same time.
At the same time, Israeli officials are doubling down, saying they will continue fighting for weeks. The concern in Israel is that the US might stop the war “prematurely”, reason why Israeli officials continue to send messages that they will continue to crackdown more on Iran and that the fighting with Hezbollah is just at the start.
But they are also finding a pushback from the community. Indeed, Israeli society as a whole supports the war as it sees Iran as an existential threat. At the same time, there are concerns with the government’s performance when it comes to ease restrictions and missile interceptions.
Israel has among the most technologically advanced aerial defense systems that are made to intercept ballistic missiles, such as those that struck Arad and Dimona on Sunday injuring about 180 people.
The fact that some have penetrated these systems is raising questions from the Israeli public that wants to know how come these ballistic missiles have been able to pass through.
20:10CET🔽Iran unlikely to back down as Trump deadline on Strait of Hormuz nears
With just over 24 hours left on Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Iran, the question is whether Tehran will back down.
Trump has warned if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic, he will order strikes on Iranian power plants.
This a significant escalation, Hassan Ahmadian, associate professor of West Asian Studies at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera.
“You see that strait was open, wide open for all shipments, but the Iranians got into this position and this place after the war was waged on them,” said Ahmadian.
Hormuz is now Tehran’s biggest source of “leverage” against the United States and he said he sees no sign that the Iranians will “capitulate”.
Trump appears to be betting that threatening civilian infrastructure will tip the balance. But Iranian officials have already signalled their counter-move – wider strikes across the region, including in Israel, if power plants are hit, warned Ahmadian.
13:40CET🔽Pope Leo calls Middle East war a ‘scandal,’ urges immediate ceasefire
Death and suffering caused by the war in the Middle East are a “scandal to the whole human family”, Pope Leo has said, renewing his plea for an immediate ceasefire.
The American pope said that he continues to follow with “dismay” the situation in the Middle East and in other regions torn apart by violence.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many people, the defenceless victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts the whole of humanity,” Leo said at his weekly Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square.
“I strongly renew my appeal for us to persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and the way may finally be paved for peace,” he added. Per Al-Jazeera #War #Vatican #Pope #Holysee
JUST IN🔽BREAKING: Israeli army says Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon
The Israeli military says it has killed a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and two others in a strike in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, it said Abu Khalil Barji was killed along with two other Hezbollah members in an air strike in the Majdal Selem area.
The military added that it carried out more strikes on what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in several areas of southern Lebanon.
The claims could not be independently verified. More than 1,000 people, including more than 100 children, have been killed in Lebanon since the latest escalation began.
⚠️DEVELOPING: Iranian Red Crescent says over 81,000 civilian units damaged
More than 81,000 civilian units have been damaged in joint US-Israel strikes across Iran, the Iranian Red Crescent Society has said.
Their damage, as well as the targeting of medical centers, schools, ambulances and aid workers is a “clear” violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, it said, in reference to international treaties that contain rules limiting war.
Iranian missile strikes force evacuation of 2,700 Israelis, including 1,000 from Arad and Dimona
Israel’s Ministry of Welfare and Social Security has said it is assisting more than 2,700 people forced to evacuate their homes due to Iranian strikes, according to Israeli media.
The figure includes about 1,000 residents who evacuated the southern cities of Arad and Dimona that were heavily attacked overnight.
As we reported earlier, the Israeli emergency service said at least 180 people from the two cities were hospitalised due to the attacks.
At least 180 people have been injured in two Iranian missile attacks on the Israeli cities Dimona and Arad, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Hezbollah says it has targeted Israeli soldiers and military sites overnight and this morning in northern Israel’s Hanita and Avivim settlements as well as southern Lebanon’s Ras an-Naqoura. The nuclear-powered British submarine HMS Anson has arrived in the Arabian Sea, according to a UK tabloid, amid US threats to escalate its military operations against Iran. Yassamin Ansari, a Democratic lawmaker from Arizona, has called the US-Israeli war on Iran “reckless and illegal” while warning of its “catastrophic impacts”, including the deaths of American soldiers. Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry says it has intercepted and destroyed a drone flying towards the eastern part of the country Per Al-Jazeera #War #Iran #Oil
9:00CET🔽Threats to target Iran’s energy sector raise risk of wider escalation
A regional analyst has said threats to target Iran’s energy infrastructure could trigger wider economic and environmental escalation.
Zeidon Alkinani of the Arab Perspectives Institute said there have been suggestions the US could strike Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is disrupted.
“If such an attack were conducted, we are looking at two levels of escalation,” he said. One is economic and energy, and the second is ecological, he added.
Alkinani said the impact would be felt both domestically in the US economy and globally.
He also pointed to what he described as a shift in military tactics by both sides. Early in the conflict, he said, there appeared to be clearer targets and more limited objectives.
“There now seems to be a more chaotic reaction,” he said, adding that recent Iranian responses have included attacks affecting Gulf countries, rather than focusing only on Israeli or US targets.
He described the situation as increasingly reciprocal, suggesting that strikes on oil or energy facilities could prompt further escalation. Per Al-Jazeera #War #Iran #OilFutures
🇺🇸Senate Democrat says Trump ‘lost control’ of the war against Iran🇮🇷
President Donald Trump has “lost control of the war” against Iran and is in a panic mode, according to US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
Murphy, a leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of the growing number of lawmakers who are criticising the conduct of the joint US-Israel military operation in Iran, which has entered its fourth week.
Trump had threatened to “obliterate” the power plants of Iran if its government does not move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier, Murphy had also described the military operation as “Trump’s insane war”, and said it is starting to contract the entire US economy following a sharp increase in fuel prices.
🔽BREAKING ALARMS IN ISRAEL: Air raid sirens blare in central, northern Israel A missile attack from Iran has set off alarms in central Israel, while rocket fire from Lebanon has triggered alarms in the north of the country, according to the Channel 12 broadcaster.
Citing the Israeli ambulance service, it said there were no reports of casualties in central Israel, but that one person was wounded in the north.
⚠️BIG NEWS FOR OIL FUTURES⚠️ 6:30CET: Sri Lanka fuel prices skyrocket amid prospect of prolonged war
Sri Lanka has raised fuel prices for the second time in two weeks as the country prepares for more impact from the US-Israeli attack against Iran.
Regular petrol has increased to 398 rupees ($1.30) per litre, up from 317 rupees ($1.02), while diesel, the fuel commonly used for public transport, rose by 79 rupees ($.25) to a staggering 382 ($1.23), according to the AFP news agency.
“We hope to achieve a 15 to 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption with the latest increase,” an official at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was quoted as saying.
He said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told them last week that the country must prepare for a prolonged conflict in the Middle East that could affect the island’s energy supplies.
US President Donald Trump threatens to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran does not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, just barely a day after talking about “winding down” the war. Iranian authorities say over 1,400 people have been killed and more than 200 cities have been hit in the ongoing US-Israeli attack against the country.
Loud explosions hit several areas across the Iranian capital Tehran, after US and Israel launched a new round of attacks as the war enter its fourth week. Iran’s military says it has intercepted and downed a US-Israeli armed drone in the skies of Tehran before it could carry out any combat operations.
Saudi Arabia says it has intercepted nearly 60 drones fired into the country from Iran. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it has carried out 21 attacks against US bases across the country and the region within the past 24 hours.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi announces that one of two Japanese nationals detained in Iran has been released and will be returning to the country soon.
Qatar’s Ministry of Defence says a search is underway after one of its helicopters suffered a technical malfunction during a routine duty and crashed in the regional waters of the state.
Israel’s ambulance service says at least 88 people were wounded in the Iranian missile attack on the southern city of Arad, bringing to over 100 the number of people injured including those from an earlier Iranian strike near Dimona.