The United States has conducted overnight airstrikes on Iran, breaking the ceasefire agreed in April, according to Iran’s foreign ministry. The strikes mark the first US military action against Iran since the truce, raising fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, warned that Gulf states will no longer shield US bases, and the US will lose safe havens in the region.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps condemned the violation, asserting its “legitimate and definite” right to retaliate. It claimed air defence units shot down a US MQ-9 drone and fired at a fighter jet that entered Iranian airspace. Meanwhile, Brent crude oil prices rose 3% amid uncertainty over the impact on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
In Lebanon, Israeli forces have expanded operations beyond the so-called ‘Yellow Line’, a 10km demarcation line inside southern Lebanon. An Israeli airstrike on a village in the Bekaa Valley killed 12 people, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is “intensifying” strikes against Hezbollah and operating with large forces on the ground to secure strategic areas.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan expressed support for peace talks during a call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, stating that regional conflicts have overshadowed the Muslim Eid holiday. Iran also took steps to restore internet access after a near-total blackout since the war began in late February, with Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref announcing the first move toward free and regulated cyberspace.
Elsewhere, a tanker reported an external explosion 60 nautical miles off Oman’s coast, with some bunker fuel discharged. Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, and Israel issued an expropriation order for land near the Nabi Samuel shrine, a site holy to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
