Live: Syria condemns Israeli attack on 'civilian vehicle', warns of rising regional tensions

Three Palestinians were injured and one was detained on Thursday evening after Israeli settlers attacked a family east of the village of al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah, Wafa news has reported.

Local sources told Wafa that the family has been subjected to near-daily attacks by armed Israeli settlers for nearly three years, with the assaults intensifying over the past three months.

US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on Thursday that talks between Lebanon and Israel were “fruitful” amid ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

“Lebanon and Israel are much closer to reaching an agreement on advancing and expanding the pilot zones process,” he said, as the latest round of direct talks, the seventh overall, just wrapped up in Rome, Italy.

Oman's transport ministry and environment authority said it was responding to an incident involving the Caroline Bezengi vessel, which is stranded near the Hallaniyat Islands off the southern governorate of Dhofar, to limit any potential environmental impact, Omani state media reported on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the US media of spreading “Fake News” after reports that Trump and Defence Minister Pete Hegseth had clashed over concerns about missile depletion from the Iran war.

In a post to Truth Social, Trump said he was “extremely happy” with Hegseth’s work and added that the war with Iran is “going very well”, including ensuring that Iran will be unable to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Several people were killed or wounded in an explosion in the city of Jaramana, on the outskirts of Syria’s capital of Damascus, according to state TV on Thursday.

A security source told the channel that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted in a minibus.

Israeli forces shot a Palestinian child and assaulted another Palestinian in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Wafa news reported on Thursday.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its medics treated a 14-year-old boy who sustained a gunshot wound to his lower back and was transferred to a hospital for medical treatment, while another Palestinian was evacuated after being severely beaten up by Israeli troops.

An Iranian lawmaker said on Thursday that the country’s parliament committee is reviewing a preliminary bill to ban US, Israeli and other “hostile” vessels from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Fars news agency.

The lawmaker added that the draft bill envisages fines of up to 20 percent of the value of a ship’s cargo for violating their proposed Hormuz transit restrictions.

The measures remain at the expert review stage, and parliament has invited specialists to submit recommendations to help finalise the draft, the lawmaker said.

Oil prices have surged ahead again on Thursday, after falling earlier this week following Trump’s announcement that negotiations with Iran were resuming on Tuesday. 

“Rising oil prices have crimped some of the optimism seen earlier in the week – but the price is still much lower than a week ago, providing a positive tailwind as we move into the second week of August,” Chris Beauchamp, a chief market analyst, told AFP.

Israel has carried out a drone attack on Mayfadoun in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, the National News Agency is reporting.

No casualties were reported.

This comes amid a large-scale Israeli bombardment of the country on Thursday as peace talks between Israel and Lebanon in Rome are ongoing.

The European Union has welcomed the announcement of an agreement to permanently disarm Hamas and withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza, the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday.

"We call on all parties to approve and implement the agreement without delay," Kallas said in a statement.

Hamas has welcomed the joint statement from several Arab countries following a meeting of foreign ministers in Amman which condemned Israel’s escalation in Gaza, saying it “underscores the gravity of the escalation and violations perpetrated by the occupying government, which threaten the future of the entire agreement”.

Hamas called on the signatories, as well as the US and ceasefire mediators, to prevent Israel “from sabotaging the agreement through continued killing, aggression and reneging on the obligations imposed by the ceasefire agreement”.

This comes after Hamas agreed in July to a document setting out a plan for their disarmament in Gaza, in return for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Deputy Chairman of the Yemeni Consultation and Reconciliation Authority for Yemen’s Saudi-backed government Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi condemned the Houthi attacks on government positions in Hadramout and Marib on Thursday.

“This is their true project: perpetuating the war and preventing the restoration of the state,” he said in a post on X, adding that the only way to prevent further attacks is “ending the militia’s coup, restoring state institutions in the capital Sanaa,” referring to the Houthi-controlled area of Yemen.

For nearly three decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has relied on ultra-Orthodox parties as one of the pillars of his political survival.

But as Netanyahu gears up to one of his toughest elections in years, his governing alliance is facing unprecedented strain over the long-running dispute about military conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

The row has exposed deep divisions within Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and raised questions about whether the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas parties, two of his most dependable allies since he first became prime minister in 1996, could look elsewhere.

"There's disappointment and anger within the ultra-Orthodox public over their situation," Pnina Pfeuffer, director general of the Ultra-Orthodox Public Organisation, a civil society group working within ultra-Orthodox communities, told Middle East Eye.

The political future of the ultra-Orthodox parties is so unclear, she adds, that it is no longer "far-fetched" that they could join a government led by Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's fiercest challenger in years.

Read more: Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox alliance shows signs of fracture before crucial election

Israeli bulldozers destroyed scores of olive trees in Palestinian villages near Jenin on Wednesday, as part of an ongoing campaign of uprooting olive groves across the occupied West Bank.

The latest operation targeted farmland in the villages of Ajjah and Zububa, near the separation barrier, weeks before Palestinian farmers were due to begin this year's olive harvest.

Zaki Jaradat, head of Zububa Village Council, said Israeli forces have uprooted more than 2,950 olive trees across more than 300 dunams of agricultural land since the start of the year.

Among those affected is Fuad Yahya Maqalda, whose family has cultivated olive trees on the land for generations.

From the rooftop of his home overlooking the family's land, Maqalda watched Israeli bulldozers move through the olive groves, uprooting trees that had stood for generations.

Unable to reach the site, he could only watch as the destruction unfolded below.

"We are unable to do anything," he told Middle East Eye. "We cannot understand the intentions behind this uprooting.

“The occupation uprooted olive trees that have stood on our land since the time of our grandparents."

Read more: Israeli bulldozers uproot West Bank olive trees ahead of harvest season

The US embassy in Yemen has described Houthi attacks in Hadramout and Marib as “cowardly”, saying the attacks “represent yet another example of terrorism against Yemeni people”.

In a post on X, the US mission paid condolences to the families of “brave Yemeni soldiers killed today”.

بشأن هجمات اليوم في حضرموت ومأرب. pic.twitter.com/IirMLRRTNq

— U.S. Embassy Yemen السفارة الأمريكية لدى اليمن (@USEmbassyYemen) August 6, 2026