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

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

Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday that they carried out missile and drone attacks on “Saudi military deployments” in Yemen's Saudi-backed government controlled areas of Marib and Hadramout.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree accused Saudi Arabia of a “large military buildup” in Yemen and said that in response, “our armed forces conducted a large-scale and precise military operation targeting Saudi enemy troop concentrations,” which killed and wounded several soldiers.

“We advise those misled and deceived among our people to leave the Saudi enemy camps and return to their homes before it is too late,” Saree said in a statement on X. “We assure our dear Yemeni people in all governorates that the armed forces are fully prepared to confront any escalation.”

Medical sources said that at least 38 Saudi-backed Yemeni government troops were killed, AFP has reported.

بيانٌ صادرٌ عنِ القواتِ المسلحةِ اليمنيةِ

بسمِ اللهِ الرحمنِ الرحيم
قال تعالى: {فَلَا عُدۡوَ ٰ⁠نَ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلظَّـالِمِینَ} صدق اللهُ العظيم
إمعانًا من العدوِّ السعوديِّ المجرمِ في مواصلةِ الحصارِ والعدوانِ على شعبِنا اليمنيِّ العزيزِ منذُ ما يقاربُ 12 عامًا، فقد رصدتْ… pic.twitter.com/Q64p0wp5Sj

— العميد يحيى سريع (@Yahya_Saree) August 6, 2026

Israeli settlers attacked a small Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, injuring people, destroying homes and smashing their power source, the military and residents said Thursday, in the latest in a spate of violent confrontations.

AFP journalists in remote Khirbet al-Tuba saw buildings blackened by fire and smoke, the interiors of three homes completely burned and graffiti in Hebrew spray-painted on remaining structures.

The dozen solar panels the isolated southern community relies on for power had also been smashed to render them unusable.

The Israeli military said it "strongly condemned" the raid and that it had responded after "homes being set on fire and Palestinians being attacked in the area by Israeli civilians" late Wednesday.

"Several Palestinians were injured, among them a girl and a woman. Several structures were also burned," the military said.

"The suspects fled before the forces arrived."

Reporting by AFP

An Israeli settler hs been charged with reckless manslaughter over the death of a prominent Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank, the first since October 2023.

Yinon Levi is charged with reckless manslaughter in the death of Awdeh Hathaleen, a prominent activist who was involved in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

He also faces chargs of armed trespassing and malicious property damage during a July 2025 incident in which settlers operated a large excavator in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair.

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, one half of the filmmaking duo behind No Other Land, shared a video on X at the time showing Levi brandishing a gun and shooting at Palestinians behind the camera. 

Three human rights organisations have denounced an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon that killed a journalist in April as a "war crime."

Amal Khalil, who worked for the daily newspaper Al-Akhbar, was killed, while freelance cameraperson Zeinab Faraj was wounded, in an attack on 22 April in the village of al-Tiri.

The two women had taken shelter in a building after an Israeli strike targeted a car traveling ahead of them - the building itself was then targeted itself.

While Faraj was successfully rescued, Lebanese authorities accused the Israeli military of obstructing rescue efforts to save Amal Khalil while she was still alive.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the Lebanese organization The Legal Agenda released separate investigations on Thursday.

HRW described the incident as "apparently deliberate attacks on civilians... which constitutes a war crime."

Amnesty also condemned the incident as a "direct attack on civilians," calling for a "war crime investigation."

Authorities in Kuwait ordered the closure of a local Iranian school, a source at the education ministry told AFP on Thursday, after the country came under repeated Iranian attack during the Middle East war.

The ministry source did not specify the reason for shutting the country's only Iranian school, though similar measures were taken in the UAE at the start of the war against schools and a hospital that authorities deemed to be linked to the Iranian government.

"The Minister of Education issued a decision to revoke the educational license of the private Iranian school and close it down," said the text of the decision, which was seen by AFP.

Reporting by AFP

Israeli forces have detained some 60 Palestinians in a two-day long raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society reports.

The group said in a statement that arrestees included women and children, and that, throughout the raid, people were subjected to severe beatings, intimidation and the use of restraint as a means of torture.

Israeli soldiers demolished shops, raided dozens homes and evicted families from them.

Palestine’s Red Crescent Society reported that 16 people were wounded in the assault on the camp and the town of Kafr Aqab.

Anadalou news agency reported, citing a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)-affiliated Qalandia Refugee Camp Popular Services Committee, that during the raids, three people sustained serious injuries as a result of beatings, including one person who suffered a skull fracture.

He said that another 20 suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Eight people have been wounded in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Burj Shemali, the country's health ministry is reporting.

Earlier today, Israeli forces escalated attacks on southern Lebanon, with state media reporting a "wide-scale aggression" on the city of Tyre.

MEE reported earlier that, as a result of the strikes across several areas in the city, four people were wounded and transferred to nearby hospitals. Residents in these areas were also displaced. 

The fresh wave of attacks comes as Lebanese-Israeli peace talks entered a third day in Rome, in the seventh round of US-brokered negotiations.

Lebanese negotiators are demanding that Israel cease bombardment and withdraw from around 60 villages and towns occupied in its latest onslaught, which began in March. Meanwhile, Israel wants the Lebanese army to dismantle Hezbollah's military infrastructure.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some the latest updates from across the region: 

• US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Washington is holding talks with Tehran and would prefer an agreement over further military action against Iran. "I would rather make a deal with Iran because I don’t want to kill people," he said during an event in in Las Vegas.

• A tanker 9 nautical miles south east of Oman's Kumzar reported hearing two blasts while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said early on Thursday. The vessel and its crew were reportedly safe, with no environmental damage indicated. 

• US President Donald Trump clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over Washington's critical munition shortage during the war on Iran, The Washington Post reported. During the meeting, Hegseth reportedly defended himself and instead blamed Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg for the weapon depletion and "for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised" about the state of Washington's stockpiles.

• The US army has used up nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for a key missile defence system, CNN reported citing several sources. Senior US military officials warned that the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile is "dangerously low," with key air defence systems particularly depleted during the war on Iran.

• Donald Trump has hit back on media reports of depleting munitions, insisting that the army has "massive amounts of 'munitions'" and expanding manufacturing. He also threatened that "'leakers' of these treasonous statements are being hunted down," and wrote that "long term jail sentences will be sought".

• Israeli reports are suggesting that there are considerations for additional military attacks in Lebanon, as the army prepares for further escalation in the country despite ongoing peace talks. This comes amid Lebanon's state-media reporting of escalating Israeli attacks, which left at least four wounded over the past few hours.

Israeli reports are suggesting that there are considerations for additional military attacks in Lebanon, as the army prepares for further escalation in the country despite ongoing peace talks.

Israel's public broadcaster said that the army's response to what it described as Hezbollah violation "has not ended", with "sensitive operations" likely underway. 

Plans for an escalation in southern Lebanon has been brewing across Israeli news media, with Channel 13 reporting plans on additional strikes in the coming hours. 

 Meanwhile, Channel 12 reported that the army is calling on the political leadership to approve a "stronger and more decisive" response in Lebanon. 

An uptick of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has been reported by local media, with overnight raids leaving several injured, properties damaged and water supplies disrupted. 

• A number of residents - including children and women - were wounded and faced suffocation after settlers launched arson attacks on Khirbet al-Tuwaiba in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

• Settlers have fenced off land belonging to Palestinians in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. 

• Settlers also stole water supplies from the towns of Madma and Asira al-Qibliya, both located in Nablus, by connecting pipelines to the main pump in order to transfer water to their illegal outposts. 

• At least three were injured as a result of settler attacks in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus. Local media indicated that settlers had stormed the town under the protection of Israeli forces. 

• A young man was reportedly wounded by Israeli forces in the town of Al-Ram, north of occupied East Jerusalem. He received first aid after he was shot in the foot, Palestinian Red Crescent crews said, and later transferred to a hospital for further treatment.

• The Palestinian Red Crescent also dealt with at least eight cases of assault during an Israeli military raid in the Qalandiya refugee camp. 

The Israeli army escalated its attacks on southern Lebanon, with state-media noting a "wide-scale aggression" in Tyre. 

As a result of the strikes across several areas in the city, four people were wounded and transferred to nearby hospitals. Residents in these areas were also displaced. 

Donald Trump has hit back on media reports of depleting munitions, insisting that the army has large stockpiles and expaning manufacturing. 

"The U.S. has massive amounts of 'munitions,' especially of certain types," he said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, adding that "large amounts" are being manufactured and shipped over to the country "as needed".

"Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history," Trump said. 

He also threatened that "'leakers' of these treasonous statements are being hunted down," and wrote that "long term jail sentences will be sought".

The US army has used up nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for a key missile defence system, CNN reported citing several sources familiar with the matter. 

According to the report, senior US military officials warned that the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile is "dangerously low," with key air defence systems particularly depleted during the war on Iran.

The US military exhausted nearly four-fifths of its THAAD missile inventory compared to pre-war figures. Meanwhile, half of its Patriot interceptors were burned through since the start of the war. 

One source familiar with recent internal Pentagon reports noted that the army used "virtually all" of its highly accurate long-range, surface-to-air weapons in the same period.