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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said settler attacks and the scenes in Qusra in the occupied West Bank are “costing Israel” and “its friends", Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli attacks, as well as the building of new illegal settlements and outposts across Palestinian territories, have continued, the report said.
The minister of defence inaugurated a new settlement in the Jenin area on Thursday, shortly after Israeli soldiers demolished Palestinian shops and properties on the same day.
The United Arab Emirates on Friday condemned an Iranian attack it said targeted two vessels linked to state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, which the US fiercely opposes. Iran is in talks with Oman over arrangements for the strait's future management.
The UAE foreign ministry in a statement denounced what it called "the hostile Iranian attack that targeted two vessels affiliated with Adnoc as they transited the Strait of Hormuz, with no injuries reported".
Adnoc confirmed "two of its vessels were attacked while transiting" the waterway on Thursday evening, adding the situation was "brought under control", the official WAM news agency reported.
الإمارات تُدين بأشد العبارات استهداف ناقلتين تابعتين لأدنوك أثناء عبورهما مضيق هرمز
— MoFA وزارة الخارجية (@mofauae) August 13, 2026
UAE Strongly Condemns Targeting of Two ADNOC Vessels While Transiting Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/dGL9pt8RaW
This summer, a senior UAE diplomat, Lanna Nusseibeh, held consultations with a US ally in Europe. The meeting was unremarkable but informative because of the impression the European country's officials walked away with.
“The UAE is totally aligned with Israel. It’s crystal clear that the partnership has no limits,” a European official who was in the meeting told Middle East Eye.
That clarity contrasts with the questions swirling in corridors of power - from the US to Asia - about the Mecca Agreement, which unites Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan under a mutual defence pact that many see as rivalling the UAE-Israel partnership.
Western and Arab officials are still trying to decipher just how aligned Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey are, let alone whether they can back each other up in a hot conflict.
Read more: 'Agility vs depth': How the Mecca pact stacks up against the UAE-Israel alliance
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) said two of its vessels were attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening, the United Arab Emirates' state news agency WAM reported.
Adnoc said there were no injuries and the situation had been brought under control.
Human Rights Watch has called on the United Nations to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers' mandate ends this year.
The peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Unifil, has roughly 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries and has been in place since 1978.
In August last year, however, the UN Security Council, under US pressure, decided to end Unifil's mandate on 31 December 2026.
"Pulling the plug on UNIFIL without a robust international force in place would effectively abandon millions of Lebanese civilians to an uncertain and potentially disastrous fate," said Louis Charbonneau, HRW's UN director.
"The peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses," he added.
The US has received several warnings from Israel over the past year that Iran intended to assassinate President Donald Trump - including before a secret Air Force One ruse in Turkey - that US intelligence officials could not independently verify, Reuters reported, citing a current US official and two former officials.
The warnings, passed to US intelligence agencies and, in some cases, relayed directly by Israeli officials to senior White House officials, included possible plots to shoot Trump with a sniper or recruit someone to attack him with a knife at a large public event, the sources said. The tips began in June 2025 and intensified before the US decision to launch a war on Iran in February, the sources said.
The most detailed warning came ahead of the Nato summit in Ankara in July, the US official and another person familiar with the matter said. Israeli officials briefed the White House about intelligence that indicated Iran may try to kill Trump, potentially with a shoulder-launched missile, while he traveled on Air Force One for the summit, the officials said.
The Central Intelligence Agency has not been able to corroborate some of the specific threats against Trump's life shared by Israeli intelligence since early last year, the officials said.
The Israeli army confirmed killing of Gaza's chief police officer, Jamal Abu Kamil, on Thursday.
The army said that he was a Hamas commander who “infiltrated” Israeli territory during the 7 October 2023 attack, but did not provide proof.
Yemen’s Houthi group has targeted the Bab al-Mandeb Strait area in the western part of the country with two missiles, the Houthi-affiliated Saba TV channel is reporting, citing a local source.
Saudi Arabia's defence minister called Iraq a "cherished neighbour" in talks with a senior Iraqi army official on Thursday, despite last month's deadly US-Saudi strikes on targets in the country.
The Riyadh visit was the first announced by an Iraqi security official to Saudi Arabia since Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's trip to the kingdom was cancelled after the strikes on 29 July.
Officials from the Hashed al-Shaabi, an armed Iraqi alliance also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, which includes pro-Iran groups, said the US-Saudi strikes killed 20 militants, including five Iranians.
Riyadh said its forces had intercepted drones targeting oil facilities, blaming Iran-backed groups in Iraq for the attacks.
"Iraq will remain a cherished neighbour, we share bonds of brotherhood, solidarity, and mutual support with its government and its brotherly people. The Kingdom will always stand by Iraq to support its security, stability, development, and prosperity, for the benefit of Iraq and its brotherly people," Khalid bin Salman wrote in a post on X.
He added that he had met with the director of Iraq's Office of the Commander in Chief, Abdul Amir al-Shammari, saying the pair "reviewed Saudi-Iraqi relations in the military and defence sectors" and discussed developments in the Middle East.
"We also emphasised the importance of continued coordination and cooperation between our two countries to serve our mutual interests and ensure the region's security and stability," he wrote.
التقيت معالي مدير مكتب القائد العام للقوات المسلحة العراقية الفريق الأول الركن عبدالأمير الشمري.
— Khalid bin Salman خالد بن سلمان (@kbsalsaud) August 13, 2026
استعرضنا العلاقات السعودية العراقية في المجال العسكري والدفاعي، وبحثنا التطورات الإقليمية، وأكدنا أهمية مواصلة التنسيق والتعاون بين بلدينا بما يخدم مصالحنا المشتركة ويحقق أمن المنطقة… pic.twitter.com/llM0J8jxSp
Hamas condemned Israel’s killing of Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, director of the civil police force in the Gaza governorate, calling it “a continuation of the brutal crimes committed by the occupation against our Palestinian people", according to Al Jazeera.
The group said the killing was part of Israel’s “pathetic and failed attempts to spread chaos and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip".
Israel has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in near-daily strikes since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
An Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in western Gaza City killed Gaza City police chief Colonel Jamal Abu Kamil, 43, and critically wounded two others on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported, citing Gaza’s interior ministry.
Abu Kamil was one of two Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday, according to Reuters. An earlier Israeli strike on a motorbike in western Khan Younis killed one person and wounded another.
An Israeli drone strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, also critically wounded one person on Wednesday, according to Gaza medics.
Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes despite the ceasefire that took effect on 10 October 2025.
The UK's Charity Commission has criticised trustees of the Edgware United Synagogue in London for hosting a real estate event that promoted properties in illegal Israeli settlements in June, Middle East Eye can reveal.
The charity regulator has also decided to review a recent decision to close a compliance case on the charity.
The commission told MEE that "should any further concerns about the charity arise we will consider escalating our regulatory engagement".
MEE understands that this internal review will be conducted by a senior officer in the commission.
Read more: Exclusive: UK Charity Commission criticises synagogue for hosting Great Israeli Real Estate Event
Israeli forces detained three Palestinians during a raid on the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, while Israeli settlers seized a tractor owned by the village council, the Wafa news agency reported, citing Palestinian security sources.
The settlers seized the tractor, which was used for waste collection, under the protection of the Israeli army.
Yemen's Houthis on Thursday claimed a drone attack on an Aramco refinery in southern Saudi Arabia, the group's affiliated news agency Saba reported.
"A military source confirmed that the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted an Aramco refinery in the Jizan region using two drones, achieving a precise hit by the grace of God," Saba reported, referring to Houthi forces.
The agency reported that the source said the strike was a response to a Saudi "violation of Yemeni airspace and the country's sovereignty in the Saada and Hajjah governorates".
The source said the Houthis would "respond decisively to any violation of the country's sovereignty or any act of aggression targeting the nation", according to Saba.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says that the US military can maintain a blockade on Iranian ports for as long as needed.
“Indefinitely, the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth told reporters.
