Live: Kushner meets Hamas leaders in Egypt, amid ongoing Israeli attacks

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.

More than 70 percent of Palestinians oppose Hamas disarming before Israel completely withdraws from the Gaza Strip, according to a new survey.

The poll found that 72 percent believe Israel would resume its genocide in Gaza and refuse to withdraw fully if Hamas surrendered its weapons.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published the findings on Wednesday, offering a detailed picture of Palestinian attitudes towards the future of Gaza, their political leadership and the prospect of Palestinian statehood.

Even after Hamas accepted a proposal from Nickolay Mladenov, head of the US-backed "Board of Peace", 40 percent of respondents expect “the current situation to continue, with some continued killings”.

Israel has rejected the US proposal.

Read more: Palestinians reject Hamas disarmament before full Israeli withdrawal, poll finds

EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Thursday welcomed an Israeli decision to extend the mandate of the bloc's border assistance mission at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and the occupied West Bank until mid-2027.

Initially set up in 2005 to help monitor the key crossing, the civilian EUBAM mission was put on standby for nearly two decades.

The Rafah crossing shut down entirely during Israel's war on Gaza, but has reopened on a limited basis since February, with monitors from the EU – which announced last week that more than 10,000 people had since passed between Gaza and Egypt.

Kallas said Israeli authorities had agreed to extend until the end of June 2027 the mandates of both the Rafah monitoring mission and the EUPOL COPPS scheme that provides training for Palestinian police forces and advice on rebuilding Gaza's judicial system.

The EU foreign policy chief called it "an important step after months of diplomatic negotiations".

"The missions have a clear purpose: to help make crossings safer and more effective, support Palestinian police, and contribute to stability in the region," she wrote on X.

The Iranian military has rejected the US claims that vessels are transiting the Strait of Hormuz normally, saying that no ship can pass through without its permission.

“The Strait of Hormuz remains under the full management and control of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said an Iranian spokesperson, according to state media.

“No commercial vessel or oil tanker can or will have safe passage through the Strait without the permission and supervision of Iran’s powerful Armed Forces,” they added.

Yesterday, US President Donald Trump said his military maintained "total control" over the Strait of Hormuz, a claim which Iran disputed.

Haitham Rashaidh was among the last to leave his home near Ein al-Auja, a natural spring and waterfall north of Jericho in the occupied West Bank. 

His family packed up their tents and heaped all their belongings onto a tractor, and then began the two-hour journey across difficult terrain towards al-Balqa, a sparsely populated area of the Jordan Valley, where they set up camp alongside their displaced neighbours.

Leaving Ein al-Auja felt like losing a part of themselves, Rashaidh explained mournfully. Water once flowed here in a torrent, estimated at thousands of cubic metres daily - yet today, the ground is parched, the spring that once supported a Bedouin community of more than 100 families reduced to a trickle.

Palestinians used to treasure Ein al-Auja as an oasis of calm in a region under siege. But Israel’s diversion of water, alongside continuing settler attacks, ultimately made life in the community untenable.

Iranian military commanders and politicians have recently underlined a shift in Iran's military doctrine, moving from a defensive to an offensive strategy against US forces in the Middle East.

The shift came with new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appointing six military commanders to replace those killed by Israel and the US during the recent war. 

While some figures had previously mentioned this change in military doctrine, the new appointments have made the topic prominent in local media.

On Wednesday, Brigadier General Alireza Sheikh, the deputy commander of the army, explained this new approach towards US forces to the media. He pointed to recent attacks on the bases of Kurdish opposition groups as an example of this strategy.

Read more: Iranian press review: Tehran says it will no longer wait to be attacked

Turkey confirmed on Thursday for the first time that it had joined efforts to establish a multinational maritime defence coalition aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.

The announcement signals increased cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Ankara after the signing of a trilateral pact between the states and Pakistan in Mecca last week.

“At the invitation of Saudi Arabia, a technical meeting was held in Riyadh on 28 July to ensure freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, followed by a meeting of the chiefs of general staff on 30 July 2026,” the Turkish Ministry of National Defence said in a statement.

The ministry added that Turkey was participating in another coordination meeting on the establishment of the maritime defence coalition in Jeddah on Thursday.

“Work continues with the Saudi Arabian authorities to reduce tensions in the Gulf region and ensure the uninterrupted flow of international trade,” the statement said.

Read more: Turkey backs Saudi-led maritime defence coalition in Red Sea

The Israeli army says it has dismantled "two illegal outposts" on the outskirts of the Qusra and Jalud areas in the occupied West Bank, which Israeli settlers were using to trap two Palestinian families inside their homes.

It added that one Israeli was arrested, and that equipment had been confiscated. 

The US killed and wounded hundreds of Yemeni civilians during its attacks on the country last year, according to an internal US Department of War assessment shared with Congress.

The US killed 153 civilians and wounded 243, the Pentagon said in a 12-page report that was sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday and reported by several news sites in the US.

US President Donald Trump ordered the American military to begin bombing the Houthis in March 2025. The attacks came in response to Houthi strikes on vessels in the Red Sea, which the group said were in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

The report detailed several specific strikes that the Pentagon said “more likely than not” caused civilian deaths and injuries. The report noted a 6 April attack on Sanaa that killed five civilians and wounded 25 others.

The report also noted a 17 April US attack on Hodeidah that killed at least 80 civilians. In a June report, Human Rights Watch said the attack should be investigated as a war crime.

Read more: Pentagon tells Congress US killed 153 civilians in Yemen air strikes

Israel has killed at least one person and injured seven in the Gaza Strip in the past day, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Since October 2023, when Israel's genocide in Gaza began, at least 73,389 Palestinians have been killed and 174,266 have been injured.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will form political and military mechanisms under a defence pact signed between the regional powers last week, Turkey's defence ministry said, adding the alliance would also deepen defence industry cooperation.

At a weekly briefing in Ankara, the ministry said the mechanisms would include the three countries' defence ministers, foreign ministers, and military chiefs. It added that joint military exercises were also being planned under the pact, while cooperation could include joint production and technology sharing in the defence industry.

British maritime security company Ambrey said it has been engaged in the salvage of the stricken tanker Caroline Bezengi off the Omani coast and that salvage vessels are en route to support the operation, Reuters reports.

Ambrey said it was "working diligently with all relevant stakeholders", and had contracted the support of a leading international oil spill response company. It added specialist personnel have already boarded the vessel to assess conditions on board, and commence cargo stabilisation operations.

The Caroline Bezengi, which sails under the flag of Cameroon, has been immobilised off the coast of Oman since 8 June, when the ship's crew reported an explosion, though the cause of the incident has not yet been identified.

Several Western governments have said the ship is part of Russia's shadow fleet, used to transport sanctioned Russian oil since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Omani environment authority said yesterday the oil spill had reached its coast, and that up to 40km of coastline were affected by oil polution. Last week, Greenpeace warned of the risk of an “unprecedented oil disaster”.

Maersk, a Danish shipping company that accounts for 15 percent of maritime transport worldwide, reported a second-quarter operating profit above expectations and raised its full-year earnings guidance.

CEO Vincent Clerc said he thought the "conditions for a full return to Suez during 2026 are in place", as long as "nothing happens in Yemen".

Yemen's Houthis have been attacking ships transiting through Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea since 2023, and announced a full blockade of vessels transporting Saudi oil last month.

Clerc added that high freit rates in the maritime industry were currently due to "congested ports, not the Strait of Hormuz". He said Maersk would continue assessing security conditions to start the "next phase of returning to the Suez [canal] with partner Hapag-Lloyd", a German shipping company which transports 7 percent of global maritime cargo.

The Strait of Hormuz is "under Iran's control and management", the head of Iran's Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, said on Thursday, according to Fars news agency.

The remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the US had "total control" of the strategic waterway.