Tit-for-tat Iran-US strikes, amid Israel-Lebanon framework signing

HEADLINES IN BRIEF

● Bahrain targeted by Iranian drones, says foreign ministry; Iran says US-linked targets hit.

● Iran condemns retaliatory strikes by US military on Iranian targets on Friday, following drone attack on a cargo ship on Thursday by the IRGC, in what Trump labelled a "foolish violation". READ MORE BELOW.

● Beirut's streets filled with Hezbollah supporters protesting US-mediated Israel-Lebanon deal announced on Friday, as militia chief says Israel must "unconditionally" leave Lebanon. Following the framework agreement, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would remain in southern Lebanon for "as long as Hezbollah does not disarm".  READ MORE BELOW.

● Lebanon's state-owned National News Agency (NNA) reports overnight Israeli attacks on the town of Markaba near the Israeli-Lebanese border. 

● Incorrect missile alerts issued by UAE on Friday lead to authorities apologising for technical malfunction in the early warning system. A statement posted to X said: "The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority and the relevant entities apologise for this unintentional technical malfunction."

● Israeli prosecutors file charges against six Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including for "acts of terrorism", following a settler attack on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank where a mosque was set ablaze. READ MORE BELOW.

● A tanker reported being struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. The bridge sustained damage, though all crew were accounted for and no environmental impact was reported.

● Brent crude remains hovering around the $71-73 mark, as traders continue to sell off stockpiles amid recent advancements in the Middle East; the latest strikes between the US and Iran could spook the markets however.

Iran and US accuse each other of violating agreement as ceasefire hangs in balance

Tehran has condemned US Central Command (Centcom) strikes on Iranian targets as a "flagrant violation" of the peace agreement signed last week. The attacks were in response to an Iranian drone strike on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, which US President Donald Trump labelled "a foolish violation" on Truth Social.

The Singapore-flagged Ever Lovely was struck by a projectile on Thursday as it exited the heavily-surveilled strait. The vessel had been stranded in the Gulf for more than 100 days after loading cargo in Iraq. While the ship's bridge area was reported as damaged, no crew were injured. 

The ship had taken a southern route along the Omani coastline, as recommended by the British maritime security agency UKMTO. However, hours earlier, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had issued a directive demanding all commercial vessels coordinate directly with the Iranian navy in approved corridors. 

Within hours, US Centcom responded with "powerful" strikes against Iranian missile and drone storage facilities and coastal radar sites near the southern port of Sirik. 

Iran's IRGC promised a "swift and decisive response", and has since struck back, launching its own counter-strikes against US military positions in the region, warning that any further American action would trigger a "broader response."

While the IRGC did not identify the location of US targets, Bahrain has reported drone attacks, accusing Tehran of sabotaging peace efforts with tit-for-tat strikes.

The episode has rattled shipping markets and cast a shadow over what had been a fragile but growing restoration of confidence in the strait. According to S&P Global, vessel transits had climbed to 78 on Wednesday — the highest since the war began — before Thursday's strike reversed the mood. The UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which had been coordinating the evacuation of hundreds of vessels and thousands of stranded seafarers from the Gulf, has suspended the operation pending fresh safety assurances.

Further talks between Washington and Tehran are still scheduled, but with each side accusing the other of acting in bad faith, the diplomatic path forward looks as narrow as the waterway at the centre of it all.

Hezbollah takes to Beirut's streets as Israel-Lebanon deal deepens tensions

Hezbollah supporters flooded onto the streets of Beirut on Friday night, hours after Israel and Lebanon put their names to a US-brokered framework agreement that the Iran-backed militia has made clear it wants no part of.

Signed at a ceremony in Washington and described by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as "the beginning of the beginning", the deal acknowledges the sovereignty of both countries, and creates a trilateral Military Coordination Group for Lebanon. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took to social media to announce that agreement "aims to achieve Israel's withdrawal from all Lebanese territories"; however there is no clause within the agreement requiring an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Israel has also made no indication of withholding attacks.

In response to the signing, hundreds of pro-Hezbollah protestors on motorbikes and mopeds poured through the capital's southern suburbs before taking over the city centre. The Lebanese army intervened and cleared the route later in the night. 

The scenes underscore the divisions between players that currently dictate peace and security across Lebanon. Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem spoke in a televised address earlier on Friday to demand that Israeli forces withdraw from every inch of Lebanese territory "unconditionally" and "humiliated", insisting that the group would accept no normalisation or Israeli gains of any kind.

Speaking on the same day, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel's continued hold over a security zone, stretching roughly ten kilometres into southern Lebanon, as a key objective: "The most important point is that Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon. This is a major achievement, and we will maintain our presence there as long as Hezbollah is not disarmed and as long as there is a threat to the State of Israel." 

This operational freedom and insistence that Israeli troops will remain for as long as Hezbollah does not disarm is a condition flatly rejected by Hezbollah.

Israel also committed to pulling back from two areas that will be handed to the Lebanese army as pilot zones, where Beirut will attempt to assert state control and work toward disarming non-state actors. 

Whether the goals of the framework are reachable without Hezbollah's buy-in, a group that still has fighters deployed across the south, with an openly contemptuous leadership, will be the central question asked over the coming days and weeks. 

Six Israeli settlers charged over West Bank mosque burning

Israeli prosecutors have charged six settlers with racially-motivated acts of terrorism, arson, sabotage and violent rioting, over the attacks and burnings of villages in the West Bank earlier this month. 

In a statement issued on Friday, Israeli police highlighted the village of Deir Dibwan as the target of masked settlers, who entered the Palestinian settlement on June 14 with flammable substances and weapons. 

"Upon entering the village, they carried out a series of terrorist acts, which included setting fire to vegetation, torching vehicles, damaging the local mosque, attacking residents' homes and throwing stones at vehicles and inhabited houses."

A second village was also attacked by settlers on the same day. 

The defendants include five minors and an 18-year-old, according to The Times of Israel.

The past three years have seen a surge in settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, as Israel reeled from the Hamas-led massacre and mass-kidnapping on October 7, 2023. 

Since 2020, no jail sentences have been given to settlers found responsible for the deaths of Palestinian civilians.