Intensification of violence in the West Bank
Palestinians from the village of Tell, in the north of the occupied West Bank, buried on Saturday July 25 four men killed the day before in clashes with Israeli settlers, according to local authorities. Violence has intensified in the West Bank since the unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, including almost daily settler attacks on Palestinians.
According to the Israeli army, whose soldiers were dispatched to the site, a Palestinian grabbed the weapon of one of the settlers, killing one of them. Shots were exchanged “from both sides” during which the four Palestinians and a second Israeli died.
Houthi missile attack on Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, claimed responsibility for a missile attack in the southwest of neighboring Saudi Arabia on Saturday July 25 in response to strikes from Riyadh. Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Hodeidah, a Houthi-controlled port on Yemen’s west coast, on Friday after rebels targeted ships sailing in the Red Sea. After four years of truce between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, which had militarily supported the Yemeni government against the rebels from 2015, hostilities resumed on July 13 between the two camps.
In the Strait of Hormuz, an incident involving an oil tanker
An incident involving an oil tanker was reported on Saturday near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the British maritime safety agency UKMTO. Tehran claimed to have stopped four ships trying to cross this strategic sea lane after “warning shots”, generally carried out using missiles.
Calm night in Iran
After two weeks of intensive American bombing since the April ceasefire, the Iranians have been able to sleep peacefully. However, Donald Trump did not rule out on Friday inflicting “a much worse level” of strikes on the Islamic Republic, with American media citing discussions of a possible large-scale military operation. “We’re actually talking to them right now,” Trump said of Iran’s leaders. “I think they are becoming more and more serious as the days go by, perhaps for an obvious reason,” he added, referring to the daily bombings for almost two weeks.
The United States warns Russia and China
US President Donald Trump on Friday warned Russia and China against selling arms to Iran, adding, however, that he believed Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin when they said they were not engaged in such transactions. Washington is investigating potential sales of information by Russia and China to Iran, after a series of strikes on American bases in the Middle East.
