Iran Israel latest news: Hezbollah and Iran vow retaliation as Gaza school bombings kill over a dozen

The United Nations human rights chief has joined the condemnation of comments by Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said on Monday that the starvation of Gaza’s population “might be just and moral” until Israeli hostages are returned home.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk was “shocked and appalled” by the comments that “incite hatred against innocent civilians,” spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said.

“The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. The collective punishment of the Palestinian population is also a war crime. This direct and public statement risks inciting other atrocity crimes,” Mr Laurence told a briefing in Geneva.

The UK and EU have already criticised the comments this week.

Pakistan will support all efforts to prevent war escalating in the Middle East, its foreign ministry has said.

“Pakistan will support all efforts to prevent a war in the Middle East,” a ministry spokesperson told reporters. She did not comment on whether Pakistan had been in contact with Washington over the issue.

The ministry denied reports by the Jerusalem Post newspaper that Pakistan was planning to provide Shaheen-III medium-range ballistic missiles to Iran.

Pakistan does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, but has seen a marked improvement in previously rocky ties with neighbouring Iran which culminated in military fire between the two nations in January. Iran’s president visited in April and the nations have said they are boosting trade ties and cooperation.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar has spoken by phone with Iran’s foreign minister in recent days, and attended an emergency meeting convened by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia this week where he condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza and called for a ceasefire.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy has new cruise missiles equipped with highly explosive warheads that are undetectable, the semi-official Tasnim news agency has claimed, as Israel braces for a retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

“A large number of cruise missiles have been added to the Guards’ navy fleet. These new missiles have capabilities of highly explosive warheads that are undetectable and can cause extensive damage and sink their targets,” Tasnim said.

Leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar have issued a joint statement demanding that Israel and Hamas return to stalled talks on the war in Gaza next week.

“Only the details” of carrying out a ceasefire and hostage release remain to be negotiated, they said, adding: “There is no further time to waste, nor excuses from any party for further delay.”

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that it had accepted the invitation.

US president Joe Biden, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani – who have acted as mediators in indirect negotiations – set the talks for Thursday, in either Doha, Qatar or Cairo.

The Delta Blue crude oil tanker has reported a third and fourth incident in the last 24 hours off Yemen’s port of Mokha, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency has said.

The crew and vessel are safe and proceeding to their next port of call, the UKMTO said in an advisory note. The latest incidents included an attack by an uncrewed surface vessel and another by a missile that landed near the ship, UKMTO said.

On Thursday the ship’s captain reported that two small craft had approached and fired a rocket-propelled grenade which exploded near the Liberia-flagged Delta Blue some 45 nautical miles south of Mokha. Each of the two small boats had four people on board, UKMTO said.

Hours later, another missile exploded close to the tanker, it said.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin held a phone call with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and discussed the US steps in the Middle East to defend Israel and a Gaza ceasefire.

Mr Austin said on social media platform X: “The US F-22 Raptors that arrived in the region today represent one of many efforts to deter aggression, defend Israel and protect US forces in the region.”

He added: “I also stressed the importance of concluding a ceasefire deal in Gaza that releases the hostages.”

It comes as vice president Kamala Harris did not agree to discuss imposing an arms embargo on Israel during an exchange with pro-Palestinian activists who are pushing for changes to US policy towards Gaza, an aide.

The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ms Harris did not express a willingness to discuss an arms embargo during an interaction with Uncommitted National Movement.

But a campaign spokesperson said the vice president did tell members of the Muslim and Palestinian community she would continue to engage with them on the war.

Two people have been confirmed dead in the Naqoura area in southern Lebanon, the Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon said today.

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defence Forces.

The situation has remained tense along the Israel-Lebanon border as Israel and its allies are bracing for retaliation from Hezbollah and Tehran over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran and a Hezbollah leader in Beirut.

Three suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have targeted a ship in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, authorities said.

One incident saw private security guards shoot and destroy a bomb-loaded drone boat.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the assaults, which follow a months-long campaign by the rebels targeting shipping through the Red Sea corridor in response to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

After a recent two-week pause, their attacks resumed following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, amid concerns of a wider regional war.

Iran backs the Houthis as part of what it calls a regional “Axis of Resistance”.

The Houthis’ leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said in a speech on Thursday: “The operations are ongoing – our operations toward occupied Palestine to target the Israeli enemy, our operations at sea, the inevitable forthcoming response, as well as coordination with the axis in any joint operations.

“The decision to respond is a collective decision, at the level of the entire axis and at the level of each front individually.”

In the first attack, a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) exploded close to the ship on Thursday, according to the UK Ministry of Defence’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO).

Two smaller craft, with men aboard wearing white and yellow raincoats, launched the RPG, the UKMTO said.

The second attack came early Friday, with a missile “exploding in close proximity to the vessel,” the UKMTO added.

“The vessel and crew are reported to be safe.”

The private security firm Ambrey reported that the ship was hit by a drone that caused no injuries or physical damage.

“The vessel was assessed to be aligned with the Houthi target profile,” Ambrey said. “The vessel was assessed to have been targeted earlier in the day.”

Then came the third attack with the drone boat, where private security guards on board “opened fire and (were) able to successfully destroy the vehicle”, Ambrey said.

Though the Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, it sometimes can take hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. They have also claimed others that apparently have not happened.

Japan’s port city of Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of its atomic bombing by the US with a moment of silence in an event boycotted by most G7 leaders.

The city fell silent when the clock struck 11.2am, the exact time when a USAAF B-29 airplane dropped the plutonium bomb over the city in 1945.

“The government of Japan, the only state attacked by atomic bombs in war, must express a serious attitude of pursuing a world without nuclear weapons,” said Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki, speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary.

“As a step toward this, we call for the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible,” he said.

The event was marred by controversy after ambassadors, including the American, boycotted it over the exclusion of Israel.

US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and British ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom did not attend the ceremony.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller defended the decision and said it was important that the Israeli ambassador be invited.

“No country should have been singled out to not be invited,” he said, adding it was presumably the reason why Mr Emanuel took the step that he did.

Nagasaki mayor said the decision was not politically motivated but added there would be no change to the decision despite the responses by ambasadors.

United Airlines said it has suspended its flights to Tel Aviv for the foreseeable future and plans to resume them only when it is safe for its customers and crew.

Many airlines globally are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon amid growing fears of a possible broader conflict in the region after the killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Chicago-based airline suspended its daily Newark, New Jersey-Tel Aviv service on 31 July, citing security reasons. The flight, however, was available for booking from 1 September.

On Thursday, United said it was now removing the Tel Aviv flights from its schedule. Customers can seek refunds or rebook United flights to any city in Europe or the Middle East, it said.

Its rival Delta Air Lines has halted its flights between New York and Tel Aviv through 31 August.