Israel said it demolished key tunnels built by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, triggering a 4.1 magnitude tremor.
The Iran-backed rebels are reportedly a step closer to their goal of establishing a stranglehold over Bab el Mandeb, a crucial waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Israel has ramped up strikes in southern Lebanon, killing more than two dozen people and prompting fears of an even larger-scale military escalation ahead of Israel’s elections.
LATIKA M BOURKE: A cast of countries led by the UK has declared a ban on Israeli goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank — with Australia a notable omission.
The Persian Gulf’s richest states are pushing forward with plans for a massive build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure, even though data centers have become repeated targets in the US war with Iran.
The latest flare-up in the Middle East threatens to deepen a conflict that has dragged on since the United States launched strikes on Iran in February.
An Iranian official has described hostilities between the United States and Iran, the first since late July, as a ‘limited and contained confrontation’.