Israel resumes military strikes on southern Lebanon as Rome hosts peace talks
Israel again fired on southern Lebanon on Wednesday, blaming Hezbollah for violating a ceasefire, as US-backed negotiations in Rome sought to end months of cross-border hostilities. Lebanon said at least one person was killed in the attacks, while Israel issued its first evacuation alert in weeks for a southern town, underscoring the fragility of the truce.
Israel's military resumed strikes on southern Lebanon on Wednesday despite ongoing talks, blaming a ceasefire violation by militant group Hezbollah as Beirut said at least one person was killed.
The fresh strikes and a first evacuation warning in weeks came as Lebanon and Israel were holding US-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at putting an end to hostilities, with Beirut seeking Israel's phased withdrawal from the south.
"In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement, shortly after telling residents to evacuate the town of Mansouri in the south.
Lebanese state media said one person died and 11 were wounded in a separate strike.
At US-sponsored talks in June, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon's south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as "pilot zones".
Watch moreBeirut hopes to gain Trump support to bring 'normality' back to south Lebanon
This week's negotiations, which are scheduled to run until Thursday, are the seventh round of Washington-mediated talks since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March with rocket fire at Israel in support of its backer Iran.
Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,300 people.
In the first such warning since June, the Israeli military on Wednesday told the residents of Mansouri: "In light of Hezbollah's violations of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are compelled to act against it with force."
"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north," the military's Arabic-language spokeswoman, Ella Waweya, posted on X.
The town of Mansouri, located around nine kilometres (six miles) south of Tyre and 10 kilometres north of Israel, and its surroundings were subjected to several Israeli strikes and artillery shelling in recent weeks despite the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel that took hold in June.
The town's municipality told residents on June 22 that they could return, but asked them to avoid the part of the town that fell within Israel's so-called "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
The "security zone" designates a strip of territory where Israeli forces continue to operate that runs around 10 kilometres deep inside southern Lebanon along its border with Israel.
'Shame, humiliation'
A US State Department official had told AFP that this week's discussions would "include expanding the pilot zone process, resolving all outstanding border issues, and working on a comprehensive peace and security agreement".
As the delegations met in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with his counterpart from Iran, Hezbollah's main patron, and called on Tehran to halt the group's operations.
Tajani, in a post shortly before the Israeli strikes, voiced hope that the talks would "yield concrete results".
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Tuesday that the direct negotiations would bring "nothing but shame, humiliation" and successive concessions for Lebanon.
Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected the direct talks and refuses to surrender its weapons.
Violence in Lebanon has decreased since the Lebanon-Israel deal and the signing in June of a preliminary US-Iran agreement on the Middle East conflict.
But Lebanon continues to report intermittent Israeli strikes and shelling, as well as detonations and demolitions in southern villages.
Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in early March, Israel's military has lost 38 soldiers and one civilian contractor.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Houthis threaten ‘full escalation’ after Saudi Arabia launches Red Sea coalition
The Houthi are also now working alongside Iran to “charge ships to transit the Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea, threatening another waterway after Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Last week, the Houthis struck two Saudi oil tankers, amid a warning from Marco Rubio that they “should have stayed out,” but the Houthis have a history of war with Saudi Arabia. Now that the Saudis have announced a new maritime defense coalition to counter the Houthis’ expanding campaign against Red Sea shipping, a wider escalation looks inevitable.
Iran is now desperate, and its loyal proxies, including the particularly resilient Houthis — advanced in guerrilla warfare and weaponry — will not back down. The official Houthi slogan — “Allahu akbar, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam” — is explicitly inspired by the political rhetoric of the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution.
The Houthis have also developed an advanced global supply chain of weapons-smuggling that stretches as far as Eastern China. The Houthis have had remarkable successes. One may wonder how a jihad group from the mountains of poverty-stricken and war-torn Yemen could threaten the world, but they have managed to do so. Fanatical religious zeal combined with a sense of having nothing to lose is effective. Westerners underestimate the depth and power of Islamic religious zeal. Yet with Saudi Arabia now in the mix, the war is now unpredictable, as the Saudis gear up for major retaliation, including a “possible ground invasion” against the Houthis.
Houthis vow ‘full escalation’ as Saudi Arabia launches Red Sea coalition
by Clara Nabaa, Euronews, July 31, 2026:
Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi threatened Saudi Arabia with “full escalation,” hours before Riyadh announced a new maritime defence coalition designed to counter the Iran-backed group’s expanding campaign against Red Sea shipping.
“The indicators show that the Saudi side is heading towards full escalation, and we will respond to its full escalation with full escalation,” al-Houthi said in a lengthy televised address on Thursday.
The Houthi leader also warned that aircraft Turkey sold to Saudi Arabia would “turn into unsellable stock once they are shot down in Yemen,” saying Riyadh had already lost American MQ-9 drones and Chinese-supplied aircraft in the conflict.
Al-Houthi accused Saudi Arabia of keeping Yemen in a deliberate cycle of economic and political crisis, saying what he described as “US-Saudi aggression” had been under way since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the war in 2015…
Iran Sowing Discord in Jordan
With its latest missile attacks on an American base in Jordan, Iran is hoping to sow discord in the Hashemite kingdom between those who continue to see an American military presence as useful protection and those who see the American base as a target for Iranian missiles that, if they go astray, can cause damage and loss of civilian life.. Iran is hoping its attacks will arouse enough alarm among the people of Jordan for them to then put pressure on the government in Amman to close the American base. More on Iran’s strategy in dealing with Jordan can be found here:
‘Exactly what Iran intended’: Some Jordanians buckle under missile pressure, demand US withdrawal
by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2026:
The Islamic Republic is making headway in its ambition to “sow discord within Jordan and create governmental chaos in order to expand Iranian influence” in the country, Prof. Ronen Yitzhak told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, following the publication of an open letter signed by hundreds of Jordanian political and legal figures demanding the withdrawal of US forces.
The letter, a rare public challenge to the Jordanian government, was signed by both Palestinian and original Jordanian tribes, which is what makes it particularly “disturbing,” Yitzhak said.
“This is exactly what Iran intended when it launched missiles at Jordan, as well as at other Gulf states. Its goal was to put pressure on the Jordanian population to demand the removal of the American presence,” he said.
“But it is more than that. There is an Iranian intention to deepen the gap between the Jordanian government, which supports the United States, and the Jordanian people, which opposes American policy, as part of the Iranian ambition to sow discord within Jordan and cause governmental chaos in order to increase Iranian influence in Jordan – this has been Iran’s ambition for over 20 years.”
The letter claimed that US military presence “exposes Jordan to security, political, and economic risks that serve no national interest and increases the likelihood of our country being dragged into a regional conflict to which it is not a party.”….
But King Abdullah is determined to keep the 4,000 American troops, along with American planes and other weapons, in Jordan, as security against threats foreign and domestic. He is also keenly aware that if he were to close the American base, the Americans in Congress would likely call for an end to the large amounts of aid Washington now provides Jordan, which is now amounts to $1.8. billion dollars annually, making Jordan the third highest recipient of American aid after Israel and Ukraine. From his point of view, the Jordanians demanding the American base be shut down fail to comprehend the economic consequences of such a move.
Though Amman’s relationship with the US has been undoubtedly beneficial, the regional escalation has also had a deep impact on Jordan’s economy. The Central Bank of Jordan reported that in the first half of 2026, tourism revenue went down from expatriate Jordanians by 12%, US nationals by 25%, and European nationals by 28%. According to The New York Times, the tourism industry alone makes up 18% of Jordan’s revenues….
Tourism to Jordan has gone down not because of the intermittent attacks on the American base in the country, but because of the general level of instability and violence all over the Middle East, as Iran lashes out at seven different Arab states in the region, Iran’s Houthi allies threaten to shut down the Bab al-Mandeb strait to Red Sea traffic, and the U.S. and Iran are exchanging fire yet again. And though there are no American bases in Egypt, Iranian drone has hit two natural gas tankers in Damietta, Egypt, one of them American-owned. With such omnidirectional violence, it is no wonder tourism to Jordan has gone down, just as it has everywhere in the Middle East.
Sufyan al-Tell, a political activist who signed the letter, told the Times that Jordan’s capabilities were being “exploited…one way or another to defend Israel,” reflecting a growing number of Jordanians who have vocalized the belief that the country is making sacrifices for the benefit of a foreign power.
Jordan is not “making sacrifices” for Israel by hosting an American military base. Those 4,000 troops and their weapons are there to defend the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from enemy attack, including from Shi’a Iran and “Palestinians” inside Jordan opposed the rule of the indigenous Jordanians. The American base in Jordan also helps project American power throughout the region, in the same way that American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia all do. Iran, after all, would dearly like to bring down all of the Arab monarchies, including that in Jordan. King Abdullah understands this.
King Abdullah, a graduate of Frank Boyden’s Deerfield Academy (I happened to be present at his graduation in 1980 because a relative of mine was one of his classmates), is not going to yield to those who, consumed by their hatred of Israel, are in cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite -your-face mode. He knows the diplomatic and economic consequences for Jordan — none of them good — if it were to close down the American base.
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