Israel has carried out its first targeted drone strike in Gaza since August 3, hitting a man it described as a Hamas commander in Beit Lahiya amid mounting international pressure to halt such attacks under a US-backed peace plan. The strike, which injured four, comes as Hamas accepts decommissioning its weapons while Israel insists on full disarmament before embracing the agreement.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas commander in northern Gaza on Wednesday in a targeted drone strike, despite pressure from officials overseeing peace efforts to halt such attacks.
The strike hit a man in the city of Beit Lahiya whom the Israeli military described as a Hamas commander. It was the first targeted strike Israel has announced since August 3.
Targeted strikes have faced increased scrutiny since US President Donald Trump announced a deal aimed at advancing peace efforts in Gaza that would include halting such attacks.
Hamas has accepted the plan to decommission its weapons, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it earlier this week, saying Hamas must fully disarm before Israel accepts the terms. Officials involved in the peace efforts have urged Israel to stop the strikes as a way of advancing the agreement.
The Israeli military did not provide details about the man targeted or say whether he was killed. Officials at Shifa and Nasser hospitals said four injured people were brought in on Wednesday.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported 45 people killed since August 1.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday condemned a Houthi attack on a ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, saying three Pakistani nationals were killed and another was wounded. The attack on Tuesday killed six people in total.
With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed by Iran and a US blockade of Iranian ports in place, attention has turned to the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key alternative route for oil shipments from the Gulf.
The attack came amid a rise in Houthi strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, as well as against shipping in the Red Sea.
Trump on Wednesday reiterated his claim that the United States has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying: “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!”
His comments referred to the US blockade of Iranian ports. The strait, through which about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passed before the war, has been largely closed to other traffic since the conflict began because of Iranian attacks on shipping.
Those attacks have continued despite the blockade and US strikes.
Iran has said the strait will only reopen if the United States meets a list of demands, including lifting the blockade.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Iranian Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam in Islamabad on Wednesday as Islamabad seeks to resume peace negotiations between Iran and the United States.
The meeting came a day after Pakistan sent Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Tehran for talks with Iran’s top leaders.
An interim agreement to end the fighting reached in mid-June is due to expire on Monday. The ceasefire collapsed last month as the United States and Iran exchanged strikes for more than two weeks before pausing the fighting.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Wednesday that the June agreement remains valid and that the deadline could be extended.
“We are not closing the chapter,” Andrabi told reporters.
Turkey condemned Colombia’s decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the move would “legitimize Israel’s occupation” of the territory.
Colombia, shortly after conservative President Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in on Friday, became only the second country to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.
The United States was the first country to recognise the territory as Israeli during Trump’s first term, reversing longstanding US policy.
The United Nations recognises the Golan Heights as Syrian territory.
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that authorities had thwarted a “terrorist plot” targeting an unspecified facility after detaining a Kuwaiti citizen affiliated with Islamic State shortly before he allegedly planned to carry out an attack.
The ministry said the man had received training in making explosives and operating drones for use in the planned attack.
It said a vital facility had been targeted but provided no further details.