MidEast Madness Update: trump Gets Crazier while Palestine Genocide Continues

[S. E. Anderson]

MidEast Madness Update: trump Gets Crazier while Palestine Genocide Continues

Ships sailing near the Strait of Hormuz off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates at Khor Fakkan on July 13, 2026.

Iran and Ceasefire

• Iran shuts down the Strait of Hormuz after hitting container ship: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy announced Saturday that the Strait would be “closed until further notice.”

  • According to the IRGC, the decision came after a vessel attempted to transit through an “unapproved route” after disabling its tracking systems and ignoring orders to change course. It said it struck the vessel “with warning fire,” forcing it to stop.

  • Oman rescued 23 crew members from the Cyprus-flagged container ship M/V GFS Galaxy after the container ship caught fire overnight near the Musandam Peninsula, according to the UKMTO monitoring organization. One sailor remains missing. A U.S. official later confirmed to Axios that the GFS Galaxy sustained heavy damage.

  • The Iran–U.S. memorandum of understanding states that commercial vessel traffic would be fully restored within 30 days of the agreement, and that Iran “will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels.” Tehran, therefore, insists that oversight and management of the Strait remains under its control, and that navigation be conducted through its northern route, rather than through the southern U.S.- and allied-backed corridor along the Omani coast. Iran has also maintained that decisions regarding the administration of the Strait will be made exclusively by Tehran and Oman, in dialogue with other Persian Gulf states, in accordance with the MOU.

  • The Iranian navy warned that it would “respond severely” to any further violations, noting that it would also “target enemy bases” in the region.

  • Two other vessels were fired at on Monday, with the IRGC saying it fired warning shots at two ships attempting to “illegally” cross the Strait.

• U.S. launches third wave of strikes on Iran: U.S. Central Command announced on Saturday evening that it had begun a third round of strikes on the country.

  • Explosions were heard in the southern coastal cities of Bandar Abbas, Bandar Jask, Sirik, Asaluyeh, and Bushehr in the Bushehr province, and the nearby cities of Kangan, Dayyer, and Chabahar. Explosions were also heard in Erbil in Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iraqi border.

  • A statement from CENTCOM following Saturday’s strikes said that the U.S. had struck 140 “military targets,” including “missile and drone sites, naval assets, ammunition depots, communications networks, and coastal surveillance positions.”

  • The U.S. launched another round of strikes on Sunday, per CENTCOM, with Iranian media reporting strikes and explosions heard in Bandar Abbas, Jask, Sirik, and Qeshm Island.

  • A strike on Sunday destroyed a hangar at Iran’s Omidiyeh Airport, in the central Khuzestan province, according to footage purporting to be from the site circulating online.

  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. strikes in a Sunday statement, calling them “savage attacks” that violate the UN Charter, and issued a warning to Gulf states that host U.S. bases, saying that that relationship makes them a “legitimate target of defensive strikes” by Iran’s armed forces. It also chastised the UN for its “non-constructive approach” to U.S. violations of the organization’s rules.

• Iran retaliates, hitting U.S. Gulf bases: Iran fired upon U.S. military sites in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, and Oman.

  • Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, a U.S. drone command centre in Bahrain and other air bases, including Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The IRGC also claimed attacks on what it described as U.S. military facilities and infrastructure in Juffair, Bahrain, as well as a vessel-detection radar in Oman.

  • Kuwait said some of its border posts were damaged, and Qatar and the UAE confirmed that they had intercepted Iranian missiles.

  • Smoke was seen rising from the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain on Sunday morning, according to video footage shared online.

  • The retaliatory attacks continued Monday morning, with the militaries of Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait reporting strikes.

• Trump claims Hormuz remains open: President Donald Trump claimed in a Sunday appearance before NBC’s Meet the Press that U.S. military action had kept the Strait of Hormuz open even as Tehran announced its closure and as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran continued.

  • “It’s open,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. had “bombed the hell out of” Iran on Saturday evening.

  • Trump framed the situation as a product of Iran’s “giving up” on a deal, which he called a “perfect deal” for the U.S., and which he alleged, without substantiating, forbade them from pursuing any further nuclear development.

  • Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill reported on the White House’s “deliberate media disinformation campaign” regarding these negotiations on Saturday, with the U.S. using Axios to pin responsibility for a recent attack in the Strait on a “rogue sect” in the military and to say that Tehran was considering announcing new transit routes with Oman.

    • The official told Scahill the campaign is “a very deliberate and coordinated media campaign designed to pressure us into changing our decision.” “We had already clearly told the Qataris and Omanis about our firm and final decision: Iran will not allow anyone to disrupt our security and oversight management of the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

• Trump announces reimposition of U.S. blockade; Iran’s armed forces warn against U.S. interference: In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump announced the reinstatement of a blockade on Iranian ports, under which Iranian ships and customers would be barred from entering or leaving while other countries retain access. In the post, Trump also declared the U.S. “the Guardian of the Hormuz Strait” while adding that Washington would seek reimbursement at a rate of 20% on all cargo shipped through the waterway to cover the costs of providing security.

  • Following Trump’s comments, Iran’s unified armed forces command warned the U.S. against intervening in the Strait. Iranian forces would “deal severely with any disruption and insecurity” outside Tehran’s designated shipping route, said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warning that any logistical support for the U.S. military would be considered “a war against Iran’s sovereignty and national security” that could “engulf all the countries in the region.”

• Iran repairing nuclear, missile sites hit in U.S.-Israeli strikes, CNN reports: Iran has been repairing nuclear and missile sites damaged in U.S.-Israeli strikes, a CNN visual investigation published on Saturday purported to show.

  • Satellite images show reconstruction at the Parchin complex, activity at the underground Pickaxe Mountain facility, and coverings over buildings at Natanz and Isfahan, which experts told CNN may conceal efforts to recover nuclear material from satellite observation and block IAEA inspectors.

  • Separate imagery showed excavators and dump trucks clearing entrances to underground missile bases, with at least 50 of 69 tunnel access points examined reopened, potentially restoring access to missiles trapped by the strikes.

  • Iran had pledged to “maintain the status quo” of its civilian nuclear program until a final deal could be reached between itself and the U.S. in the memorandum of understanding.

• Oil market spikes: Oil futures jumped more than 3% as markets opened Sunday, amid renewed U.S.-Iran attacks and fears of further disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.

  • Brent crude rose to roughly $78.71 a barrel, nearly 10% above its level before Donald Trump declared the MOU with Iran “over.”

Lebanon

• Israeli ceasefire violations continue across south Lebanon with shelling, a drone attack, and home demolitions: An Israeli drone dropped an incendiary bomb on Al-Tahra hill in the town of Kfar Reman in the district of Nabatieh on Monday, while intermittent Israeli artillery shelling targeted the area between Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Kfartebnit, according to the state’s National News Agency (NNA). In Marjayoun, the Israeli army demolished and burned homes in the southern neighbourhoods of the border town of Hadatha.

• Lebanon’s Aoun says he will urge trump to pressure Israel ahead of White House visit: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Monday that only the Lebanese state and army are capable of protecting the country’s citizens, stressing that he would not compromise on Lebanon’s south or its rights. Speaking ahead of a planned July 21 meeting with U.S. President donald trump at the White House, Aoun said he would ask trump to exert pressure on Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory, commit to having no territorial ambitions in Lebanon, and implement the terms agreed under the “framework agreement” as well as Lebanon’s demands.

  • Open letter from residents of southern Lebanon: Amid ongoing Israeli violations in the south, a coalition representing residents of Lebanese border villages called for urgent action to stop the ongoing “destruction” of their communities. The group said more than 60 villages remain occupied and that Israel is changing their “geographic, topographic and demographic” character. It urged President Joseph Aoun to halt any negotiations until the “bulldozing, demolitions and burning” stop, Israeli forces withdraw, displaced residents are allowed to return, and reconstruction begins.

• Israeli Defense Minister: Southern Lebanon subjected to Gaza-like destruction; 90% of homes destroyed: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in an interview Saturday that Israeli forces had demolished homes in 24 villages along Lebanon’s southern border, saying the military had applied the “Rafah model” used in Gaza. “I said that Southern Lebanon would become Gaza... We would destroy everything there. And that is what we did,” Katz said. He added that the army had “systematically flattened the villages with bulldozers and explosives,” adding that 90% of homes had been destroyed, amounting to between 15,000 and 20,000 houses.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, eight Palestinians were killed, one due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and 32 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

  • The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,231 killed, with 173,686 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,108 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,578, while 800 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.

• Israel kills two Palestinians in Gaza on Monday: Two Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to WAFA. One person was killed and several others injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted a motorcycle in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City. Earlier, another Palestinian was killed when an Israeli strike hit a home in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

• Israeli strikes on Gaza continue over the weekend:

  • Israeli forces repeatedly struck a civilian vehicle near the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Saturday, killing one person and wounding several others, including children. The first strike, according to residents of the area, left everyone unscathed. Israeli forces then struck a person trying to flee the vehicle, killed another person who retreated to the shoreline, and launched a drone strike on civilians attempting to rescue the wounded.

  • Another Israeli drone strike on Saturday killed a man in Khan Younis, with 11 others wounded.

  • Israel killed eight Palestinians, including a child, on Sunday, and continued to shell and demolish houses across the Strip.

  • An Israeli strike on tents in Khan Younis on Sunday killed one and wounded others, and a separate strike by an Israeli drone killed four others near Gaza City.

  • Three Palestinians, including a young girl, died on Sunday from wounds they sustained during an Israeli attack on the Al-Bureij refugee camp,

  • Palestinian photojournalist Saed Hasaballah was wounded on Sunday while covering an Israeli strike in Gaza City after four air strikes hit a single-story home. Hasaballah said he suffered injuries to his left hand and back. “This is the second time… but it will not stop me from continuing to report the truth from the heart of the field…so Gaza’s voice continues to reach the world,” he said in a statement posted from the hospital.

• Israeli forces kill Palestinian near separation wall north of occupied Jerusalem: A 20-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces on Monday morning near the separation wall in the town of Bir Nabala, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, WAFA reported. The killing comes amid repeated shootings near the separation wall, where Palestinians, many of them workers attempting to reach jobs in Jerusalem and the ‘48 territories inside of Israel, are frequently targeted by Israeli forces. At least 39 workers have been shot near the wall since the start of 2026, while two were killed in May, according to the Jerusalem Governorate.

• Armed settlers block Rep. Ro Khanna in West Bank village: Armed Israeli settlers blocked U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, D-Calif., from leaving Khirbet Zanuta in the occupied West Bank for 90 minutes on Saturday as Israeli troops stood by and later blocked the road themselves, the New York Times reported, citing footage from the congressman and his team.

  • Khanna, who was on a three-day, Palestinian-led tour meeting Palestinian families, local officials and business owners, told the Times the episode showed how difficult a two-state solution would be given the number of violent settlers who would need to be removed. “We really saw the apartheid-like conditions, the inequality,” he said.

  • Khanna described the encounter in additional detail to Reuters, noting that settlers had destroyed a school in the village and much of the village itself, and had menaced its residents afterwards. “These hoodlums come in with machine guns, an M4, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us,” he said. “They block off the road. And then they call the IDF, and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.”

  • In a statement regarding the attack, Khanna highlighted the work of Drop Site’s Maysa Mustafa and of journalist Jasper Nathaniel, “and the many other journalists telling stories directly from Palestinians about what they’re experiencing.” Maysa spoke with Khanna about his experience in the occupied West Bank; a video of their discussion is available here.

  • Separately on Saturday, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “simply lying” when he claimed there had been transparency around the killings of Americans in the occupied West Bank. Van Hollen noted that nine Americans, including Palestinian American Saif Musallet, have been killed by Israeli settlers or forces over the past four years, and that no Israeli had been held to serious account as a result.

  • Netanyahu responded directly to Khanna’s detention in the West Bank, telling NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the settlers were “150 juvenile delinquents that are not part of that community,” despite Khanna’s assertions that they were coordinating with the country’s military.

• Israel advances plan for “largest settlement enclave” in East Jerusalem’s Umm Lison: Israeli authorities approved plans to advance the construction of around 450 illegal settlement housing units inside the Palestinian neighbourhood of Umm Lison in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli rights group Ir Amim via Anadolu Agency. The organisation said the project, which had been frozen for more than two years, could bring around 2,000 Israeli settlers into the neighbourhood.

  • The Jerusalem Governorate said the project would create the largest settlement enclave inside a Palestinian neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem and reflects “an integrated settler-colonial project,” rather than isolated violations.

• Gaza health ministry warns ambulance fleet nearing “complete paralysis”: Gaza’s Health Ministry warned on Saturday that the territory’s medical transport system is nearing “complete paralysis” amid Israel’s continued ban on the entry of tires and spare parts, saying 70% of its remaining ambulances and transport vehicles are out of service due to direct Israeli attacks, mechanical failures and shortage of parts.  ///

 

 

 

 

 

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s. e. anderson
author of The Black Holocaust for Beginners
"If WORK was good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor." (Haiti)
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