War, latest news. EU signs appeal against Israeli construction projects in the West Bank. Turkey: international arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu

An open confrontation has broken out between Turkey and Israel following accusations levelled by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ankara has rejected the Israeli statements, describing them as “delusional and reckless”, and has accused the Netanyahu government of using Turkey for its election campaign. “These statements, devoid of historical truth and political seriousness, are a further indication of the impotence into which a government has fallen as it seeks to evade its responsibilities for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the Turkish Presidency stated in a press release. The response came after Netanyahu’s office had described Erdogan as an “anti-Semitic dictator” and accused the Turkish president of seeking to extend his “aggression against Israel” to Syria. “Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will not succeed,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s office had written on X. Ankara has now accused the Netanyahu government of exploiting the row with Turkey for domestic political reasons. “The election campaign in Israel has fallen under the influence of irresponsible security-driven populism and an increasingly hardline policy of threats,” the statement reads – “This policy of threats and this attempt to escalate tensions, pursued for the sake of domestic political competition, pose serious risks not only to Israeli society, but also to regional and global peace and stability.”

The number of US servicemen reported as wounded or killed in the war against Iran has risen to 774, according to the Washington Post, citing Pentagon figures. To date, 18 of these servicemen have been killed in the conflict and 756 have been wounded. The figures were updated by the Department of Defence after the ceasefire with Tehran expired on Monday. Since then, there has been no large-scale resumption of combat operations by either side.

Spain has called on Israel to abandon its plans to build thousands of housing units in the Mevaseret Adumim (E1) area of the West Bank, which will link the Israeli settlement town of Ma’ale Adumim with East Jerusalem. This was stated by the Spanish Foreign Ministry. The leaders of Germany, France, Italia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Norway yesterday condemned the Israeli authorities’ decision to launch new tenders for the E1 project, which will split the West Bank of the River Jordan in two. “The Spanish Government urges the Israeli Government to revoke this decision, which contravenes international law, and to respect its international obligations,” the Ministry stated in a press release. Madrid also condemned the Israeli decision to issue tenders for “the construction of over 1,200 homes in settlements in the E1 area”.

The ministry reiterated that Spain considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be contrary to international law and an obstacle to the implementation of the two-state solution and the achievement of peace. Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank remains a major source of contention with the international community and the Palestinian National Authority. The Palestinians regard this policy as an attempt to consolidate the Jewish state within their territories. At the end of May, the European Union imposed sanctions on several individuals and organisations involved in the violation of Palestinians’ rights in the West Bank in connection with Israeli settlement activities.

The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, met the President of the Lebanese Republic, Joseph Aoun, today in Taranto on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 20th Mediterranean Games. According to Palazzo Chigi, during the meeting, ‘the two leaders discussed the situation in Lebanon, the progress of negotiations with Israel and the scenarios surrounding the gradual withdrawal of UNIFIL, scheduled for 2027’. Prime Minister Meloni ‘reiterated Italy’s support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and for efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace with Israel, confirming Italy’s willingness to host further rounds of negotiations between the two nations’, the statement concluded.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has stated that President Donald Trump’s campaign against Tehran, dubbed ‘Economic D-Day’, is doomed to failure and that Iran has already faced similar pressure from the United States. This was reported by Iran International. “Fourteen years ago: ‘The most devastating sanctions in history’. Failed. Eight years ago: ‘Maximum pressure’. Failed. Five months ago: ‘Unconditional surrender’. Failed. Today: ‘The most devastating economic operation ever’. Doomed to failure’, Araghchi wrote on X. The minister also shared a post from 2012 in which the then Vice-President Joe Biden stated that sanctions against Iran were ‘the most devastating sanctions in the history of sanctions’. ‘We’ve seen this film before. Same story. Different bullies’, Araghchi added.

Power does not derive solely from a state’s military and economic capabilities, but from the asymmetries of vulnerability generated by interdependence. According to Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye (in Power and Interdependence), conventional wisdom has overestimated the importance of states and their aggregate power. Even a state that is dominant in many respects may be highly vulnerable in others. This lesson becomes all the more crucial as competition between states and non-state actors shifts increasingly into the cyber domain.

The quagmire into which the United States appears to have become embroiled in the war with Iran, and the resilience of Tehran and its partners, point to a fundamental flaw in the reasoning that led to the conflict. As Ivan Arreguín-Toft observed in How the Weak Win Wars: ‘Although relative power matters, the interplay of the strategies employed by the actors matters more than the amount of power they possess at the outset of their conflict’. The United States and Israel attacked Iran in the belief that military superiority, economic sanctions, the elimination of the leadership, and the destruction of infrastructure and supply chains would severely weaken the Iranian regime.

The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have issued a joint statement in which they condemn the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, with particular reference to the E1 settlement project east of East Jerusalem. The ministers described the E1 project as a ‘dangerous escalation” that would encourage settlement expansion and annexation, undermine the territorial contiguity of the occupied Palestinian territories and threaten the viability of an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The statement also condemns the violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, arguing that such acts have been carried out with the support of the Israeli authorities and that these actions violate international law and relevant United Nations resolutions. The ministers stated that the E1 plan undermines ongoing international efforts to achieve peace, citing US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive peace initiative, which includes a rejection of annexation and forced displacement, the implementation mechanisms set out in the plan, and Trump’s stated commitment not to allow the annexation of the West Bank. Reaffirming their support for the two-state solution, the ministers stated that it remains the only viable path towards a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, in accordance with international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions.

Setting aside the alarmist reports in the Financial Times regarding US bases in Europe, the question that should be occupying Palazzo Chigi, the Élysée Palace, Downing Street and the German Chancellery today is not whether Iran has decided to ‘attack NATO’. There is no evidence of such a decision in the available government sources. The issue is more serious: to what extent is Europe’s military, energy and logistical apparatus now geared towards a crisis that originated in the Gulf but is no longer confined to the Gulf? By 2026, the distinction between the front line and the rear had become blurred. Cyprus had been reached. Bulgaria has become part of the American logistical hinterland. Hormuz has become a European economic variable. And NATO, in Ankara, has begun to treat all these phenomena as components of a single strategic problem.

The most significant – and perhaps the least understood – event took place far from Brussels. On 2 March 2026, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer informed the House of Commons that an Iranian drone had struck the RAF Akrotiri area, within the British Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus, crashing just a few dozen metres from British personnel without causing any casualties. On 9 March, the then Defence Secretary John Healey explained to Parliament that London had strengthened its regional defences and authorised the use of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia by the United States for specific defensive operations related to Iran. In short, it is sufficient for bases, tankers, ports, command networks and energy infrastructure located on the continent to become necessary for supporting American or allied operations. At that point, the issue is no longer merely where the target is located, but what function it serves.

“Erdogan is an anti-Semitic dictator who has massacred the Kurds, harbours Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus and imprisons a record number of journalists and political opponents. He is now seeking to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate this. Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will not succeed.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made this statement in a note after the Turkish Minister of Justice announced an arrest warrant against him today.

The IDF carried out a raid today on a facility in the Baraachit area, within the ‘Security Zone’ in southern Lebanon. This was announced by the IDF spokesperson in a statement, according to which ‘soldiers identified several suspects who had crossed into the “Security Zone” in the Baraachit area, had entered a building and posed a threat to the soldiers. Following their identification, the IDF carried out an attack on the building’. ‘The IDF remains committed to upholding the agreement between Israel and Lebanon’, the statement added.

“We are deeply disturbed by the news of the arrest of Dr Dima Mohammed Amin, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, who was taken from her home in the West Bank. Dr Dima is the latest victim of the campaign to detain Palestinian medical staff”. So says Médecins Sans Frontières on X.

“This morning, IDF soldiers intervened in the Sa’ir area following reports that Palestinians were throwing stones at a group of Israeli civilians who were in the area without prior authorisation. As a result of the stone-throwing, several Israeli civilians were injured. A security officer opened fire, causing Palestinian casualties’’. This was reported by the IDF spokesperson in a statement regarding the events that took place this morning near the Palestinian town of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The man’s gunfire resulted in the death of a 17-year-old boy and left a 70-year-old man seriously injured. The security officer referred to in the statement is the head of security for the adjacent Metzad settlement, who was called by settlers who were wandering without authorisation in the Sa’ir area – where entry by Israelis is prohibited – prompting the Palestinian reaction. According to the statement, ‘soldiers intervened to disperse the attackers and remove Israeli civilians from the area. District police officers are now on the scene alongside the soldiers to gather evidence and witness statements as part of the investigation that has been launched’’ The IDF also confirms reports of a fire set to a building under construction, without, however, attributing responsibility for it, noting that the fire service intervened to extinguish the flames. ’’The IDF states that the presence of Israeli civilians in the area without prior coordination and authorisation endangers their safety and diverts the soldiers’ attention from defence and counter-terrorism operations’’, the statement adds.

Turkey has issued an international arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection with the Gaza Flotilla case. This was announced by the government in Ankara.

‘It is better to bring the war to an end today, whilst we are in a position of strength and dignity and the whole world recognises our victory and emphasises that America, in contravention of all the rules, has attacked our schools, our hospitals and our infrastructure and is hated throughout the world.’ According to the ISNA news agency, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian made this statement at the 31st General Assembly of the Islamic Association of the Iranian Medical Society.

A young Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli settlers in Khirbet Hamroush, north-east of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. This was reported by a medical source to Al Jazeera Arabic.

“Any miscalculation and any threat, whether conventional or of a new kind, from our enemies will be met with revolutionary, crushing, deterrent and devastating responses”. This was stated by the Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Ali Abdollahi, in a message sent to the acting Minister of Defence, Majid Ebn al-Reza, to mark Defence Industry Day, which is celebrated on 31 August. In the message, released by the Iranian Ministry of Defence, Abdollahi described the occasion as “an expression of Iran’s deterrent strength” in the face of international sanctions and pressure. According to the Chief of the General Staff, the defence industry represents “an indispensable pillar of national power” and plays a central role in strengthening the country’s security and dignity. “What has been achieved in recent years,” he emphasised, “goes beyond the production of military equipment: it is an industrial revolution in defence and deterrence”, encompassing design, technology management, the defence economy, knowledge-based supply chains and advanced production models.

Iran “is not seeking war”, but “if we are not prepared for war, no one will respond to us when we resort to diplomacy”. This was stated by the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, at a meeting held in Baghdad with Iranian and Iraqi business leaders, during which he also described economic pressures and US sanctions as “part of an economic war”, to be tackled through “planning”. “Military power alone is not enough without economic growth, domestic production and sustainable financial activity,” added Ghalibaf, emphasising that “security and the economy must be strengthened at the same time”.

Il primo ministro iracheno Ali al-Zaidi incontra il presidente del Parlamento iraniano Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf a Baghdad, in Iraq, il 19 agosto 2026. Ufficio stampa del primo ministro iracheno/Foto fornita tramite REUTERS.

Two Palestinian men were injured, one seriously, by gunfire from Israeli settlers in Khirbet Hamroush, a Palestinian village near the town of Sa’ir, north-east of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. This was reported by the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Channel 11 reports that IDF forces are heading to the scene.

China opposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, in response to US calls to increase economic pressure on Iran. On 19 August, US President Donald Trump announced the launch of an “economic operation” against Iran, described as a “process of isolation on an unprecedented scale”, and called on Washington’s allies to join the initiative. And yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Beijing to join the campaign and impose extreme sanctions on Tehran. “China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorised by the United Nations Security Council,” said Lin, commenting on Bessent’s statements.

The diplomat emphasised that China urges the parties involved to act responsibly and to resolve outstanding issues through political and diplomatic means.

The Israeli armed forces have killed a Palestinian in the West Bank following an alleged attack. The news is reported by Al Jazeera: “The Israeli army states that its forces shot and killed a Palestinian near Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, in the early hours of Friday” after the victim “attempted to stab soldiers during a military operation”.

When relations between two countries have long been very strained, even a lack of communication regarding a military operation – particularly one involving a highly divisive issue – can ignite a powder keg in a region that is already in flames.

The eight Israeli air strikes which, at dawn on Tuesday 18th, targeted the Syrian air base at Abu al-Duhur, in the province of Idlib, just 70 km from the Turkish border, risked triggering a direct confrontation between Ankara and Jerusalem. This was emphasised by the US Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack: “Yesterday’s events were serious and worrying. However, we are relieved that no human lives were put at risk and that the situation did not escalate.”

There have been further Israeli attacks on the Ali al-Taher hills and the town of Mansouri, in southern Lebanon.

According to reports in *L’Orient Le Jour*, Israeli artillery fire on Ali Taher, in the Nabatieh region, began after 11 pm and continued until dawn, whilst Israeli drones flew over the area throughout. Witnesses told the newspaper of “particularly intense” attacks on the hills where, according to Israel, Hezbollah has strategic military installations. A village on the outskirts of Ali Taher, Dohat Kfarremane – which has been under fire for days – was also hit. As in recent days, the town of Mansouri, in the Tyre district, was struck several times last night: shortly after 10 pm there were powerful explosions; then, after 11 pm, a drone dropped a sonic bomb coinciding with an artillery barrage; and around 3 am, air raids were launched.

The conflict in Iran and other factors, such as regional rivalries and the economic hardships faced by local fishermen, are fuelling a resurgence in Somali pirate activity. This is highlighted today by the New York Times, after Somali pirates seized two ships within four days. Yesterday, pirates hijacked the oil tanker SIBU 1, flying the Eritrean flag, off the coast of Yemen. According to TankerTrackers.com, a company that monitors global oil traffic, the vessel is believed to be part of Iran’s shadow fleet. The tanker was carrying fuel to a terminal in the Yemeni port of Ras Isa, which is controlled by the Houthi group. The SIBU 1 is the second vessel to be hijacked by Somali pirates in four days: just a few days earlier, a Cameroonian-flagged merchant vessel carrying a cargo of weapons had been seized off the coast of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland. The vessel was sailing from Turkey to Mogadishu, according to Abshir Hashi Ali, Director-General of the Ministry of Ports in the neighbouring Somali state of Galmadug.

The IDF spokesperson reports that on Wednesday the army carried out an attack in the Nuseirat area, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, killing “Sabahi Sami Mahmoud Shahata, a platoon commander in the military wing of Hamas, who had infiltrated Israeli territory and taken part in the massacre on 7 October, participating in the abduction of numerous hostages, and who was continuing to plan attacks against Israeli troops’.”

Israeli forces are preventing ambulances from reaching Palestinians injured following attacks by settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera. The incident took place in Khirbet Deir Shams, south of Hebron, when three Palestinians were injured following attacks by Israeli settlers on their homes.

The US Navy is working to change the name of one of its aircraft carriers currently under construction, which was originally intended to honour an African-American sailor, Doris Miller, celebrated for his heroic actions during the attack on Pearl Harbour. CNN reports this, citing three sources, two of whom have reported that there are internal discussions about the possibility of naming it after Donald Trump – an unprecedented move as it would favour the name of a sitting president.

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has completed its mission in the Middle East and, together with its crew of around 5,000 sailors, has begun its journey to San Diego, California, following a nine-month deployment. It has been replaced by another aircraft carrier, the George Washington, which has arrived from Japan. The Lincoln’s departure was confirmed to the New York Times by a US official. The Abraham Lincoln had been deployed to the Middle East as part of US operations against Iran. In recent weeks, reports had emerged regarding the poor quality of life on board the ship due to logistical challenges caused by Iran’s destruction of a naval base in Manama, Bahrain, which served as a vital resupply hub. The Abraham Lincoln had set sail from San Diego on 21 November last year and has spent all 272 days at sea, apart from a brief stopover in Guam in December and another in Oman to refuel. Thousands of sailors on board the ship have had no days off to rest and now face a return journey of around 13,000 miles, which could take between four and five weeks.

La portaerei della classe Nimitz della Marina degli Stati Uniti, la USS Abraham Lincoln, che sta fornendo supporto alle operazioni militari statunitensi nella guerra contro l’Iran, effettua un rifornimento in mare con la nave rifornitrice della flotta USNS Henry J. Kaiser, il 16 agosto 2026. Marina degli Stati Uniti/Foto fornita tramite REUTERS

The UN states that its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon continue to be subjected to incidents involving Israeli forces, which restrict their freedom of movement and raise concerns for their safety. This was reported on the website of the Qatari satellite network Al Jazeera. “On Wednesday, a tank (belonging to the Israeli army, ed.) aimed its turret and a laser at one of the peacekeepers’ posts near Adshit al-Qusayr,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, during a press conference. He added that near Meiss el-Jabal “several shots from small arms struck the vicinity of a UNIFIL post” whilst Israeli forces “were operating nearby”. Dujarric stated that between Monday and Wednesday, seven incidents were recorded which restricted UNIFIL’s movements.

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Economic pressure is the “most effective tool” the United States has against Iran, but it is a “delicate balancing act”. This was stated by US Vice-President JD Vance in an interview on the “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” podcast, reported by CNN. “The most effective tool we have is the economic pressure we can exert on them. And this is a delicate dance, because if we exert economic pressure on them, they will try to do the same to us”, said Vance, arguing that “over the last two weeks they have been under far more pressure than we have”. Vance acknowledged that “obviously oil prices are high, as you can see at the pump”, but highlighted the administration’s ability to ensure ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz. “They are trying to close the Strait, and if we can – not so much restore it to its previous state, but get enough oil and gas through to provide some relief for Americans at the petrol pump, some relief on energy prices,” added the vice-president. According to Vance, “the Iranians are being punished for firing on merchant ships” and “this is exerting strong economic pressure on them and changing their assessments of the sort of deal they want to strike”.

“We’ve wiped out Iran”. Donald Trump said this in a telephone interview with Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and the key witness against him in the trial concerning the tycoon’s relationship with the porn star Stormy Daniels. Tehran “has a few missiles and drones but has limited production capacity”, the US president continued, adding that “the United States essentially controls the Strait of Hormuz and will soon have full control of it”.

Il presidente Donald Trump interviene durante un incontro con i leader del settore tecnologico nella Roosevelt Room della Casa Bianca, mercoledì 19 agosto 2026, a Washington. (Foto AP/Jacquelyn Martin) Associated Press/LaPresse Solo l'Italia e la Spagna