Dubai: Saudi Arabia warned of a “hostile aerial threat” and issued a string of emergency alerts across the kingdom overnight, including the first alert in its capital since an escalation in fighting with Iran-backed rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Tehran has sent Washington its conditions for ending the war via Qatar, a key mediator. Israeli strikes killed three people in Gaza. And Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah targets across several areas in southern Lebanon.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday. Full coverage is available here.
Explosion heard in Saudi capital after alerts
At least one explosion was heard in Riyadh after the first alert for the Saudi capital since the latest escalation in fighting with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Residents near the airport said they saw a plume of smoke later in the morning.
No casualties or damage were reported. Saudi authorities did not comment and didn’t say what prompted the alerts, but they previously reported intercepting Houthi missiles and drones.
Iran awaits US response to its conditions for ending the war
The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, told Al Jazeera in an interview that Iran is waiting for President Donald Trump’s response after Tehran conveyed its conditions for ending the war via Qatar.
It was not clear when the conditions were shared. Rezaei said they include ending the war on all fronts, releasing assets seized from Iran and ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Earlier US-Iran negotiations fell apart.
He also said Iran wants the fighting involving Yemen and Saudi Arabia to end.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel
Iran’s state TV said a man identified as Hossein Pedram was executed after being convicted on charges of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.
The report said Pedram shared classified information on “sensitive military sites” in Iran’s Isfahan province. It didn’t say how he accessed the information. He was reportedly arrested after those sites, which included missile bases, were targeted in last year’s 12-day air war by the US and Israel.
A recent surge of executions in Iran prompted an international outcry by rights groups.
US military says oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz
The head of US Central Command said the military has supported the transit of 1 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz over the past two months and claimed that Iran has “exported zero barrels” because of a US blockade.
Adm. Brad Cooper said the strait’s primary transit lanes have been cleared of mines, and the volume of oil, natural gas and cargo transiting over the past two weeks is the highest it has been in six months – or shortly after the war began with US and Israeli strikes.
But monitors say shipping traffic remains well below prewar levels. Iran continues to attack ships as it asserts control over the waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
Israeli strikes kill 3 men in Gaza
Gaza’s Health Ministry and Shifa Hospital officials said one man was killed in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. Another man, identified as the son of the ministry’s director general, was killed as he walked in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it struck “several military operatives” and that it would provide more details later.
Later, officials at Shifa Hospital said an Israeli strike on a civilian vehicle in Gaza City killed one person and wounded at least four others. “The body was completely charred,” managing director Rami Mhanna said.
Israel’s military said it “struck a Hamas military operative.”
The heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas has subsided since a ceasefire last October, but Israeli fire has killed more than 13,780 Palestinians in Gaza since then, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel launches airstrikes in southern Lebanon
Israel’s military said it struck targets of the Hezbollah militant group across several areas in southern Lebanon.
The strikes took place after two soldiers were wounded when their vehicle drove over a Hezbollah explosive device in an area of southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli troops, the military said.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported three Israeli airstrikes on the southern town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa. It said the third strike almost hit paramedics heading to the area. It said no one was hurt.
Iran race managers charged for allowing women to run without headscarves
Iran’s state TV said the Tehran prosecutor’s office filed charges against race organizers after women participated without covering their hair because “legal and Islamic Sharia” wasn’t observed.
The country’s ruling theocracy requires women to wear scarves that cover their hair and loose-fitting clothes that hide their bodies.
Footage circulated online showing women running the 10-kilometre race without the hair covering. Habib Sotoudehnejad, head of Tehran’s sports department, said about 5 per cent of participants violated race rules. The race was run separately for men and women.
Blast at Syrian arms depot kills 11
Syria’s Defence Ministry held a funeral for 11 soldiers killed a day earlier during an explosion in the village of Ayash in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
The ministry did not give a reason for the blast that also wounded several other military personnel. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast occurred in an arms depot at a military post.
Kids return to school in war-devastated Gaza
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said more than 280,000 children in Gaza are attending school in tents and heavily damaged classrooms.
At one school in Nuseirat, some classrooms have no desks, leaving children to sit on blankets on the floor. Still, some families said a return to school brings back a familiar sense of routine that was upended by war.
UNRWA education programme chief Tawfiq al-Hourani said the agency three years ago operated 182 fully equipped schools.
