The US and Iran traded their heaviest strikes since July — and a US missile hit a wedding, killing four, including a child. CENTCOM said its overnight barrage answered IRGC attacks on shipping and US forces, per the New York Times. Iranian officials say the strike on Kuhestak, a small port town in Hormozgan Province, killed four wedding guests and wounded about 50. CENTCOM said it was aware of the reports and that “the U.S. military never targets civilians.”

Two Filipino seafarers are dead aboard the Saudi tanker Sidr — the first crew deaths of this new cycle of kinetic action. Saudi Arabia condemned the Iranian attack on the tanker, and operator Bahri confirmed the two deaths. Five ships transited the strait Monday. More than 130 a day passed before the war.

Iran’s top security official said Tehran will “send Netanyahu to hell” — and drew a red line around Beirut. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the threat on Lebanon’s Al-Manar. The same week, the UN’s nuclear watchdog reported it no longer knows where Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium is, per an internal report obtained by the Times.

Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if Iran signs an agreement — hours after his own strikes. He called on Iranians to “rise up and fight” and threatened an attack “waiting in the wings,” per the New York Times. Gas hit $4.12 this morning. Diesel sits 13 cents from its all-time record.

THE 2026 IRAN WAR

The war resumed kinetic action in three moves over four days.

Sunday: US forces struck two rocket launchers on Larak Island after CENTCOM (US Central Command) said IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) crews were preparing to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the strait. The Times reports the launchers may carry a new Iranian weapon: a Fajr-5 rocket variant that drops a small drifting mine into the water. Larak matters because it anchors Iran’s toll system over the strait as the island that watches the coastal route Iran forces ships to use.

Monday: Iran fired ballistic missiles at bases in Jordan and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) hosting US troops. Jordan intercepted eight. The UAE denied its base was hit by missiles and confirmed downing one drone — the IRGC claim and the UAE denial run side by side, neither independently verified. The same day, two tankers were hit within minutes of each other near Oman: the Saudi-owned Sidr and a Liberian-flagged supertanker operated by South Korea’s Sinokor, both struck by “unknown projectiles,” per the Times. Bahri, the Saudi operator, says two Filipino seafarers were killed aboard the Sidr. The Saudi foreign ministry named Iran as the attacker, per Al Jazeera. Windward’s maritime-intelligence dashboard identified the second vessel as the Senegal Prosperity and placed both strikes near Khasab, Oman.

Overnight into Wednesday: the US answered with its heaviest barrage in months. CENTCOM said the strikes followed IRGC attacks on commercial shipping and American service members, per the Times. Windward’s dashboard logs roughly 100 IRGC sites struck near Bandar Abbas and along the Hormuz coast, under what Lloyd’s List calls a new “tanker for tanker” policy — a reprisal fired for each vessel Iran hits.

The toll, by each side’s own account. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say four aerospace-division members were killed in Kermanshah, per a Guards statement via Tasnim. Press TV reports at least 12 killed across southern Iran. And in Kuhestak, Iranian officials say a US missile hit a wedding in a residential area — killing four, including a child, and around 50 wounded and hospitalized. The New York Times verified video of the strike. CENTCOM said it was aware of the reports and stated: “The U.S. military never targets civilians, unlike the I.R.G.C.” A US official told the Times all American service members are accounted for, with no damage assessment shared.

Iran’s answer landed in four countries. The Guards said they fired on a US base in Jordan, US equipment warehouses in Iraq, and an air base in Kuwait, per the Times. Jordan’s military said 13 ballistic missiles entered its airspace — 10 intercepted, 3 down in remote areas. Kuwait said its defenses were confronting Iranian drones. Bahrain said it intercepted aerial attacks. No US casualties were reported by any party as of this writing.

“We will send Netanyahu to hell.” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s SNSC (Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security body), said on Lebanon’s Al-Manar that Tehran will “send Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Zionist regime, to hell” and that Netanyahu’s “great mistakes” have brought Israel’s end closer — per IRIB and Fars. In the same interview he called Beirut and its southern suburbs Iran’s “red lines.” After Wednesday’s barrage, he wrote that Iran will unveil a “new strategy on the battlefield, in diplomacy, and in confronting the economic blockade”, per the Times.

The president’s own military is telling him this cannot go on. Several US military leaders advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and weakens the ability to answer threats elsewhere, per the Washington Post, citing the August 14 Secretary of Defense Orders Book. The Times mapped what that strain looks like: about 20 Navy ships and 20,000 sailors and Marines in the region, cut off from nearby ports since Iran destroyed the Navy’s Bahrain logistics base on Day 1. Supply runs now stretch 2,200 miles to Diego Garcia. The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln spent most of nine months at sea with no port call before docking in Thailand this morning, per Military Times.

Trump’s posts, on the record. After the barrage: “If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings.” And: “I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement... When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” Both per the New York Times. It should be noted: He made the same rise-up call on Day 1, then backed off it.

THE DIPLOMATIC TRACK

The Treasury’s “Operation Economic Outcast” sanctioned nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels on August 24. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent proposed a rule Friday cutting US banks off from Banque Misr’s UAE branches and told Reuters to expect new secondary sanctions weekly, banks first. The White House says no negotiations are happening. And the president said Tuesday night he couldn’t care less if Iran signs. The economic strategy was built to force a deal the president now calls worthless.

Iran’s counter-demand: reparations. Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority — the toll agency Washington sanctioned in May — now demands war reparations as a condition for Hormuz passage, per i24NEWS. Mediation is stalled: the Qatari prime minister’s visit to Tehran last week produced no breakthrough. “The diplomatic track has been stuck for weeks,” Chatham House’s Sanam Vakil told the Times.

An internal IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog) report dated Tuesday, obtained by the New York Times, says inspectors have had no access to Fordow, Natanz or Isfahan since June 2025 — and that the agency “cannot provide any information on the current size, composition or whereabouts” of Iran’s enriched uranium. Director General Rafael Grossi called access a matter of “utmost urgency.” The agency’s board meets next week in Vienna to weigh a censure resolution.

Putin pledged “full solidarity.” At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Putin told Iran’s President Pezeshkian: “We are trying to provide you with the assistance you need... we are supplying you with the necessary goods”, per the Times, which reports Russia has backed Iran with intelligence on US assets in the Gulf and drone components shipped via the Caspian.

ISRAEL / IOF

The New York Times documents the pattern: shelling in southern Lebanon, more than 20 targeted killings in Gaza, a bombing in northern Syria aimed at Turkey, and settler violence his own generals warn could ignite a new uprising. He trails in the polls ahead of the October 27 election, and his chief rival — former army chief Gadi Eisenkot — now leads him on security trust. Israeli pollsters told the Times a security emergency could be worth as many as three Knesset seats to Likud. RAND’s Shira Efron: “Netanyahu wants to light every front on fire, because it positions him as Mr. Security.” Former Peres adviser Nimrod Novik: “It’s like a thief in a hotel — you try every door to find out which one will open.” Even the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, floated that the Syria strike was a “well-received pre-election concept.”

Twelve prison guards charged in a beating death — the first such case in nearly three years. Israeli prosecutors charged 12 Israel Prison Service guards with reckless homicide in the November 2023 death of Thaer Abu Asab, 38, at Ketziot, per the Times. On the day he died, Abu Asab asked a guard whether there was a ceasefire in Gaza. The shift commander ordered guards into the cell to “show the prisoners that there is no cease-fire.” They beat him to death with fists, boots and clubs. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel counts more than a hundred Palestinian detainees dead in Israeli custody since October 2023 and says this is the first case in which anyone was charged. Conditions in these facilities were toughened under National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — whom the Israeli military deemed too extreme to conscript, who came out of the Kach movement, designated a terrorist organization by Israel and the US, and who carries 2007 convictions for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. One indictment, one hundred dead, per the rights group’s count.

THE ISRAELI MILITARY’S OFFICIAL WAR DIARY

What follows is from the Israeli military’s own war diary — its claims, in its words, machine-translated from Hebrew, not independently verified. Two diary days, covering this brief’s catch-up window. (War diary)

8/30, 09:00 — The military says it killed a Nukhba (Hamas commando force) platoon commander in Jabaliya whom it says took part in the October 7 attack.

8/30, 13:33 — It says a Saturday strike in Khan Younis killed two Hamas members.

8/30, 13:45 — It says it struck in Deir al-Balah and killed Hussam Nusair, a Hamas military-wing member. The entry does not mention the second person killed in that strike: three-year-old Tayyem Hamdan, named by Gaza medics via Reuters.

From the 01/09 diary:

9/1, 11:50 — The military says it struck “a number of targets” in Gaza “to remove threats to the security forces,” with no casualties among its forces. No targets named.

9/1, 15:36 — It says it struck a Hamas military-wing commander in the Jabaliya area, accusing him of promoting attacks and rebuilding capabilities “while systematically violating the ceasefire.”

9/1, 17:00 — It says 91st Division forces, still operating in what it calls the security zone in southern Lebanon, found anti-tank missiles, launchers, grenades and IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

9/1, 19:02 — The military and Shin Bet announce the “focused operation” in northern Gaza: special forces raided a building in Gaza City and arrested the man it names as head of Hamas’s internal security for the whole Strip, with the Air Force striking “a number of military targets in the area in order to remove threats to the forces.” The entry states “there were no casualties to our forces.” It does not mention the four Palestinians killed in the operation, including two children, or the detained man’s wife — all reported independently in the Gaza section below.

9/1, 21:00 — Advance notice of a Golan Heights exercise Wednesday morning: “lively movement of the security forces... sounds of gunfire and echoes of explosions.”

9/2, overnight — The military says Hezbollah launched two explosive drones at its troops on the Ali al-Taher Ridge; it says it shot one down, took no casualties, and struck what it calls Hezbollah infrastructure in the Nabatieh area in response. It also reported intercepting a suspected drone crossing from Lebanon over the Upper Galilee.

Four days’ official tempo: named kill claims in Gaza, a daylight snatch raid in Gaza City, warehouse and ridge strikes in Lebanon, and a diary entry that names the fighter it killed but not the three-year-old who died beside him.

GAZA

A daylight raid in Gaza City killed four Palestinians, including two children. Israeli special forces tied to the Shin Bet raided a building Tuesday and seized Moeen al-Arabeed, whom Netanyahu called the head of Hamas’s internal security force, per the New York Times. Hamas confirmed the capture and said al-Arabeed’s wife was killed in the confrontation. Gaza’s Civil Defense said four people were killed, including two children, their bodies brought to Al-Shifa Hospital per its director Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The Hamas-run government says Israeli covert operatives were discovered inside the city and that Israel bombarded the area to cover their escape; the Israeli military says it struck “several targets” to protect its forces and declined to comment on the reports of dead children.

Netanyahu went to Gaza today in a flak jacket. The prime minister held a security assessment at the Gaza Division and visited an outpost near the Yellow Line, per his own office, and told Israelis in a video: “We’re doing everything to reach our goal, which is to disarm Hamas, to demilitarize Gaza,” per the Times and Al Jazeera’s footage. The visit comes fifty-five days before his election.

On the legal front, amnesty International says South Africa’s new ICJ submission must push states to act to end what it calls Israel’s genocide in Gaza, per ReliefWeb. The submission feeds the same case in which the court has already found the genocide plausible.

Cumulative: more than 73,400 killed since October 2023 per the Gaza Health Ministry — records AP notes are viewed as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts, and which The Lancet has assessed as an undercount. More than 1,300 killed since the October 2025 ceasefire, per health officials carried by the Times. Ten months after Washington brokered the truce, the Times’ own description is the plainest on record: the situation “resembles war more closely than peace.”

THE WEST BANK

The school year opened under documented attack. A new ReliefWeb-carried report counts the education-related incidents across the West Bank in the first half of 2026 — raids, demolitions, and settler violence impacting schools from January through June. It lands as students return to classrooms in villages like Qusra, attacked three times in the last week of August.

The military’s own war diary logged “Israeli rioters,” stone-throwing at Palestinians, and confiscated vehicles at this weekend’s attack. Netanyahu’s “handful of rioters” line stands against Haaretz’s documented 30 government-encouraged outposts and OCHA’s count of 3,033 settler attacks since January 2025. The manhunt after Monday’s police-car ramming continues per Haaretz, with no published identification of the attackers at this writing.

LEBANON

The Israeli military says Hezbollah launched two explosive drones at its soldiers on the Ali al-Taher Ridge — the contested high ground above Nabatieh — and that its strikes on “Hezbollah infrastructure” were the response. The record on the ground, per Lebanon’s state-run NN, warplanes destroyed homes in Nabatieh al-Fawqa after midnight, an airstrike destroyed a religious-endowment room at the Arab Salim cemetery — shattering gravestones and blowing out windows in dozens of homes — a drone fired a guided missile into the home of a scouts official, and artillery shelled Ali al-Taher, al-Dabsha Hill, Kfar Rumman, Mayfadoun and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah through the night. By morning, a drone strike in Nabatieh city killed one person and wounded another, per NNA. Two drones at soldiers, answered with a night of fire on towns.

Lebanon’s health ministry counts at least 8,920 killed by Israeli attacks since October 2023, per AFP’s carry — and at least 4,353 of them in the current round since March 2, per ministry figures carried Wednesday. Last confirmed wounded figure: 12,310 as of August 27. OCHA’s (the UN humanitarian office’s) Flash Update #52, issued as of August 31, is the standing humanitarian anchor for this window. A companion report via ReliefWeb puts the war’s cost to Lebanon’s children in one line: more than seven children killed or injured every day across six months of violence.

Naharnet reports the next round of Lebanon-Israel talks may be held September 15–16, that Washington told President Joseph Aoun it will discuss with Israel a plan “leading to full withdrawal”, and that the US suspects Lebanese security elements of helping Iranian Guards enter Lebanon.

From the ground, Courtney Bonneau, documenting from southern Lebanon with an established track record, logged Monday’s full strike map — airstrikes on al-Dabsha, Nabatieh al-Fawqa’s outskirts, al-Qantara, Ali al-Taher, Zawtar al-Sharqiya and al-Mansouri, plus a drone strike on a residential apartment — and posted reports today from the Wadi Slouqi area of Israeli-occupied south Lebanon.

IRANIAN PROXY NETWORK

HOUTHIS (ANSAR ALLAH)/ SAUDI ARABIA / RED SEA

Nothing significant to report in the past 24 hours.

IRAQ / PMF

Nothing significant to report in the past 24 hours. The September 30 US withdrawal deadline holds on the calendar.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ & THE GLOBAL ENERGY PICTURE

Five ships passed through Monday — the lowest since early May, against more than 130 a day before the war, per the New York Times. Windward’s dashboard counted one inbound transit and three outbound, with the single inbound vessel — the Panama-flagged bulk carrier Alfaisaliah — running dark for nearly 15 hours, and Gulf-wide AIS (ship-transponder) jamming spiking more than 500 percent above the seven-day average. The IMO (International Maritime Organization, the UN’s shipping agency) counts more than 72 attacks on ships since March, with at least 19 sailors killed — now including the two Bahri seafarers. Maritime risk firm Marisks is advising ships to delay nonessential transits, and its chief put the pattern plainly: Iran is targeting vessels for their US and Saudi affiliations, not at random. MarineTraffic logged three security incidents near the strait in the same window. Lloyd’s List reports Bahri and ADNOC vessels added to Iran’s Hormuz blacklist and charterers lawyering up for Asia shipping contract disputes — the war reaching the fine print.

The IRGC claimed two tankers struck mines, exploded and burned. CENTCOM answered on the record: the claim “is FALSE... No ships have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz”. The vessels were hit by projectiles, per UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations, the Royal Navy’s shipping-watch center) and Marisks. Both accounts run here; the projectile evidence is the corroborated one. Iran claiming mines it may not have placed, in water the US says it cleared, tells you what the mine story is for: the toll system.

The Dashboard:

• Brent crude: back above $90 Monday and up more than 4 percent after Wednesday’s barrage, per the Times, with Trading Economics carrying the live price — roughly 25 percent above the ~$72 pre-war close of February 27.

  

• Gas: $4.1203 AAA national average this morning — up 2.5 cents overnight, 38.3 percent above the $2.98 pre-war baseline. AAA says August likely set a new record for the month.

  

• Diesel: $5.6879 — 12.8 cents from the all-time record of $5.8159. Diesel is the grocery number, and it rose five and a half cents overnight.

• SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve): 286.6 million barrels for the week ending August 28, per the EIA's weekly report released today as carried by trade press — another 3.1 million barrels drawn in one week, the lowest level since 1982, and now roughly 36 million barrels above the ~250-million-barrel operational floor. Trump says Venezuelan oil will refill the reserve, per Reuters.

• Where the oil goes: China takes 65 percent of crude exports leaving the Gulf, per Windward — with Russia-linked and Iran-linked buyers taking another 18 percent combined.

MEANWHILE ON THE HOMELAND

Trump returned to the rise-up call he made on Day 1, then abandoned; the Times reports he is reluctant to resume all-out bombardment while feeling the political price at home — on the economy and risking his party’s midterm chances. Axios polling shows the pressure point: the Canada tariff fight and “Lake America” renaming land badly with the voters watching grocery prices. Axios also reports fresh churn at the Pentagon around Hegseth, Army Secretary Driscoll and the Iran war.

Bergdahl’s conviction is back. A federal appeals court reinstated Bowe Bergdahl’s desertion conviction and dishonorable discharge, ruling the district judge lacked power to vacate it, per the Times. The discharge strips VA care from a man a sanity board found had a severe mental disease when he walked off his post. For the veteran readers of this brief: this sets precedent on what collateral review of a court-martial can and cannot reach.

Wisconsin, on the clock. The President’s 90-day fertilizer price promise to farmers expires tomorrow, September 3. No USDA action has been located. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs — 15 to 50 percent on $27.6 billion in US goods, dairy explicitly listed — take effect September 8, the same day the House returns from recess. Canada is Wisconsin’s top agricultural export market at $2.2 billion in a standard year. Congress returns to a war it voted to end in June, a binding resolution the White House ignored, and gas at $4.12.

MY ANALYSIS

My assessment is, and will always be, that Israel is not our ally.

The United States says it never targets civilians, and yet four wedding guests are dead in Kuhestak. Iran claims it defends the strait, and two Filipino seafarers are dead on a Saudi tanker for the crime of transiting it. The president says he could not care less whether Iran signs an agreement, hours after the US military executed strikes his Treasury secretary’s strategy was supposed to make unnecessary. His own military leadership wrote down, and subsequenlty leaked, in the Orders Book, that this war cannot be sustained.

Netanyahu’s piece of this is well documented: a trailing incumbent lighting every front on fire — Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, the West Bank — because a security emergency is worth three seats — securing his election. Fifty-five days out, the fronts Netanyahu can press without Washington’s veto are Lebanon and Gaza, and last night’s response to two drones — a night of fire on Nabatieh’s towns, a cemetery, a scouts official’s home — shows how far he is willing to go.

The most likely shape of the next 7 to 14 days is this: Iran keeps hitting US- and Saudi-linked vessels and climbs the escalation ladder verbally, stacking threat declarations on top of kinetic action. The US answers tanker for tanker against coastal IRGC targets. The Hormuz transit count moves nearer to zero while insurance and charter disputes do the economic damage the sanctions were built to do. The IAEA board's censure vote next week hardens Tehran's refusal on inspections rather than softening it. Israel escalates in Lebanon under the drone-response formula and in Gaza under the "imminent threat" formula. Two wild cards sit on top. The first is a strike that kills Americans — none have been confirmed KIA or WIA in this round. The second is an emboldened Iranian military that stops metering its own response. The rhetoric from Tehran's security establishment has hardened in unison: SNSC Secretary Rezaei promises a "new strategy" and vows to send Netanyahu to hell, and IRGC spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari posted Monday: "Gifts are on the way. We will no longer exercise restraint regarding Bahrain and Kuwait." That is a party-to-conflict threat, not a confirmed order — but Iranian fire reached Kuwait and Bahrain within 48 hours of it. When the spokesman's words and the missile tracks match, the words earn a place in the forecast.

The consequential calendar is stacked: the fertilizer promise dies September 3; the House returns and Canada’s tariffs hit Wisconsin dairy September 8; the IAEA board meets in Vienna next week; the EIA outlook lands September 9; Lebanon-Israel talks are penciled for September 15–16; the Iraq withdrawal deadline and Camp As Sayliyah closure land September 30; E1 bids close October 19; Israel votes October 27; America votes November 3.

Israel is not our ally. This war continues not because Americans want it, but because Israel and its lobby need it — and it ends the day the President finds walking away more valuable than the lobby’s approval.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY

The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Look up your senators at senate.gov; find your representative by ZIP at house.gov.

When you call your SENATORS, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

First: the President announced majority US control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil by social media post, with no agreement text released. I want the Senator to demand the text be provided to the Foreign Relations Committee and made public before any federal resources support it.

Second: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1982 and roughly ten weeks from its operational floor at the current draw. I want the Senator to demand Secretary Bessent testify on the drawdown plan and on the Iran sanctions’ cost to consumers.

Third: where does the Senator stand on Section 1217 of the Senate NDAA — the US–Israel defense-industrial integration provision the House passed as Section 219 without allowing a vote to remove it? I want an answer, in writing.

When you call your REPRESENTATIVE, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

The House returns September 8. The President’s 90-day fertilizer price promise to farmers expires September 3 with no action located. I want the Representative to demand USDA account for it the first week back.

I also want the Representative to back the Afghanistan TPS Act discharge petition before Camp As Sayliyah closes September 30 — 150 relatives of American service members are stuck there now.

Congress passed a binding resolution directing an end to this war. The war continued. What is the Representative doing about a president who ignores a binding act of Congress? Only one in three Americans supports this war. I’m one of the two in three, and I vote. I want an answer, in writing.”

Set a free vote alert at GovTrack. Documentation relevant to the wars and accountability regarding our elected representatives goes to us.foundation/evidence-collection.

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Iran and Oman agreed to split the Strait of Hormuz’s waters and revenue — and to keep it shut until Washington accepts Tehran’s terms. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military force) spokesman Hossein Mohebbi announced the deal through the state-run Sepah News agency, carried by Bloomberg: “If the United States does not accept our conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened under any circumstances.” The two foreign ministries went only as far as an “interim framework,” with no mention of fees, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has not confirmed the IRGC’s version.

Israeli settlers attacked the besieged village of Qusra again today and seized a home with the Palestinian family inside. Several Palestinians were wounded and ambulances evacuated the injured under soldier guard, per the Associated Press. Netanyahu broke weeks of silence to condemn “criminal acts of violence” by a “handful of rioters” — the record, documented by Haaretz, shows an organized outpost movement operating with government encouragement.

Trump announced a US deal for majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves. The State Department says, through a US official, that the arrangement gives the United States 55 percent of a joint venture’s output with a firm tied to businessman Alejandro Betancourt López, per the New York Times. The 65-billion-barrel figure came in the President’s social media post; the text of the agreement has not been released.

Brent crude fell more than 5 percent this week to $88.29 as traders reclassified the war as a sanctions fight. Trading Economics records the Friday slide, with Goldman Sachs estimating Gulf oil exports have recovered to 15–16 million barrels per day — still 7 to 8 million below pre-war volume. Gas holds at $4.08 national, 37 percent above the pre-war baseline.

THE 2026 IRAN WAR

The war passed its six-month mark yesterday. CENTCOM (US Central Command) has still reported no strike on Iran in roughly a month.

CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper announced a milestone: US forces have removed the sea mines Iran planted in the strait.

The New York Times’ six-month assessment confirms the mine clearance per Cooper. At least 71 ships have been attacked since February 28, and 19 sailors are dead. Axios carried the administration’s victory framing — “that sucker is open” — the same week a tanker took a projectile in the passage the administration says is open.

The record shows about a dozen ships a day, per Kpler, against more than 100 before the war.

The Trump administration has reportedly told mediators it will not revive the terms of the collapsed June agreement, per market reporting carried by Trading Economics.

Tehran’s messaging today, all Iranian state media, narrative tracking: President Pezeshkian said Iran “won’t bow to threats”; Araghchi accused the US of manipulating energy markets to prolong the war; lead negotiator Ghalibaf promoted new regional pacts for “Muslim self-reliance”; and the IRGC Navy claimed “decisive control” over the strait. Al Jazeera’s live coverage notes the IRGC accuses US leaders of false statements about the passage to sway energy prices.

Both governments now claim control of the same water. Neither claim is independently verified. The transit count is the only neutral number, and it sits near a dozen.

THE DIPLOMATIC TRACK

The IRGC says a revenue-sharing deal between Oman and Iran is done, per Bloomberg’s carry of Sepah News. The foreign ministries’ joint statement describes only an “interim framework” for resuming transits, with no fees mentioned. Iran also blacklisted 45 ships Sunday in an apparent move against ship-to-ship transfers, per agency reporting carried by Daily Sabah.

The financial front: i24NEWS, an Israeli outlet, reports the US is moving to sever an Iranian financial lifeline through Banque Misr UAE. This may be the institution-level sanction Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised by week’s end. No Treasury or OFAC (the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which runs US sanctions) release has been published confirming it.

ISRAEL / IOF

The Turkey front sharpened, The New York Times documents a widening Israel–Turkey rivalry: Israel’s August 18 strike on Syria’s defunct Abu al-Duhur air base to pre-empt a claimed Turkish deployment — a deployment Turkey and Syria both deny was planned. US Ambassador Tom Barrack called the strike an “unnecessary escalation.” Three days later, Turkey announced it would seek Netanyahu’s arrest through Interpol on charges including genocide. Turkey also signed a mutual defense pact this month with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which analysts read partly as a counterweight to Israeli influence. Israeli analysts quoted by the Times read the Syria strike partly as pre-election positioning.

Both countries are formally US allies. One is seeking the other’s prime minister through Interpol on genocide charges.

THE ISRAELI MILITARY’S OFFICIAL WAR DIARY

What follows is from the Israeli military’s own war diary — its claims, in its words, machine-translated from Hebrew, not independently verified. Two diary days, covering this brief’s catch-up window. (War diary)

8/27:

22:01 — The military says it killed Bilal Ibrahim Saleh Reki’i in the Shati area of northern Gaza, naming him commander of Hamas’ anti-tank system, and killed Azzam Rifaat Abd Abdallah in a separate Khan Younis strike.

17:50 — The military says a Wednesday strike in Khan Younis killed Ismail Muhammad Ibrahim Barim, whom it describes as a commander who held captives Edan Alexander, Matan Zangauker, and Avera Mengistu in a tunnel.

15:55 / 13:58 — The military says it struck Hezbollah weapons warehouses in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon, in response to two explosive drones Hezbollah launched overnight at its troops on the Ali al-Taher ridge. It says one drone was shot down and contact was lost with the second, with no casualties among its forces.

11:37 — Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered alert raised in the West Bank, citing “tension and the holiday season.”

07:01 — The Central Command chief signed a confiscation and demolition order for the family home of Dawas Hasson in Beit Amrin, over the March 21 attack that killed Yehuda Sherman.

8/28:

17:25 — The military says a joint Shin Bet–military airstrike on a vehicle killed three in Jenin, including Qais Bitawi, whom it names as head of local Hamas activity in the Jenin refugee camp. It says a weapon was found in the vehicle. Independent reporting on this strike runs in the West Bank section below.

16:14 — The military says it “targeted a number of terrorists” in Jenin, in the Menashe Brigade sector.

15:35 — The military says a Thursday strike in Shati killed Ibrahim Nabil Ibrahim Bass, naming him a Hamas commander, and a Sabra strike killed Hamdi Ahmad Hamed Kahil, naming him commander of PIJ’s (Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s) observation department.

This morning (29/08) — Via its English channel, carried by the Times of Israel, the military says a northern Gaza strike killed Hani Abd al-Hai Fakhri Mazloum, named as a Nukhba platoon commander, and Hasan Zidan Hasan Diri, named as a sniper.

Two days’ official tempo: nine named kill claims in Gaza, an airstrike in the West Bank, warehouse strikes in Lebanon, a home marked for demolition, and a division on alert — inside what Washington’s envoy calls a ceasefire.

GAZA

An Israeli strike on a motorbike in Gaza City killed two Palestinians and wounded a third today, per officials at Shifa Hospital carried by AP. The Israeli military said it struck “a military operative,” without elaborating.

Israeli tank fire killed a farmer in eastern Deir al-Balah today, per officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital carried by AP.

The Israeli military says a strike killed a Hamas commander it accuses of “hiding” in a compound near a hospital, per AP. The same statement says Gaza medical authorities were warned Thursday that medical facilities must not be used for “terrorist purposes” and that Israeli forces would act on any continuing threat. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital did not comment. A public warning that hospitals may be treated as strike zones is justification positioned in advance of the act — the pattern I flag every time it appears.

Mourners buried Hamouda al-Attar at al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah today. AP’s photo record identifies him as killed by the Israeli army.

Israeli strikes Friday killed three members of one family — 2 aged 42, 1 aged 28 — per Nasser Hospital carried by Reuters.

Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council Thursday that Israeli strikes make it hard for Gazans to feel the ceasefire, per Reuters: every use of force that answers no immediate threat “costs this process something very hard to buy back.” He said Hamas has also not fulfilled its commitments, including disarmament.

Four children were killed as separate attacks destroyed humanitarian supplies and damaged critical water infrastructure, per UN News and OCHA reporting via ReliefWeb (OCHA is the UN humanitarian office).

The Erez Crossing into northern Gaza remains closed by Israeli decision, and Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh reports only 12 of roughly 34 oxygen stations still operate — both carried in the Day 181 brief. OCHA’s August 26 impact snapshot and August 28 humanitarian situation report anchor the humanitarian record for this window.

Cumulative: more than 73,400 killed since October 2023 per the Gaza Health Ministry — records AP notes are viewed as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts, and which The Lancet has assessed as an undercount. Since the October 2025 ceasefire: at least 1,313 killed, per the Health Ministry carried by AP — up 25 from the figure two days ago.

THE WEST BANK

Settlers attacked Qusra again this morning — the second assault on the besieged village in a week. They seized a home with the Palestinian family inside, and several Palestinians were wounded, per AP and the Times of Israel. The military’s own language, per i24NEWS’ live coverage, an Israeli outlet: “Israeli rioters” barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home. Police say the investigation is ongoing and officers are searching for attackers. No arrests were announced by this writing.

Netanyahu then broke weeks of silence: “criminal acts of violence” by a “handful of rioters,” per France24’s carry of AFP, with opposition leaders turning the condemnation back on him, per i24NEWS. The record per Haaretz’s documentation of at least 30 outposts planted with government encouragement, OCHA’s count of 3,033 settler attacks from January 2025 through June 2026, Human Rights Watch’s finding of 107 Palestinian communities fully or partially displaced — shows a system, not a “handful”.

The soldiers’ role in these attacks is documented, and it is passive. At Qusra today, troops secured the building and stood guard while ambulances evacuated the wounded — AP photographed them doing it — and police had announced no arrests by this writing. At Jannatah on Tuesday, settlers beat activists in front of soldiers who arrested no one. Haaretz’s investigation found Border Police photographed alongside outpost settlers inside a declared closed military zone, and described the helplessness of the security forces as an inherent part of the phenomenon.

Now set that against the same military’s own diary from the same 48 hours: it arrested a Palestinian woman at the Ganot junction on intelligence of a planned stabbing, signed a demolition order for a Palestinian family’s home, and put an air strike on a vehicle in Jenin. The capability to act pre-emptively exists. It is used in one direction. Against settlers who seize a home with a family inside, the same force stands guard, and the government’s answer is a statement. A condemnation with no arrests attached is not enforcement. It is public relations, and the military’s own West Bank commander has already warned Netanyahu where this leads.

An Israeli airstrike Friday killed three Palestinians in Jenin, per Al Jazeera — a rare use of airpower in the West Bank. The military claims the three included Qais Bitawi (diary entry above). The Palestinian Authority’s Government Communication Center — an official PA body, flagged here like all party-aligned state channels — claims Israeli forces held the medical staff who reached the scene. That claim is not independently confirmed.

The same PA channel published two further items, each carried here as claims pending independent confirmation:

Settler children entering the Khirbet Umm al-Khair playground, followed by an activist’s arrest and detention, per the PA Government Communication Center:

An Israeli soldier cutting water lines supplying Palestinian farmers in the al-Baqi’a Plain, per the PA Government Communication Center:

UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) warns of the impact on Palestinian youth after Israeli forces seized its Kalandia training centre, per UN News.

The military ordered a standing division headquarters onto West Bank alert this week, its chief citing holiday-season tension — while its Central Command chief signed a demolition order for a family home and its forces guarded evacuations from a village its own spokesmen say “rioters” attacked.

LEBANON

An Israeli drone strike was reported today targeting Nabatieh al-Fawqa, per the Times of Israel’s live coverage. The Israeli military has not commented. Single-source as of this writing; no casualty figure has been published.

Courtney Bonneau, a ground source documenting the war from southern Lebanon, reports the Israeli military setting fires in Hadatha, Haris, and Aita al-Jabal — and reports Israeli forces opening fire close to civil defense workers trying to extinguish the flames in Haris.

No Tier 1 outlet has carried today’s fires as of this writing. Lebanese Civil Defense in Nabatieh has described deliberate Israeli arson burning 30 to 40 percent of frontline-adjacent land, and a drone targeting firefighters en route to the flames, per The Cradle’s mid-August reporting — an advocacy-adjacent carry, labeled as such. OSINT mapping logged artillery between Haris and Hadatha yesterday, unconfirmed.

The military’s stated tempo in the window: strikes on what it calls Hezbollah weapons warehouses in the Nabatieh area, in response to two explosive drones at the Ali al-Taher ridge — its claim, no casualties claimed on either side (diary, above). No new Hezbollah statement was located.

The cumulative record: 4,350 killed and 12,310 wounded since March 2, per the Ministry of Public Health’s page as of August 27; the Ministry’s running total is re-verified each day. Displacement anchors updated this window: the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix Round 114, August 27, and the UN Lebanon Situation Report covering August 13–27. The UN’s standing warning holds: civilian risks grow as military activity continues.

IRANIAN PROXY NETWORK

HOUTHIS (ANSAR ALLAH)/ SAUDI ARABIA / RED SEA

Nothing significant to report in the past 48 hours.

IRAQ / PMF

Nothing significant to report in the past 48 hours. The September 30 US withdrawal deadline holds on the calendar.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ & THE GLOBAL ENERGY PICTURE

The tanker struck in the strait this week was Kuwait-flagged, per MarineTraffic. The projectile remains unattributed; the fire was extinguished and the crew is safe. Both blockading navies operate in that water. Attribution unconfirmed at time of writing.

Windward’s dashboard logged 12 Hormuz transits for August 27, six inbound and six outbound, with six of the twelve running dark, transponders off. The same dashboard tracked the tanker IXORA crossing fully dark while laden with 676,100 barrels of diesel and gasoil worth an estimated $49 million, Bahrain to Iraq, and three sanctioned tankers — NEW VOYAGE, AURA, and SAKAI — transiting in ballast. Where the oil goes: 65 percent of crude exports to China, 10 percent Russia-linked, 8 percent Iran-linked. Kpler’s picture matches: about a dozen ships a day, against more than 100 pre-war.

Lloyd’s List reports the Hormuz crisis propelling the VLCC spot market, asset prices, and long-term rates. And the storage buffer is thinning: the tank farms at Cushing, Oklahoma — 90 million barrels of capacity — hold 22 million, just above minimum operating levels, per the New York Times.

The Dashboard:

• Brent crude: $88.29 at Thursday’s close, down more than 5 percent on the week — roughly 23 percent above the $72 pre-war close of February 27. Goldman Sachs estimates Gulf exports at 15–16 million barrels per day, against 22–24 million pre-war and a March low near 5–6 million.

  

• Gas: AAA national average $4.0810 (AAA, August 29) — up 36.9 percent from the $2.98 pre-war baseline. AAA reports August will likely set a new record for the month.

  

• Diesel: $5.6046 (AAA) — about 21 cents from the all-time record. Diesel is the grocery number.

• SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve): 289.7 million barrels for the week ending August 21, per the EIA’s weekly report — the lowest level since 1982, roughly 40 million barrels above the 250-million-barrel operational floor. At the current draw near 3.7 million barrels a week, the floor sits roughly ten weeks out. The next weekly report lands September 2.

MEANWHILE ON THE HOMELAND

Trump announced US majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan reserves — nearly matching all proven US reserves — through a 55 percent stake in a joint venture with a firm affiliated with Alejandro Betancourt López, per the New York Times. Venezuelans call Betancourt a “bolichico” — a businessman who profited immensely under government favor. Venezuela’s President Delcy Rodríguez projects $100 billion in investment and $209 billion for her government. The agreement’s text has not been released. Chevron is separately in advanced talks to expand its Venezuela operations. The Times states the through-line plainly: rising production in the Americas has blunted the loss of Middle East oil this war caused.

The ICC (International Criminal Court) called new US sanctions against it “a flagrant attack” on its independence, per UN News.

Congress remains in recess through September 7. The standing record: both chambers passed the binding War Powers concurrent resolution in June — the first time in the law’s history — and hostilities continued anyway. Senate Democrats blocked the NDAA in July over the war and the White House’s $1.5 trillion request.

Wisconsin: the fertilizer clock sits at day 85 of 90 on the President’s price promise to farmers. No announcement could be located. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs — 15 to 50 % on $27.6 billion in US goods, dairy explicitly listed — take effect September 8, with Canada standing as Wisconsin’s top agricultural export market at $2.2 billion in a standard year.

MY ANALYSIS

My assessment is, and will always be, that Israel is not our ally.

Today’s record: settlers attacked the same besieged village twice in one week, wounded Palestinians under soldier guard, and the prime minister answered with the phrase “a handful of rioters.” His own military called them “Israeli rioters” barricaded in a Palestinian home. His own country’s paper of record documents 30 outposts planted with his government’s encouragement. And a fellow NATO-allied state is now seeking his arrest through Interpol on genocide charges while Washington funds both sides of that rivalry.

The strait told a different story than the podium this week. The administration announced the mines cleared and the water open. The count shows a dozen transits a day against a hundred before the war, half of them running dark, and a Kuwait-flagged tanker hit by a projectile nobody claims. Iran and Oman announced a revenue deal Washington refuses to join. Both capitals now claim the same water, and the only neutral number — the transit count — says neither controls it.

The most likely shape of the next 7 to 14 days is a hardening stalemate dressed up as momentum: Brent's 5% weekly drop prices in a corridor deal that requires the US to accept conditions it has already refused — sanctions relief, blockade lift, unfrozen assets. With the framework stalled on those terms, the price floor eventually moves back up. Iran will keep the strait subdued and responds with drones and kinetic action against non-compliant shipping — with Houthi pressure carrying the escalation at Bab al-Mandab; Israeli strikes continue in Gaza under the “imminent threat” formula and in Lebanon under no formula at all.

The consequential calendar is stacked: the petroleum report September 2; the fertilizer promise expires September 3; Canada's tariffs hit Wisconsin dairy and the House returns September 8; the Iraq deadlines and Camp As Sayliyah closure land September 30; E1 bids close October 19; Israel votes October 27; America votes November 3.

Israel is not our ally. This war continues not because Americans want it, but because Israel and its lobby need it — and it ends the day the President finds walking away more valuable than the lobby’s approval.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY

The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Look up your senators at senate.gov; find your representative by ZIP at house.gov.

When you call your SENATORS, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

First: the President announced majority US control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil by social media post, with no agreement text released. I want the Senator to demand the text be provided to the Foreign Relations Committee and made public before any federal resources support it.

Second: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1982 and roughly ten weeks from its operational floor at the current draw. I want the Senator to demand Secretary Bessent testify on the drawdown plan and on the Iran sanctions’ cost to consumers.

Third: where does the Senator stand on Section 1217 of the Senate NDAA — the US–Israel defense-industrial integration provision the House passed as Section 219 without allowing a vote to remove it? I want an answer, in writing.

When you call your REPRESENTATIVE, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

The House returns September 8. The President’s 90-day fertilizer price promise to farmers expires September 3 with no action located. I want the Representative to demand USDA account for it the first week back.

I also want the Representative to back the Afghanistan TPS Act discharge petition before Camp As Sayliyah closes September 30 — 150 relatives of American service members are stuck there now.

Congress passed a binding resolution directing an end to this war. The war continued. What is the Representative doing about a president who ignores a binding act of Congress? Only one in three Americans supports this war. I’m one of the two in three, and I vote. I want an answer, in writing.”

Set a free vote alert at GovTrack. Documentation relevant to the wars and accountability regarding our elected representatives goes to us.foundation/evidence-collection.

If this brief is useful to you, the daily is free and stays free. The Sunday Watch is how this work gets funded.

The Last 24 Hours is my refusal to stay quiet & your refusal to look away. If you believe an informed citizenry is the last line of defense, then subscribe, share, and make some noise. You found this. Now make sure someone else does too.

If you’re already subscribed, thank you — I couldn’t do this without you showing up.

The Iran war has consumed 65 percent of America’s Patriot interceptors, and stocks in Europe are “beyond critical.” A US defense official and a NATO official told the Associated Press the war has burned roughly 1,500 of the nation’s 2,330 Patriots, per CSIS (the Center for Strategic and International Studies). The Pentagon calls the shortage claims false.

An Israeli airstrike killed a woman married 48 hours earlier in her home. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health counts one killed and six wounded, including a child and two elderly people. The state news agency reports the woman “had been married for 48 hours”; her house was destroyed.

Qatar’s prime minister went to Tehran to restart mediation as the war nears six months. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met Iran’s foreign minister, president, and lead negotiator, per the New York Times, with talks focused on a Hormuz corridor and demining. He came despite more than 700 Iranian missile and drone attacks on its territory since February 28.

The former Mossad chief said Iran’s government must be attacked until it falls. David Barnea, in his first speech since leaving office June 1, said there is no choice but to intensify economic, diplomatic and operational actions “until it falls — and it will fall”, per the Times of Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports he called sanctions insufficient without force.

THE 2026 IRAN WAR

The war reaches its six-month mark tomorrow. CENTCOM (US Central Command) has not reported a strike on Iran in nearly a month, per Reuters.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this morning the administration is “continuing to pull every economic lever” and claimed Iran cannot pay its police or military. That claim tracks Trump’s Tuesday posts about unpaid soldiers and killed protesters. As of this writing, no Tier 1 outlet has independently corroborated either claim, and Iran’s internet is not blacked out this cycle — evidence should surface if it exists. It has not.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today that Iran should spend money on its own population instead of armed groups abroad, per Iran International’s live coverage. The separate sanction Bessent promised against a major financial institution doing business with Iran comes due tomorrow. It has not been announced. The New York Times counts the Monday package at restrictions on 60 Iranian and Iran-linked entities.

Iran’s armed forces declared journalists military targets. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi said BBC Persian, Iran International and Radio Farda sit in Iran’s “military target bank,” accusing them of intelligence ties, per remarks on state TV carried by Fox’s live coverage. The Committee to Protect Journalists has tracked this escalation path since March, when a state-affiliated outlet urged strikes on Iran International staff.

The American cost, tracked at the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System: the Pentagon has disclosed more than 750 US service members wounded since February 28. Yesterday a sailor who jumped from the USS Abraham Lincoln — nine months at sea — now faces disciplinary charges and possible loss of pay, per Military.com.

THE DIPLOMATIC TRACK

Qatar’s prime minister met Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, President Masoud Pezeshkian, and lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Tehran today, per the New York Times. The Qatari Foreign Ministry says talks covered the proposed temporary Hormuz route, demining, and conditions for dialogue and freedom of navigation. Qatar’s spokesman framed the goal as a return to the status quo before February 28.

The visit carries its own dispute. An Iranian general, Seyed Mohammad Bagherzadeh, claims Qatar detained three Iranian Su-24 pilots shot down March 2. Qatar denies it and says Tehran was invited to send a technical team to review search operations but never came. Pezeshkian’s office says the pilots came up in today’s meeting, without elaboration.

Iran’s security chief set the tone before the Qataris arrived. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said “We do not trust the United States” and threatened historic damage to US interests if attacked — carried by Iran International, opposition-aligned, and consistent with what Al Jazeera reports he told Pakistan’s army chief Monday. Araghchi, meanwhile, sent a letter to the UN calling the sanctions an “act of state and economic terrorism” and urging member states not to implement them.

President Pezeshkian has sounded different. He has said Iran should end the war now from a position of strength.

Pakistan’s delegation left Tehran Monday describing “very positive and productive” meetings toward restoring the June ceasefire terms.

China’s position regarding Economic D-Day holds: “Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the problem,” per its Foreign Ministry. The sanctions plan requires Beijing’s cooperation. Beijing has declined it in public, and Iranian state media spent today celebrating that fact.

ISRAEL / IOF

Election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot called two-state belief “delusional” — and in the same Israel Hayom interview called the E1 settlement plan a “mistake” costing Israel internationally. He said Netanyahu “gave the police to Ben Gvir and COGAT to Smotrich, and therefore the IDF lost its sovereignty” in the West Bank.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the other minister Eisenkot named, announced a plan today to create 40 new Jewish settlements inside Israel’s Negev and Galilee, per i24NEWS, an Israeli outlet.

Israel is weighing expelling British officials from the US-backed Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat, a source confirmed to the Times of Israel, with “other measures” against London under consideration — retaliation for the UK’s reported plan to ban all trade in settlement goods over the E1 settlement plan.

THE ISRAELI MILITARY’S OFFICIAL WAR DIARY

What follows is from the Israeli military’s own war diary — its claims, in its words, machine-translated from Hebrew, not independently verified. Two diary days, covering this brief’s catch-up window. (War diary)

• 14:13 (26/08) — The military says it destroyed a Jabalia building used by Hamas as an ambush point and weapons depot, killing “a number of terrorists.” Its own release places the site roughly 50 meters from the Yellow Line, 70 meters from Kamal Adwan Hospital, and 170 meters from a school.

• 16:37 (26/08) — The military says soldiers arrested a woman with a knife at the Ganot junction in the West Bank after intelligence of a planned stabbing.

• 17:00 (26/08) — The military says Golani forces destroyed more than 400 “terrorist infrastructures” in its self-declared south Lebanon security zone.

  

• This morning (27/08) — Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir’s multi-front assessment: battle procedures advancing “in all arenas, from Iran, Lebanon to Gaza.” He ordered a standing division headquarters raised to alert for the West Bank, citing tension and the holiday season, and complained the military is fighting a budget battle with “empty coffers.”

• Today — The military announced that two strikes in Khan Younis this week killed Hazem Musa and Razek Sahil Suleiman Abu Shahma, describing both as October 7 participants and Abu Shahma as Yahya Sinwar’s former bodyguard. Israeli claims; no independent casualty accounting.

One day’s official tempo: 400-plus sites destroyed in Lebanon, a hospital-adjacent strike in Gaza, and a division put on alert for the West Bank — inside what Washington’s own envoy called a ceasefire whose collapse would be “a point of no return.”

GAZA

Displacement-camp committees in Gaza have dismantled children’s kites over Israeli threats to expel Palestinians and escalate over the launches. The UN human rights office called those threats outrageous this week.

A strike on a tent in Khan Younis killed one person and injured several, per Palestinian media reports carried by the Times of Israel; the military said it targeted “a terror operative.”

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz said Israel will not reopen the Erez Crossing into northern Gaza. Gaza Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh says only 12 of roughly 34 oxygen stations still operate: “If this oxygen supply stops, these people will die.”

The UN’s acting Middle East coordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, briefed the Security Council on the situation August 26, a day after Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the same body a ceasefire collapse would be “a point of no return.”

Cumulative: more than 73,400 killed since October 2023 per the Gaza Health Ministry — records AP notes are viewed as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts, and which The Lancet has assessed as an undercount. Since the October 2025 ceasefire: at least 1,288 killed. Israel has announced strikes on six of the seven days since a US delegation asked Netanyahu to draw them down.

THE WEST BANK

With government encouragement and under military protection, settlers have established at least 30 outposts in the past two and a half years inside Palestinian Authority territory. The state’s official framing blames a handful of extremists. Haaretz documents a more organized phenomenon with overwhelming support of right-wing Knesset members, in which the helplessness of the security forces is an inherent part — Border Police photographed alongside outpost settlers inside a declared closed military zone near besieged homes. The New Arab’s summary of the report is available in English.

The same morning, Chief of Staff Zamir ordered a standing division headquarters onto alert for the West Bank, on top of the two divisions already there.

In Qusra, the siege eased. UN teams reached the trapped families after nearly three weeks, per UN News. Residents fear a permanent Israeli presence, per Al Jazeera’s reporting from the village. France24 profiles the Jewish activists standing between settlers and Palestinians — the same activists settlers beat at Jannatah on Tuesday in front of soldiers who arrested no one.

The cumulative anchors: OCHA counts 3,033 settler attacks from January 2025 through June 2026 — 190 per month this year, a 24 percent increase. Human Rights Watch finds state-backed settler violence has fully or partially displaced 107 Palestinian communities since January 2023. The military’s own West Bank commander has warned Netanyahu the attacks could ignite a major outbreak. And 45 of 47 Senate Democrats have demanded Netanyahu order intervention “regardless of the perpetrators,” with many now openly discussing curtailing military aid, per Reuters.

LEBANON

The Israeli military killed Saja, a woman married two days, in her home this morning. The Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) final toll for the Arab Salim strike: one woman killed, six wounded — a child, a woman, and two elderly people among them. The National News Agency reports the woman had been married for 48 hours and her house was destroyed.

Naharnet confirms the kinetic action hit a house in a wave that also struck Nabatieh al-Fawqa, Kfar Rumman and the Ali al-Taher heights. Lebanese security sources counted at least 10 Israeli strikes in the wider Nabatieh area. Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent said Israel “targeted a residential area.” Arab Salim sits roughly seven kilometers north of the contested ridge.

Courtney Bonneau, a ground source documenting the war from southern Lebanon, filmed a video report from Kfarshouba this morning as the bombardment of Arab Salim unfolded, then carried the Ministry’s toll directly: “One woman killed and six others wounded, including a child, in an Israeli airstrike on Arab Selim, Lebanon.”

The Israeli military’s stated justification: retaliation for two explosive drones Hezbollah launched overnight at its troops on the Ali al-Taher ridge, causing no casualties — one shot down, contact lost with the second. In the same window, Israeli tanks advanced toward the still-inhabited town of Kfar Shuba, per L’Orient Today, and Israel restricted residents’ movement in three Christian towns inside its occupation belt. The Lebanese Army established a new permanent post at Touline, opposite Israeli positions.

The cumulative record, updated at the source: 4,350 killed and 12,310 wounded since March 2, per the Ministry of Public Health’s own page. The UN warned this week of growing civilian risks as military activity continues, and OCHA’s (the UN humanitarian office) Flash Update No. 51 documents the escalation period through August 24.

IRANIAN PROXY NETWORK

HOUTHIS (ANSAR ALLAH)/ SAUDI ARABIA / RED SEA

A Houthi political official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, says the group is already “practically in a state of war with Saudi Arabia” and threatens to destroy all Saudi oil facilities if full-scale war breaks out. Saudi Arabia now ships most of its oil through the Red Sea.

IRAQ / PMF

Nothing significant to report in the past 24 hours. The September 30 US withdrawal deadline holds on the calendar.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ & THE GLOBAL ENERGY PICTURE

A tanker was hit in the strait overnight. UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations) reports the vessel was struck by an unknown projectile, causing a fire since extinguished, no casualties. No attribution. Lloyd’s List’s headline sets the incident directly against Washington’s victory language.

Kpler counted 10 visible commodity transits Wednesday, up from 8 Tuesday, below the 10-day average of about 15 — with dark vessels possibly missed. In barrels, oil flows hit a three-month low near 5 million barrels per day Monday, against roughly 20 million before the war. Trump said 10 million barrels passed through Tuesday and the mines are cleared.

Windward’s maritime-intelligence dashboard logged 12 transits for August 26 — 7 inbound and 5 outbound — with 4 of the 12 running dark, transponders off. The same dashboard tracks where the oil goes: 65 percent of crude exports to China, 10 percent Russia-linked, 8 percent Iran-linked.

Allianz warns shipping claims are growing larger and harder to predict. The sanctions are tightening an already tight Asian bunker-fuel market, per Lloyd’s List. And while Washington demands the world drop Iranian crude, Indian imports of Russian crude reached new highs.

The Dashboard:

Brent crude: $86.93, down about 1 percent on the day — roughly 21% above the $72 pre-war close of February 27, softened by corridor-deal hopes and sanctions milder than markets feared.

Gas: AAA national average $4.0997 — up 37.6 percent from the $2.98 pre-war baseline.

Diesel: $5.6183 — about 20 cents from the all-time record, 51 percent above a year ago. Diesel is the grocery number.

SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve): 289.7 million barrels for the week ending August 21, down 3.7 million on the week — the lowest level since November 1982, roughly 40 million barrels above the 250-million-barrel operational floor. The EIA’s weekly report shows commercial crude flat, refineries at 97.4 percent, and gasoline and diesel stocks at seasonal lows.

MEANWHILE ON THE HOMELAND

AP reports the Iran war has consumed 65 percent of US Patriot interceptors — roughly 1,500 of 2,330 — per CSIS, with a US defense official calling European stocks “beyond critical” against any Russian ballistic threat. The Pentagon’s spokesman says shortage claims “are false”; NATO’s spokesman says the “beyond critical” description is not the case. Production runs about 600 missiles this year against a 2,000-per-year goal set for 2030.

The Canada trade war hits Wisconsin September 8. Canada’s retaliatory tariffs of 15 to 50 percent on $27.6 billion in US goods take effect that day — dairy explicitly on the list. UW-Madison Extension experts warn Wisconsin dairy farmers face severe export restrictions and plunging commodity prices. Canada remains Wisconsin’s top agricultural export market at $2.2 billion in a standard year. The fertilizer clock reads day 83 of 90 on the President’s price promise to farmers. No announcement could be located. Canadian potash stays exempt from US tariffs, but CoBank projects fertilizer prices above pre-war levels through 2027 and likely 2028 on war-driven supply constraints.

MY ANALYSIS

My assessment is, and will always be, that Israel is not our ally. Today the evidence came from multiple directions. An Israeli airstrike killed a woman married 48 hours prior, in a residential town seven kilometers from the ridge Israel claims justified the strike. The Israeli military’s own diary logged 400 sites destroyed in Lebanon and a strike 70 meters from a hospital in Gaza, by its own measurements, inside a ceasefire. Haaretz — an Israeli paper — documented 30 outposts planted in Palestinian Authority territory with government encouragement, while the same military’s chief put a division on alert against the violence his own commander says the settlers are driving.

The most likely shape of the next 7 to 14 days is a hardening stalemate dressed up as momentum: Monday’s sanctions dressed up for the domestic audience, oil prices appear to be on a decline amid signs of progress in the Middle East - but eventually will climb back toward $100 when a deal fails to come to fruition, Iran keeps the strait throttled and answers with drones and kinetic action against non-compliant shipping — with Houthi pressure carrying the escalation at Bab al-Mandab; Israeli strikes continue in Gaza under the “imminent threat” formula and in Lebanon under no formula at all.

The consequential calendar is stacked: the federal petroleum report August 26; Bessent's promised financial-institution sanction by week's end; the Jazan refinery restart window around August 30; Trump’s 90-day fertilizer promise to Wisconsin farmers expires September 3; the Iraq withdrawal and disarmament deadlines September 30; E1 bids close October 19; Israel votes October 26. Two governments said the same thing within a day of each other — Bessent promising no kinetic restart, Pezeshkian saying end it now.

Israel is not our ally. This war continues not because Americans want it, but because Israel and its lobby need it — and it ends the day the President finds walking away more valuable than the lobby’s approval.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY

The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Look up your senators at senate.gov; find your representative by ZIP at house.gov.

When you call your SENATORS, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

First: the administration announces its Iran sanctions package Monday. I want the Senator to demand Secretary Bessent testify on what these sanctions will cost American consumers, with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest level since 1983 and diesel up 48 percent.

Second: where does the Senator stand on Section 1217 of the Senate NDAA — the US–Israel defense-industrial integration provision the House passed as Section 219 without allowing a vote to remove it? I want a straight answer, in writing.

Third: the State Department is blocking the Palestinian Authority president from addressing the UN General Assembly. I want the Senator to publicly oppose using visas to silence diplomacy.”

When you call your REPRESENTATIVE, say:

“Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a constituent from [city, ZIP].

The House passed the NDAA with Section 219 after blocking a floor vote on the amendment to remove it. How would the Representative have voted on that amendment? In writing, please.

I also want the Representative to back the Afghanistan TPS Act discharge petition before Camp As Sayliyah closes September 30 — 150 relatives of American service members are stuck there now.

Only one in three Americans supports this war. I’m one of the two in three, and I vote.”

Set a free vote alert at GovTrack. Documentation relevant to the wars and accountability regarding our elected representatives goes to us.foundation/evidence-collection.

If this brief is useful to you, the daily is free and stays free. The Sunday Watch is how this work gets funded.

The Last 24 Hours is my refusal to stay quiet & your refusal to look away. If you believe an informed citizenry is the last line of defense, then subscribe, share, and make some noise. You found this. Now make sure someone else does too.

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Trump’s Gaza envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, told the UN Security Council that Israel’s strikes jeopardize the ceasefire and disarmament plan. The Board of Peace's high representative said Israeli strikes preserve the status quo that produced October 7 and delay Hamas's agreed disarmament, per the New York Times. He also faulted Ha…

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Trump announced the Navy has cleared every mine from Hormuz’s median lane — over 100 suspected mines, removed or detonated. Two US officials confirmed the months-long operation to Axios.

Washington is sending its diplomats back. An internal State Department document obtained by the New York Times shows evacuated staff return…

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The “economic D-Day” arrived without names. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast: sanctions on more than 60 entities, individuals and vessels, with new waves promised weekly — but he declined to name the countries Trump called, or the Chinese banks everyone was watching for.

Iran’s economy a…

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Iran’s new security chief spent the weekend telling every country that hosts American forces that joining Monday’s sanctions makes them a target. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on state television that any neighbor joining the US economic campaign will be regarded as an enemy, that Iran would stop “even a single drop of oil” from leaving the region, and that alternative export routes outside the Strait of Hormuz would be struck too. He also asked, out loud, whether Iran should build a nuclear bomb.

The economic D-day has a start time: Monday, 2 p.m. Eastern. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EST to announce what he calls the toughest sanctions in history. Bessent has also said with maximum economic pressure on, “likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart.” The administration is choosing the economic lever because the military option is limited — CSIS estimates roughly two-thirds of Patriot interceptors are gone, with rebuilds running three years or longer.

THE ROAD TO ECONOMIC D-DAY

The road so far…

February 28: Joint US-Israeli strikes opened Operation Epic Fury and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the war’s first hours. His son Mojtaba succeeded him, also losing his wife and one son, and has governed through couriers, because his officials assess Israel would kill him if he appeared.

March 2: Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, the corridor carrying roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Hezbollah fired on Israel in solidarity, and Israel’s answer opened the Lebanon front that has since killed more than 4,300 people by the Health Ministry’s count and displaced hundreds of thousands. Brent’s last pre-war close sat near $72; gas at American pumps averaged $2.98.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on camera, admitting the United States struck Iran because Israel was going to strike with or without American support.

April 7: A ceasefire took hold, and the administration in turn converted it into a legal theory: hostilities had “terminated,” so the 60-day War Powers Resolution clock stopped, and no congressional authorization was needed.

April 8, hours after Hezbollah paused fire, Israel launched its heaviest strikes of the war on Lebanon, killing at least 357 people in what Lebanon named Black Wednesday.

May was messy — the “concluded” war kept fighting. Secretary Rubio declared Operation Epic Fury concluded on May 6 and again on May 18; in between, CENTCOM struck Iran twice and Iran put a ballistic missile on a US base in Kuwait. The Senate’s War Powers Resolution failed by one vote on May 13, the House tied 212-212 on May 14, and reporting confirmed Saudi Arabia had conducted covert airstrikes on Iran. On May 14 a flotilla of roughly 50 boats and 400-plus activists sailed from Turkey for Gaza — the seizure of those boats is why Netanyahu is now the subject of an Interpol arrest request, later in this edition.

June 17: The ill-fated Memorandum of Understanding was signed. A 60-day window, toll-free passage, at least $300 billion toward Iranian reconstruction, the naval blockade lifted June 18. Israel never signed, and the document ordered quiet on a Lebanon front Israel kept fighting.

July 7: Trump declared the ceasefire over, and CENTCOM struck more than 300 targets across three nights, 140 of them overnight into July 12. Iran answered on five countries at once — Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, and drones onto the soil of Oman, the mediator — and declared the strait closed until further notice.

Late July: The House passed a withdrawal resolution 214-208 on July 23, carrying no force of law; the Senate declined 49-50 to discharge its binding version on July 30. July 25 the Pentagon overhauled its casualty system, confirming 18 American dead and 624 wounded after four of the dead had briefly vanished from the count. CENTCOM’s July 29–30 wave against Iranian command and production sites is, at this timestamp, the war’s last major US strike action: Trump canceled the next strike package on August 1, his second reversal in two weeks, with Times and Journal reporting tying the call-offs to interceptor stocks too depleted to shield US troops from the retaliation.

August 7: Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact in Mecca: the region insuring itself against both capitals.

August 17: The memorandum’s 60-day clock expired with no deal and no talks scheduled. Trump answered a question about the mediator by threatening to bomb Oman — drawing Senator Kaine’s announcement of a war powers resolution for a US free-trade partner.

August 19–21: Trump announces forthcoming economic D-day; Bessent promised measures never before seen; the UAE halted all trade and financial transactions with Iran. A US Navy-led coalition reported no confirmed strait attacks in the past 48 hours.

August 22: Rezaei answered Saturday with “any country that takes part in imposing economic restrictions on us will be regarded as an enemy,”.

THE SANCTIONS — AND WHY I ASSESS THEY ARE UNLIKELY TO SUCCEED

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Treasury Secretary Bessent details “the toughest sanctions in history” Monday: “You are either with us or against us.” The administration calls it Operation Economic Fury, and Bessent says maximum economic pressure likely means no large-scale kinetic restart. China — buyer of most of Iran’s oil — rejected the sanctions the sa…

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The President declared "economic D-Day" on Iran — and on anyone who trades with Iran. He promised “tremendous economic consequences” for any country providing Tehran a “lifeline,” and Treasury Secretary Bessent told allies: “you are either with us or against us.” Details come Monday. No talks are scheduled.

Israel’s army publi…

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The 60-day memorandum expired Monday with no deal, and the President threatened to bomb Oman — the mediator. The window agreed in June closed with the negotiations never having started. Oman has carried the only functioning channel between Washington and Tehran for years, and it is now working with Iran on a plan to reopen th…

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Israeli drone strikes killed two in Gaza today — including Gaza City police chief Col. Jamal Abu Kmail, assassinated in his vehicle on the coastal road (Reuters). These are the first fatalities in more than a week, and the target matters as much as the timing: every postwar plan on the table requires Palestinian civil policin…

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Washington’s position hardened from blockade to possession. President Trump posted that the US has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz and — “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” — while a senior Iranian source told Reuters there is “nothing to extend,” and new SNSC secretary Mohsen Rezaei said the strait stays closed until every co…

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The war’s negotiating track descended into dueling invoices. After Iran conditioned reopening the Strait of Hormuz on war reparations, President Trump announced he is “likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts” — nami…

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Iran said Monday the Strait of Hormuz stays closed. Its safe-passage talks with Oman are “separate” from reopening the waterway — which remains contingent on US concessions, per Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei (NYT). President Trump told Axios the US is “low-keying it” — economic pressure over renewed strikes — whil…

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Iran named its price to reopen the Strait of Hormuz: The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council demanded the US lift its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraw its military from around Iran, pay war reparations, and release frozen assets before the strait reopens. The IRGC says the Iran-Oman talks are beside t…

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Netanyahu broke four days of silence to reject the deal Hamas accepted — in a video, in Hebrew, posted to Facebook. “They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it. It was not our draft. We sent back our comments,” he said, refusing any withdrawal until Hamas fully disarms. The draft was never supposed to be open to Israeli deba…

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry says no direct talks with the US exist — while the Treasury Secretary predicts a deal “today or tomorrow.” Iran told the Wall Street Journal that no meetings are planned and its negotiators are all in-country. Hours later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC “there’s a chance we may have a deal t…

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President Trump canceled a threatened massive attack on Iran Saturday night — one he told reporters would have been “the biggest attack since World War II” — claiming the “perimeters of a deal” were agreed. Iran’s foreign ministry says there are no direct US-Iran talks at all — only a route negotiation with Oman.

A New York Ti…

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President Trump called off a large strike package against Iran late Saturday, the second reversal in two weeks. He said the “perimeters of a deal” had been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has given no public sign it will loosen its grip on the waterway. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had urged Trump to choose dialogue. In the week before the cancellation, the United States struck Iran in a “heavy wave,” Iran fired missiles at a US base in Jordan, and US and Saudi forces struck Iran-aligned militias in Iraq, killing at least 20 by the militias’ own count.

The war reached American drinking water. Between July 27 and July 31, water and wastewater utilities in at least seven states reported cyberattacks to the FBI. Minnesota had more than 30 systems hit. Michigan reported nine. Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources warned utilities statewide that the threat was ongoing and required immediate action. Federal investigators are examining whether Iran is responsible. No contamination has been reported.

Diesel is $5.36 a gallon, up 54 cents in a month. Regular gas is $4.10. Brent crude closed near $88 after its strongest monthly gain since March. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve — the government’s emergency crude stockpile — fell to 307.7 million barrels, the lowest since 1983. And the Pentagon rewrote how it counts the dead and wounded, moving four soldiers killed in July out of the war’s official tally before public pressure put them back.

TRUMP CANCELED WEEKEND STRIKES ON IRAN

Late Saturday, the President said he had called off a potentially massive assault on Iran. He said other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off, and that the “perimeters of a deal” had been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

On Friday from Camp David he had said the opposite. The US would be “hitting them very hard,” and at some point Tehran would say it could not take it anymore. The military had rushed additional bombers and fighters into the region.

Saudi state media reported Sunday morning that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had spoken with Trump to urge prioritizing dialogue and preventing a wider conflict. This is the second time Saudi Arabia has influenced an American plan. In May, the prince denied US access to Saudi airspace and bases, forcing Washington to abandon a plan to escort ships through the strait. The Gulf states hosting American forces have absorbed most of Iran’s retaliation, and it appears they are done absorbing the retaliatory Iranian strikes.

The New York Times reports Tehran has given no indication it will relax its grip on the waterway. Qatar is mediating between Iran, the United States and Oman, coordinating with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. On Saturday, as the threatened strikes loomed, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ran a marathon of calls with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Britain and India, telling each that Iran would retaliate forcefully if attacked.

Tuesday into Wednesday, July 28–29: CENTCOM (US Central Command, the military’s Middle East headquarters) said Revolutionary Guard forces launched multiple ballistic missiles at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, Jordan, in an attempted surprise attack. Jordanian air defenses intercepted five missiles. US and Saudi forces then struck Iran-aligned militia sites in Iraq. The Popular Mobilization Forces said at least 20 people were killed and 32 injured. Iraq’s prime minister directed his foreign ministry to pursue legal action against both countries.

Thursday, July 30: CENTCOM said it had completed a heavy wave of strikes on Iran — military command centers, missile and drone factories, a coastal surveillance site. Iran’s state news agency IRNA said three people were killed on Qeshm Island. The same morning, an Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm’s building in northern Kuwait and killed a worker, per Kuwait’s military.

The New York Times reported that during the spring ceasefire, Quds Force commanders held virtual calls with Hezbollah, Houthi and Iraqi militia commanders to plan how to raise the war’s cost for Trump if the US escalated. A senior adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator posted openly that “the fronts are multiplying.” Since then: a drone strike on a Saudi oil facility, two gas tankers burning at Damietta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast — a country not previously touched by this war — and Houthi missiles enforcing a naval blockade against Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.

Israel, which launched this war alongside the United States on February 28, has been conspicuously absent from the fighting for weeks. Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that Israel “very much wants to attack energy targets in Iran, but the United States is not approving that at the moment.”

OPERATION EPIC FURY

For months the department disclosed only “seriously” wounded. On July 25 it overhauled the Defense Casualty Analysis System, the official tracker. Combined with updated totals, 18 troops have died and 624 have been wounded since February 28. The day before the update, the public tally listed 420 wounded.

The department also created a new category, “Overseas Operations,” and moved most July casualties out of Operation Epic Fury and into Overseas Operations. That included four of the dead — three soldiers killed July 17 in an Iranian attack in Jordan, and one killed during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone in Iraq. Those four had been dropped from the Pentagon tally the previous week.

Congress, meanwhile, went four for four against American interests.

• July 21: the House Rules Committee blocked the bipartisan Massie-Khanna amendment to strike Section 219 — the provision creating a United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative inside the Pentagon — from the annual defense bill. The procedural rule passed 214-211. No debate. No recorded vote on the amendment itself.

• July 22: the House passed the $1.15 trillion defense bill 216-212 with Section 219 intact, and renamed the Defense Department the Department of War. Rep. Thomas Massie called the bill a betrayal of American sovereignty. Rep. Ro Khanna said the fight moves to the House-Senate conference.

• July 23: the House passed a war powers resolution 214-208 directing withdrawal from hostilities with Iran — the second such rebuke this year. Four Republicans voted yes: Barrett, Davidson, Massie and Fitzpatrick. It is a concurrent resolution and carries no force of law. Hours later the Senate’s own binding measure failed 47-49.

• July 30: the Senate voted 49-50 against discharging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s war powers resolution from committee. Paul, Collins and Murkowski voted yes. Fetterman voted no. Cassidy, who has voted both ways, voted no.

The Senate version of the fusion provision, Section 1217, is still alive inside a defense bill Senate Democrats blocked 50-46 on July 14 — needing 60 to proceed — over the war and the budget. And the administration’s legal position, restated when Trump notified Congress the war had restarted, is that it now has another 60-day window to fight without authorization.

More than a dozen war powers votes since February. One nonbinding resolution has cleared both chambers. The war that was meant to last four to six weeks is in month six.

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Hamas signed a disarmament roadmap Thursday. Israel rejected it the same night. Hamas negotiators signed the Board of Peace’s 15-point framework in El-Alamein, Egypt — the first weapons agreement the group has ever signed. Netanyahu’s office said it does not meet Israel’s demands, and a senior Israeli official said no withdra…

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