Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Dozens of people were wounded across Israel after a new wave of missile attacks attributed to Iran and Hezbollah, as the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran entered its seventeenth day and tensions spread across several fronts in the Middle East.
Israeli emergency services reported multiple casualties following coordinated rocket strikes that targeted several areas inside the country. The attacks were widely attributed to Iran and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, marking another escalation in the rapidly widening regional conflict.
The strikes came as the confrontation between Iran and the U.S.-Israeli alliance continues with no clear diplomatic path to de-escalation. Iranian officials and allied groups have intensified attacks against Israeli territory while Israel has expanded military operations against Iranian-linked targets across the region.
On the Lebanese front, the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, as well as several towns in southern Lebanon including Khiam and Bint Jbeil. The operations followed repeated rocket launches from Lebanese territory toward Israel in recent days.
The widening conflict has also raised serious concerns for global energy markets, particularly after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes.
U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries that rely heavily on the waterway to contribute to efforts to secure and reopen it. Speaking to reporters, Trump said the military campaign against Iran was progressing “very well” and indicated that Iranian energy infrastructure could again become a target, including the strategic Kharg Island export terminal.
Kharg Island handles the majority of Iran’s crude oil exports, making it a key asset in the country’s energy sector. Any renewed attack on the facility could further disrupt global oil flows and deepen volatility in international markets.
Iran responded sharply to the threat. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that further attacks on Kharg Island could lead to what it described as a “new and harsh equation” governing global energy prices and the distribution of oil supplies.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already shaken international energy markets. Normally, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the narrow maritime corridor between Iran and Oman, making any prolonged disruption a major concern for governments and investors worldwide.
Diplomatic tensions have also spread across the Gulf. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia renewed their condemnation of Iranian attacks that targeted their territories as well as other Gulf states.
In a phone call, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed the escalating situation and reiterated their countries’ rejection of Iranian strikes on Gulf nations.
The growing regional fallout highlights the increasingly complex nature of the conflict, which now stretches from Iran and Israel to Lebanon and the Gulf, while also threatening the stability of global energy supplies.
As missile exchanges continue and diplomatic divisions deepen over how to respond to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, analysts warn that the war risks expanding further unless a coordinated international effort emerges to contain the crisis.
