What is Iran's Pickaxe Mountain? Turkiye lays out'mechanisms' of defence pact with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will group senior ministers, hold joint exercises and deepen defence industry cooperation under a military pact signed between the regional powers last week, Turkiye's defence ministry says. The three countries on August 7 signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7, which stipulates that an armed attack against any member would be regarded as an attack on all, similar to NATO's Article 5 collective defence clause. "Under the accord, strategic political and military mechanisms plan to be established involving the Defence Ministers, Foreign Ministers, and Chiefs of General Staff/Armed Forces Commanders, and that coordination among the three countries will be conducted at the highest level," it said. The ministry added that joint military exercises involving land, naval and air forces, as well as air defence and unmanned systems were planned, in addition to deeper defence industry cooperation.

Two human rights groups have said an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon that killed al-Akhbar newspaper reporter Amal Khalil and seriously wounded freelance camera operator Zeinab Faraj was an apparent war crime. Separate reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International concluded that the journalists were targeted while reporting in the town of al-Tiri on 22 April. They called for an independent investigation and for Lebanon to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The Israeli military denied targeting the journalists, telling the BBC that the three strikes carried out by its forces were aimed at two operatives of the armed group Hezbollah. The Israeli military says it does not target journalists, but the facts and evidence show that it has repeatedly done so.

What is Lebanon's Beaufort Castle? Why is Israel attacking Nabatieh? Two people have been injured in an Israeli drone strike on a pick-up truck in southern Lebanon, according to state-run media, the latest attack despite a United States-brokered framework agreement intended to pave the way for a phased Israeli withdrawal. The drone struck the vehicle as it was unloading garbage on the outskirts of the towns of Choukine and Kfar Dajjal in the Nabatieh district early on Friday, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said. Later, NNA reported drones also targeted the towns of Kfar Reman and Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

Children watch as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza on 19 June. Children watch as smoke billows in the background near the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza on 19 June. Israel identified about 1,000 potential targets a day during the first two years of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon with its command and control system, according to a presentation by the country's largest arms supplier, Elbit Systems. A total of 850,000 targets were detected in real time by the Israeli Tzayad digital army programme across all the military's theatres of war between 7 October and the end of 2025, the company said at a military conference in London. It describes the number of people, vehicles and other objects detected in real time for possible follow-up attack from land, sea or air, and illustrates the high intensity of the deadly wars fought by Israel over the last three years.

Could Israel sabotage the deal? The United States has bombed Iran for a second straight day, striking Sirik, Bandar-e Lengeh and Qeshm Island after a drone attack on a commercial vessel near the Strait of Hormuz. Air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait said its air defences were responding to "hostile missile and drone threats", raising heightened tensions across the region. Meanwhile, Israel carried out new attacks on southern Lebanon, killing at least one person, just a day after reaching a framework agreement with the Lebanese government aimed at ending the fighting. Tehran-based political analyst Abas Aslani said Iran views the waterway as a deterrent against future US attacks.

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As officials meet in Switzerland to negotiate the terms of a tenuous U.S.-Iran accord, and tensions reignite over the Strait of Hormuz, here's a look at what the conflict has already cost.

The BBC has been given rare access to the part of southern Lebanon that is under Israeli occupation, as part of a humanitarian convoy of the Order of Malta distributing aid to Christian villages that have been isolated because of the war. The mission happened on Thursday, a day before the announcement of a new ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and the Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah. The team saw the Israeli military presence but was not allowed to film much of the journey. Israel says it has no intention of withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, and that its plan is to create a security zone along the border, Hezbollah-free, to protect its northern communities from the group's rockets and drones. In the occupied areas, mainly Shia villages have been completely destroyed by Israeli air strikes or demolitions.

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