RAMALLAH: The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday, in the latest deadly attack on the occupied territory. Ali Majed Hamadneh, 23, died after settlers opened fire during a raid on the village of Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah, the ministry said. &quot;He was brought to the Palestine Medical Complex in a critical condition&quot; and later succumbed to his wounds, the ministry said on Telegram. Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported the incident. &quot;Armed colonists, under the protection of Israeli forces, attacked Deir Jarir from its western entrance and opened fire toward residents in the area,&quot; Wafa reported. There was no immediate response from the Israeli police or military. There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war on Feb 28, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said. Prior to Saturday&#39;s attack, at least six Palestinians were killed since then in settler attacks, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures. Recent surge has prompted criticism from influential rabbis, settler leaders, and even Israel&#39;s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who called the attacks &quot;morally and ethically unacceptable&quot;.

Middle East

A 23-year-old died after settlers opened fire during a raid on Deir Jarir near Ramallah, officials said, as escalating violence draws criticism; Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, called the attacks "morally and ethically unacceptable".

Palestinians say Israeli settlers kill man in raid on village 

RAMALLAH: Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken &quot;secretly&quot; in early April. &quot;The security cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements,&quot; Peace Now said in a statement released late on Thursday.The 34 settlements come on top of 68 others already approved since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s right-wing government came to power in 2022. The decision has not been officially published by any government body, and the defence ministry, in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank, declined to respond to AFP&#39;s questions. &quot;We are not addressing this issue,&quot; a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP. According to news channel i24News, 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision. The remaining 24 are yet to be built. All settlements are illegal under international law. News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting that took place on April 1 that the army could &quot;collapse&quot; because of increasing demands on its manpower. That included the legalisation of dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and therefore for protection from Israeli troops. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements, among some three million Palestinians. Settlement expansion has been a policy under successive Israeli governments since 1967, but has accelerated significantly under the current Netanyahu-led coalition, widely regarded as one of the most right-wing in Israel&#39;s history. Rights groups say approvals of new settlements, land seizures and settler violence have further increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken "secretly" in early April.

Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements

TEHRAN: Israeli strikes hit Iran&#39;s largest petrochemical complex Monday, as the Islamic Republic defied threats from US President Donald Trump to devastate civilian infrastructure if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A separate Israeli strike also killed a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, while Iran launched drone and missile attacks against Israel, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Iran said &quot;much more devastating&quot; attacks would come if Trump followed through on his threat to hit civilian targets. The US leader had on Sunday threatened to destroy Iranian bridges and power plants if Tehran does not bow to his demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping by Tuesday 8:00 pm (0000 GMT Wednesday). Iran has all but blocked Hormuz, a vital energy chokepoint, sending oil and gas prices soaring and pushing countries around the world to enact measures to contain the fallout. In a stark, expletive-laden social media post on Sunday, Trump demanded: &quot;Open the Fuckin&#39; Strait, you crazy bastards, or you&#39;ll be living in Hell.&quot; On Monday, Israel said it had struck Iran&#39;s largest petrochemical facility in Assaluyeh on Iran&#39;s Gulf coast, where local media reported multiple explosions. The site accounted for about 50 percent of the country&#39;s petrochemical production worth &quot;tens of billions of dollars&quot;, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said. Ahead of the latest strikes, Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards said Hormuz &quot;will never return to its former status, especially for the US and Israel&quot;. The Guards posted on Telegram Monday that their intelligence chief Majid Khademi had been killed at dawn in US-Israeli strikes. &quot;We will reach anyone who seeks to harm us,&quot; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, after Katz confirmed the country&#39;s military was behind the strike. Israel&#39;s defence ministry also said it would ramp up production of Arrow missile interceptors, part of the country&#39;s multi-layered air defences.<h2 style="line-height: 2;"> </h2><h2 style="line-height: 2;">A deal?</h2>While the violence continued to spiral, reports surfaced of a potential push to halt the fighting. Citing US, Israeli and regional sources, US news website Axios said a deal mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey for a 45-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations on a more permanent peace was under discussion. Pakistan confirmed peace talks were underway but did not comment on the 45-day ceasefire report. Egypt&#39;s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had on Sunday confirmed he was engaging in talks with governments across the region, as well as US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran&#39;s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. &quot;Views and proposals were exchanged on ways to deescalate the military situation in the region given the delicate juncture it is currently facing,&quot; a statement from his ministry said. Trump told Fox News that Iran was &quot;close&quot; to making a deal, but Tehran has repeatedly denied it is engaged in any negotiations with the US or Israel. European Council chief Antonio Costa, one of the EU&#39;s top officials, called in an X post for a &quot;diplomatic solution&quot;. &quot;Any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable,&quot; Costa said.&nbsp;

Asia

Israel strikes Iran’s largest petrochemical complex as tensions with Iran escalate over the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides trading attacks and threats amid tentative ceasefire talks.

Israel hits Iran gas complex after Trump threat

RIYADH: Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Indonesia, lambasted on Thursday the approval of a death penalty bill for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, saying the move threatens &quot;regional stability&quot;. Foreign ministers released the statement from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. &quot;This legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation, particularly given its discriminatory application against Palestinian prisoners, and stressed that such measures risk further exacerbating tensions and undermining regional stability,&quot; the joint statement read. Under the law passed by Israel&#39;s parliament late on Monday, Palestinians convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as &quot;acts of terrorism&quot; will face the death penalty&nbsp;as a default sentence. The United Nations and European Union have criticized the law, while the United States came out in support of &quot;Israel&#39;s sovereign right to determine its own laws&quot;. Because Palestinians in the territory are automatically tried in Israeli military courts, the measure effectively creates a separate and harsher legal track. In Israeli civilian courts, the law allows for either death or life imprisonment for those convicted of killing with the intent to harm the state.

FILE: From left to right: Syria's President Bashar Assad, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as they follow Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Front R) and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi (Back R)

Europe

"This legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation, particularly given its discriminatory application against Palestinian prisoners, and such measures risk further exacerbating tensions and undermining regional stability," the joint statement released by Islamic nations read.

Islamic states condemn Israel over death penalty law

WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the war on Iran had achieved more than half its aims, without putting a timeline on when it would end. &quot;It&#39;s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don&#39;t want to put a schedule on it,&quot; Netanyahu told the conservative US broadcaster Newsmax. He added that he meant the war was more than halfway &quot;in terms of missions, not necessarily in terms of time.&quot; President Donald Trump, who launched the war with Netanyahu on February 28, initially said the operation would last for four to six weeks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the war would last &quot;weeks&quot; further instead of months, amid wide US public opposition to a conflict that has sent oil prices soaring. Netanyahu said the war had achieved goals including killing &quot;thousands&quot; of members of Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards. Israel and the United States are also &quot;close to finishing their arms industry,&quot; he added. &quot;Just the whole industrial base -- wiping out all, you know, just plants, entire plants, and the nuclear program itself,&quot; he said. Netanyahu and Trump have repeatedly alleged that Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon, a claim not supported by the UN nuclear watchdog and that comes despite Trump saying he &quot;obliterated&quot; key sites in attacks last year. Netanyahu also voiced confidence that Iran&#39;s Islamic republic would fall, though he said again that this was not the goal. &quot;I think this regime will collapse internally. But at the moment, right now, what we&#39;re doing is just degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside,&quot; Netanyahu said. The war came weeks after Iranian authorities clamped down on major anti-government demonstrations, killing thousands of people. Trump in recent days has said the war has effectively achieved &quot;regime change&quot; by empowering other figures within the cleric-run state who Trump says may be more accommodating.

Says the war on Iran has achieved more than half its military aims, including major damage to Iran’s forces and arms industry, while US officials say fighting could continue for weeks despite growing public opposition.

Netanyahu says Iran war goals achieved 'beyond halfway point'

TEHRAN: Yemen&#39;s Houthi rebels joined the month-old Middle East war, claiming two missile attacks on Israel that raised concern on Sunday about the war spreading to the Red Sea. Fears of a widening conflict came as the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was preparing plans for weeks of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pentagon-preparing-for-ground-operations-in-iran-report" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">US ground operations</a>&nbsp;in Iran -- though it said President Donald Trump has yet to approve any deployment. The involvement of Houthi rebels has added a new complexity to a conflict that has already impacted a wide swathe of the Middle East. During Israel&#39;s recent war on Gaza, the Houthis, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, forcing companies to take costly detours. Until Saturday, they had sat out the latest conflict, even as the Red Sea grew more vital. A Houthi spokesman on Saturday said the group fired &quot;a barrage of cruise missiles and drones targeting several vital and military sites&quot; in Israel. Since the launch of hostilities, Saudi Arabia has rerouted much of its oil exports via the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says it has closed to shipping from hostile powers. Iran threatens retaliationThe attacks on Iran continued Saturday as Israel&#39;s military said it struck the headquarters of Iran&#39;s Marine Industries Organisation in Tehran, saying the facility developed &quot;a wide range of naval weaponry.&quot; On Saturday evening, a wave of blasts rang out in the capital for several minutes, with no immediate word on what was targeted. An Israeli military spokesman said attacks on Iranian military industry had intensified and &quot;within a few days, we will complete attacks on all critical components.&quot; &quot;I miss a peaceful night&#39;s sleep,&quot; an artist in Tehran told AFP, saying the previous night&#39;s strikes were &quot;so intense it felt like all of Tehran was shaking.&quot; Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guard meanwhile threatened Sunday to strike US university campuses in the Middle East unless Washington officially condemned US-Israeli&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-israel-war-on-iran-day-29" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">attacks on two Iranian universities</a>. Several American institutions operate campuses across the Gulf region, including Texas A&amp;M in Qatar and New York University in the UAE. Pakistan mediationThe conflict began when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes across Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, engulfing the region in conflict, sending energy prices soaring and prompting diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting. Pakistan, acting as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-iran-leaders-discuss-regional-tensions-peace-efforts" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">go-between for Washington and Tehran,</a>&nbsp;will host foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad on Monday for talks on the crisis. Iran&#39;s President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Islamabad &quot;for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression,&quot; while Germany&#39;s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Friday he expected a direct US-Iran meeting in Pakistan &quot;very soon.&quot; Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff said such a meeting could take place this week, and promoted a 15-point plan that Washington says &quot;could solve it all.&quot; Still, the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East on Friday amid speculation over a possible US ground deployment in Iran. The Washington Post reported late Saturday that the Pentagon is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran -- potentially including raids on Kharg Island and sites near the Strait of Hormuz -- though President Trump has yet to approve any deployment. Red Sea shipping&nbsp;The economic fallout of the war remained critical with Hormuz still all but impassable and attacks on infrastructure still frequent in the region. Many Gulf shipments have been rerouted through Oman&#39;s Salalah port on the Arabian Sea, but Danish shipping giant Maersk said operations there were temporarily suspended after a drone attack. Fire broke out after Iranian missiles and drones struck the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people. Emirates Global Aluminium reported significant damage. Air travel has also been disrupted, with authorities in Kuwait and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan reporting airport facilities hit in strikes by Iran. The United States condemned a drone attack on the residence of Kurdish regional leader Nechirvan Barzani, blaming Iranian militia proxies in Iraq and calling it &quot;a direct assault on Iraq&#39;s sovereignty.&quot; Elsewhere in Iraq, a former paramilitary coalition, integrated into the armed forces but containing pro-Iran factions, said three fighters were killed in a strike near Kirkuk, while the interior ministry said two police officers died in another in Mosul. Both were blamed on the United States and Israel. Ukraine&#39;s President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his military&#39;s expertise to help defend against Iranian strikes as left his war-torn country for the region to sign anti-drone cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Three journalists killed<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/lebanon-says-46-rescuers-5-medical-staff-killed-in-israelhezbollah-war" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Attacks continued in Lebanon</a>, which was drawn into the conflict when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2. On Saturday, the Israeli military killed three journalists in the south, including Al Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, one of the network&#39;s most prominent war correspondents, who had covered Israeli attacks on Lebanon for decades. The Israeli military accused him of operating within Hezbollah &quot;under the guise of a journalist.&quot; Lebanese authorities, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, condemned the killings as war crimes. Israel also carried out raids in southern Lebanon that killed nine paramedics, according to the health ministry.

A security personnel stands guard as Houthi supporters gather during a rally in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon, amid the US-Israeli war with Iran, in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 27, 2026. (File photo: AFP)

The involvement of Houthi rebels adds a new complexity to a conflict that has already impacted a wide swathe of the Middle East.

Houthis missile attacks on Israel widen Middle East war

TEHRAN: Iran confirmed Tuesday the death of its powerful national security chief, after Israel said he was killed in an airstrike and vowed to hunt down and &quot;neutralize&quot; Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. The death of Ali Larijani represents a major blow to Iran, whose long-serving leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed less than three weeks ago in US-Israeli strikes that ignited the war in the Middle East. The assassination came as Iran&#39;s parliament speaker vowed that shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not return to its pre-war norm, and US President Donald Trump blasted allies for rebuffing his call to help escort oil tankers through the blockaded waterway. Larijani, who was close to the late ayatollah, had helped lead Iran&#39;s retaliatory campaign in the war. &quot;After a lifetime of struggle for the advancement of Iran and of the Islamic Revolution, he ultimately attained his long-held aspiration, answered the divine call, and honourably achieved the sweet grace of martyrdom in the trench of service,&quot; Iran&#39;s Supreme National Security Council announced. Israel&#39;s military vowed it would also eliminate Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late ayatollah who took power after his father&#39;s death on Feb 28. &quot;We don&#39;t know about Mojtaba Khamenei, we don&#39;t hear him, we don&#39;t see him, but I can tell you one thing: we will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,&quot; military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters. &#39;Right-hand man&#39;&nbsp;In a televised statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Larijani as &quot;the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran&quot;. He said the overthrow of Iran&#39;s authorities by the people &quot;will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this -- we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.&quot; While Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was appointed, Larijani, 68, walked with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran. &quot;He has effectively been the figure in charge of the regime&#39;s survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy,&quot; David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP. &quot;It&#39;s the supreme leader who gives the order, but he is the one who carries it out. He is the right-hand man.&quot; Shortly after Israel said it had killed him, Larijani&#39;s official social media profiles posted a handwritten note by him paying tribute to Iranian sailors killed in a US submarine attack this month. Images on Iranian state television showed large crowds rallying from the early evening in Tehran and other cities, many waving the nation&#39;s flag, on a night usually marked by festive celebrations ahead of the Persian new year, Nowruz. AFP journalists reported muted Nowruz celebrations in Tehran, with some fireworks and crackers heard between shots from air defence systems. Larijani&#39;s funeral, as well as that of Gholamreza Soleimani, who headed the Basij paramilitary force and was also killed by Israel on Tuesday, will be held on Wednesday morning in central Tehran, the Fars and Tasnim agencies reported. Israel&#39;s military said it was striking positions of Iran&#39;s Basij paramilitary force around Tehran on Tuesday, after announcing it had killed the group&#39;s top commander, Soleimani. Iran&#39;s Revolutionary Guards confirmed Soleimani&#39;s death in a statement Tuesday evening. Israel earlier said it had also targeted Akram al-Ajouri, head of the military wing of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike in Iran. Since the October 7, 2023, cross-border attacks by Hamas into Israel from Gaza, Israel has pursued what analysts have described as a policy of decapitation, targeting the leaders of its enemies. Turkey&#39;s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday called these assassinations &quot;truly illegal&quot;.

Americas

The assassination came as Iran's parliament speaker vowed that shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not return to its pre-war norm, and US President Donald Trump blasted allies for rebuffing his call to help escort oil tankers through the blockaded waterway.

Iran confirms security chief dead as Israel vows to target leader

GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday urged Israel to immediately halt its dramatic settlement expansion in the West Bank, raising concerns of &quot;ethnic cleansing&quot; with over 36,000 Palestinians displaced in a single year.&nbsp;A fresh report from the United Nations rights office, looking at the 12 months up to October 31, 2025, warned that Israel&#39;s accelerating expansion of unlawful settlements and annexation of large parts of the West Bank was driving &quot;unprecedented&quot; displacement.&nbsp;&quot;The displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank represented the mass expulsion of Palestinians on a scale previously unseen, amounting to unlawful transfer that is prohibited under international humanitarian law,&quot; the report said.&nbsp;Alongside &quot;the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza,&quot; it &quot;appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing.&quot;&nbsp;The report pointed to the advancement or approval by Israeli authorities of 36,973 housing units in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and around 27,200 in the rest of the West Bank.&nbsp;Also, during the 12-month period, &quot;an unprecedented 84 settlement outposts were established across the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number to more than 300&quot;, the report said.&nbsp;In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.&nbsp;Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.&nbsp;There has also been a spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said, with at least six Palestinians killed since the start of March.&nbsp;War crimeAccording to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,045 Palestinians many of them militants, but also scores of civilians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.&nbsp;Official Israeli figures say that 45 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.&nbsp;In Tuesday&#39;s report, the UN rights office said it had documented 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage over the course of the reporting period.&nbsp;That compares to 1,400 during the previous 12-month period, it said.&nbsp;&quot;Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic, and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role,&quot; the report said.&nbsp;UN rights chief Volker Turk called on Israel to &quot;immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements.&quot;&nbsp;In a statement, he also urged &quot;the evacuation of all settlers and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory.&quot;&nbsp;And he insisted that Israel &quot;must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians and stop all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions, and house demolitions.&quot;&nbsp;The report also decried that advancing settlement plans were heightening the risk of displacement faced by thousands of Palestinians from Bedouin communities located northeast of East Jerusalem.&nbsp;&quot;Unlawful transfer of protected persons constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, constituting a war crime,&quot; it stressed.&nbsp;&quot;Under certain circumstances, it may also amount to a crime against humanity.&quot;

A United Nations report says over 36,000 Palestinians were displaced in the West Bank amid expanding Israeli settlements, warning of possible war crimes and raising concerns about ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.

36,000 Palestinians displaced in West Bank in one year: UN

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: The current United States war with Iran is putting pressure on the American weapons pipeline, with expensive missiles being consumed faster than industry can replace them.&nbsp; A report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and an article in The National Interest, point to the problem: modern high-intensity war burns through precision weapons very quickly, while the factories and chemicals behind those weapons move much more slowly.&nbsp;The think tank&rsquo;s report found that, in a major war, the United States could exhaust some critical missile inventories within days or about a week, and that rebuilding certain stockpiles could take years.&nbsp; The report modeled a conflict in Taiwan, but the core lesson is broader: when a war depends heavily on long-range strikes, stockpiles can shrink at wartime speed while production remains on peacetime timelines.&nbsp; Applying that logic to the current war with Iran suggests a similar strain if American forces keep firing interceptors, cruise missiles, and other guided munitions in repeated rounds.&nbsp; The National Interest article explains why replacement is so slow.&nbsp; One of the biggest bottlenecks is the solid rocket motor, the engine inside many missiles. These motors depend on specialty chemicals, certified plants, strict safety rules, and highly skilled workers.&nbsp; The article says this is not a production chain that can be expanded quickly in the middle of a war, and notes that the United States industry has narrowed from six domestic producers to two main manufacturers over the past two decades.&nbsp; It also identifies ammonium perchlorate, a key chemical used in solid rocket fuel, as a major chokepoint. If supplies of the chemical tighten or a plant goes down, missile output can slow across several programs at once. The problem is not just how many weapons the United States has today, but how hard it would be to replace them if the war keeps dragging on.

The United States war with Iran is straining missile supplies, as analysts warn that precision weapons are being used faster than they can be replaced because production depends on slow, fragile supply chains.

Missile shortages loom as US-Israeli war on Iran drags on

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said Lebanon was ready to engage in &quot;direct talks&quot; with Israel and offered to host negotiations in Paris. &quot;The Lebanese government has signalled its willingness to engage in direct talks with Israel,&quot; he said on X, adding that &quot;all sections of society must be represented in these talks.&quot; &quot;France is ready to facilitate these talks by hosting them in Paris,&quot; Macron said, adding he had spoken to the president and prime minister of Lebanon, a former French protectorate. &quot;Everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos,&quot; Macron added. &quot;Hezbollah must immediately halt its reckless course. Israel must abandon plans for a large-scale offensive and cease its massive air strikes.&quot; Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Friday his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel.

French President Emmanuel Macron says Lebanon is ready for direct talks with Israel and offers Paris as a venue for negotiations, while urging Hezbollah to halt attacks and Israel to abandon plans for a large-scale offensive

Articles tagged with "Israel"

Palestinians say Israeli settlers kill man in raid on village

Israel approves 34 new West Bank settlements

Israel hits Iran gas complex after Trump threat

Islamic states condemn Israel over death penalty law

Netanyahu says Iran war goals achieved 'beyond halfway point'

Houthis missile attacks on Israel widen Middle East war

Iran confirms security chief dead as Israel vows to target leader

36,000 Palestinians displaced in West Bank in one year: UN

Missile shortages loom as US-Israeli war on Iran drags on

Macron urges Israel to hold 'direct talks' with Lebanon

Palestinians say Israeli settlers kill man in raid on village