By Elwely Elwelly, Nayera Abdallah and Idrees Ali

DUBAI, July 9 (Reuters) - Iranian armed forces launched attacks on U.S. military infrastructure in Gulf states on Thursday following U.S. strikes on Iran's southern coastal and eastern provinces, further eroding a three-week-old ceasefire.

Iranian media later reported multiple explosions across southern Iran, including Bushehr, where one of the country's nuclear plants is located, along with Konarak, Choghadak and Bandar Abbas.

A U.S. official said there had been no American strikes in recent hours.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. lawmakers is urging fellow Democrats to block military spending legislation until the Senate debates proposals to deepen ties with Israel, highlighting growing unease within the party over support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk

ANKARA, July 9 (Reuters) - As they prepared for this week's NATO summit in Ankara, the leaders of America's allies wondered which Donald Trump would join them - the friendly U.S. president who has praised the dedication of NATO allies or the testy Trump who has threatened to implode the 77-year-old alliance?

It turns out they got both.

By Pesha Magid

SINJIL, West Bank, July 9 (Reuters) - On a cool night in June, some 15 Palestinians from the town of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank gathered on a hilltop to watch the shadowed valleys below for any sign of movement that might signal an impending Israeli settler attack.

They are part of a grassroots volunteer group — similar to others in the West Bank — that has stepped in to defend the town from rising settler violence that Palestinians say the Israeli military and their own government have proved unable or unwilling to prevent.

LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) - Andy Burnham, who is expected to be named as Britain's new prime minister later this month, wants to exert more pressure on the Israeli government over its actions in Gaza, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

In an interview with the newspaper, Burnham was critical of how current Prime Minister Keir Starmer had initially reacted to Israel's military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, which came after an attack on Israel by Hamas-led gunmen.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, July 9 (Reuters) - Gazans turned out in large numbers to pay their respects to a senior Palestinian member of Egypt's main aid organisation who set up World Cup screenings in the shattered enclave and was killed by an Israeli air strike on a taxi he was in this week.

The strike killed Mohammad al-Waheidi on the eve of the Egypt-Argentina match on Tuesday, along with three other people, including two young passers-by, siblings aged 10 and 8, in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, medics said.