By Rick Noack, Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Reuters) - Attacks on Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis this week have frustrated Pakistan and threaten to draw Islamabad into the conflict, complicating any future role it may have as a mediator between the United States and Iran.
By Parisa Hafezi, Samia Nakhoul and Jonathan Saul
DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic's leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran's Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, July 16 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, as a U.S.-based research group reported a surge in Israeli attacks to levels not seen since the latest truce took effect in October.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed two people near the Tuffah neighbourhood in the north of the enclave, while a third person was killed in Israeli tank shelling in the Zeitoun suburb in eastern Gaza City.
ALGIERS, July 16 (Reuters) - Eleven people, including children, were killed and 19 injured in a fire at an orphanage close to the Algerian capital Algiers early on Thursday, authorities said.
Locals and emergency crews rushed to the building in the Mohammadia district of the province of Algiers, where blackened masonry was visible above two window openings behind the exterior gates.
Ten of the injured suffered burns of varying severity, and emergency crews evacuated five people with disabilities from the orphanage to safety, the civil protection agency said.
NEW DELHI, July 16 (Reuters) - India has ordered shipowners, ship managers and recruitment companies not to deploy the country's seafarers on vessels undertaking trips through the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed fighting in the region.
India is the world's third-largest supplier of seafarers, with more than 300,000 sailors working across global shipping fleets, according to government data.
July 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has called the release of a U.S. citizen held in Iran a "gesture of goodwill", even as conflict raged for a fifth night across the Middle East.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday that an American who was "wrongfully detained" under the Biden administration in 2024 had been allowed to leave Iran.
"She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition. The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran," Trump wrote.
SINGAPORE, July 16 (Reuters) - Fewer vessels travelled through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the first day after the U.S. reimposed its naval blockade on Iranian ports with both countries escalating strikes across the Gulf, shipping data showed.
Nine vessels crossed the strait on Wednesday, mostly on the Iranian route, down from 13 the previous day, Kpler data showed.
There were no Very Large Crude Carrier or liquefied natural gas tankers visibly passing through the strait on Wednesday.
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mahmoud Issa
CAIRO/GAZA July 15 (Reuters) - An Israeli airstrike killed a man, his wife and their six-year-old daughter in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said as talks to advance the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal faltered.
The strike on an apartment building in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza killed Omar Abu Qassem, his wife, Asma, and their daughter, Habeeba, medics said. Their three-year-old son, Sami, survived, but was injured, medics said.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas militant.
By Enas Alashray, Tala Ramadan and Yomna Ehab
CAIRO/DUBAI, July 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. launched two waves of attacks on Iran's coastal defenses and missile sites on Wednesday after reimposing a naval blockade of its ports, while Iran struck back by targeting U.S. military sites in neighboring countries in what it called an "existential war" with America.
The latest escalation comes days after a fragile truce collapsed, raising the specter of a return to full-scale war, with Iran once again threatening to shut off more regional energy exports.
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - Recent waves of U.S. strikes on Iran aimed at forcing open the Strait of Hormuz are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the U.S. would want to destroy before executing more complex operations against Iran, three U.S. officials said.
