According to Iran’s PressTV, Ahmad Nafisi, a deputy governor of Iran’s Hormuzgan Province, said that two other children from the family were rescued from the rubble. He said that the rescue operations had concluded and all of the people in the home had been accounted for.

So far, the US hasn’t responded to the Iranian reports of US strikes killing a toddler. US Central Command released a “fact check” on Thursday addressing claims made by Iranian media but didn’t mention the reports of a US strike killing a two-year-old. The US still hasn’t taken responsibility for its February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, which killed more than 100 children.

CENTCOM said that it launched strikes across Iran in response to an IRGC attack on a US base in Jordan, claiming to target “dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, and maritime capabilities.” The IRGC said that three of its members were killed by US strikes in the northwestern Zanjan province.

Take, for example, a headline like: “13 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Others Wounded.” Though many of us can still feel a deep sense of sadness over such a tragedy, the news itself becomes less shocking over time.

According to figures produced by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israel has killed and wounded a total of over 250,000 Palestinians since the start of the genocide in 2023.

The tally is updated daily because the killing never stops.

On July 23, six Palestinians were killed in Gaza. A day earlier, 13 were killed, and the day before that, nine others were killed, and so on.

It is this “and so on” that makes us lose our sense, over time, of what these tragedies actually entail. These are innocent people who are burned alive in their tents, bombed in their cars, or killed while attempting to enjoy a brief moment of respite from the scorching heat on the beach.

The US-Saudi strikes targeted PMF facilities in Baghdad and five Iraqi provinces, killing at least 20 PMF fighters, according to the group. President Trump claimed the attacks were coordinated with the Iraqi government, but Baghdad strongly condemned the strikes, with Iraq’s National Security Council saying they “resulted in a group of innocent martyrs and wounded.”

The attacks were launched over claims that Iraqi militias targeted oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, though Yemen’s Ansar Allah appeared to take credit for the attacks, and the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, an Iran-aligned Shia coalition that includes PMF militias, denied responsibility.

The Iraqi National Security Council said the strikes came as “the Iraqi government was communicating with the concerned parties to verify and address” Saudi Arabia’s claims “regarding the targeting of Saudi territories [from Iraq].” Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who recently visited Trump in Washington, canceled a planned trip to Saudi Arabia over the attacks.

The Americans and Saudis insist they are only discussing peaceful nuclear weapons. Don’t believe it. The Saudis argue they must have nuclear capability to generate energy when their oil begins to wear out.  Every oil-producing nation can rightly make the same argument.  When the oil runs out, no more gold beds, French furniture, show girls and disposable Rolls-Royces.

The only really admirable Saudi king in recent memory, Faisal bin Saud, reportedly said, ‘we are riding in expensive cars, but I fear one day soon we will end up riding camels again when our oil runs out’.  This noble far-seeing ruler was assassinated in 1976 by a nephew who was said to be demented. Some Saudis suspected Faisal was killed by a western power.

Saudi has only 38 million tribal people scattered over a vast, arid nation.  Libya’s late chief, Muammar Gaddafi told me ‘The Saudis are very rich people who live behind high walls. They are terrified of their neighbors.’  Gaddafi was himself murdered by the French and Americans.

Trump’s comments came after Ansar Allah announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, which came a week after the Saudis bombed Yemen’s Sanaa airport to prevent the landing of a plane carrying a Yemeni delegation from Iran to enforce its long-standing blockade on the country that was eased under a 2022 ceasefire deal but never fully lifted.

Ansar Allah has already warned shipping companies against using Saudi ports, and Reuters reported that two oil tankers loaded with Saudi crude bound for China and India made U-turns in the Red Sea, heading for the Suez Canal instead of attempting to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Yemeni media reported that a total of six ships turned around following the warning.

For his part, Trump downplayed the blockade, claiming it hasn’t started yet. “So far, it hasn’t happened, might happen, but we take care of things,” Trump told reporters while meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the Oval Office.

The poll found that 49% of Americans wanted to see Netanyahu arrested, including 74% of Kamala Harris voters and 23% of voters who supported President Trump. The survey also found that 54% of Americans view the Israeli leader unfavorably and that 47% believe he’s guilty of war crimes and has damaged US-Israel relations.

A separate poll published by YouGov on July 23 had similar results, with 46% of respondents saying Netanyahu should be arrested if he entered the US, and 28% saying he should not. That poll found that 28% of Republicans and 68% of Democrats supported the Israeli leader’s arrest.

The results come after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he believed Netanyahu was a “war criminal” and called on federal authorities to arrest the Israeli leader to enforce the International Criminal Court warrant against him for his role in war crimes in Gaza. President Trump responded by saying that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”

Dave DeCamp

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akeaton@antiwar.com

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