US strikes Iran for seventh night in a row; Iranian forces launch retaliatory attacks

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they unfold.

US Central Command denies a claim by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that two oil tankers exploded after sailing through a mined route near the Strait of Hormuz.

???? CLAIM: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims that two oil tankers have exploded in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting mines in the international waterway.

✅ FACT: Like most IRGC claims, this is false. pic.twitter.com/hgdwnc7Kos

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 18, 2026

Iran’s army says it struck US military targets in Kuwait and Jordan in response to American attacks, according to a statement carried by the Iranian state broadcaster.

In Kuwait, Iranian forces targeted an ammunition depot in the Al-Adiri camp, the headquarters buildings and ammunition depots in the Ali Al-Salem base and several communication bridges.

In Jordan, fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base were also targeted, the state broadcaster says on Telegram.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps meanwhile says it attacked a depot of US drones in Bahrain and destroyed Bahrain’s main artificial intelligence center with ballistic missiles and drones.

US attacks have killed three people and wounded eight in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, state news agency IRNA reports.

“The deputy political, security and social affairs governor of Hormozgan announced the martyrdom of three people and the injury of eight people following enemy attacks on some parts of Hormozgan province this morning,” IRNA says on Telegram.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has “stopped” four ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

“In the past hours, four violating ships with the support of the terrorist US army were trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and all four ships were stopped in place during a combined missile and drone operation,” the IRGC says in a statement carried by the state broadcaster.

The Saudi civil defense early on Saturday issued two early warnings for Al-Kharj city and Yanbu to be alert to “potential danger,” but it later says the danger has passed in both areas, without providing details on the danger that triggered the warnings.

A US official tells the Axios news site that Iran targeted an American military base in Saudi Arabia with a ballistic missile, the first time that the Islamic Republic has directly attacked the kingdom in four months.

Two oil tankers exploded and caught fire after passing through a mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s state TV reports, citing a statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Five explosions were heard in the early hours of Saturday local time in Yazd, in central Iran, the state news agency IRNA reports, after the US military announced a seventh night of strikes against the country.

Another Iranian news agency, Mehr, reports that explosions were heard “in several provinces in the south” of Iran.

The US Central Command says that the US military has conducted a new round of strikes on Iran, amid escalating fighting.

It also says that it redirected four commercial vessels, disabled one, and boarded another to “ensure full compliance” during the first three days of the new US blockade on Iranian ports.

This marks the seventh consecutive night of US strikes on Iran, as the countries trade strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets while their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensifies.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

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— Stav Levaton, military reporter

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