NEW YORK, 14 August, 2026 (Kamran Raja): Two oil tankers operated by the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil company ADNOC were attacked by drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, with the UAE blaming Iran for the incident and describing the attacks as acts of piracy.The attacks took place Thursday evening as the two tankers were passing through the strategically important waterway linking the Persian Gulf with international waters. ADNOC said no injuries were reported and that the situation had been brought under control.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said two vessels had suffered minor damage in drone attacks while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It did not identify the ships, but the reported details appeared to correspond to the same incident.The UAE Foreign Ministry accused Iran of carrying out the attacks and called them a “flagrant violation” of international principles protecting freedom of navigation. Abu Dhabi warned that targeting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz posed a direct threat to regional stability and global energy security.
Meanwhile, activists in the occupied West Bank marched through communities carrying food and water for Palestinians who have been under siege by Israeli settlers. In the town of Qusra, three Palestinian families have reportedly been unable to leave their homes for nearly a week after Israeli settlers surrounded the area. Israeli forces intervened several times, but the settlers repeatedly returned.The situation in Qusra comes amid a wider wave of settler violence in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war and claimed by Palestinians as part of a future independent state.Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also instructed the military to prepare a plan to transfer responsibility for civilian-related law enforcement matters to the police, according to the Defense Ministry.In Iraq, authorities intercepted a drone over Irbil in the semiautonomous Kurdistan region. The drone was detected in an area containing several hotels and foreign consulates. The regional counterterrorism service said there were no casualties.It was not immediately clear who launched the drone. Since the outbreak of the war involving Iran, the United States and Israel, Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militant groups have carried out repeated attacks targeting U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq, as well as bases associated with Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.Elsewhere, Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a key negotiator, is expected to travel to the Middle East next week in an effort to advance plans aimed at ending the conflict in Gaza.
An official from the Board of Peace, established by Trump to oversee the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair are expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday.The group is then expected to travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic body have been held as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan that would see the group assume responsibility for governing Gaza.The developments come as tensions remain high across the Middle East, with attacks on commercial shipping, drone incidents and diplomatic efforts continuing amid the broader regional conflict.