US-Israeli war on Iran expands and shuts down Gulf oil and gas production
The US-Israeli conflict with Iran escalated across the region on Monday, with Iranian strikes prompting Saudi Arabia and Qatar to halt production at major oil and gas facilities, and bombing spreading to Lebanon too.
Meanwhile, three US F-15s were downed in Kuwait, Qatar shot down two fighter jets approaching from Iran, and rockets were launched at a British military base in Cyprus.
US and Israeli bombing on Iran continued apace for a third day, with President Donald Trump warning the "big wave" is yet to come.
Tehran's response has targeted Israel and US assets across the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it has targeted over 500 US and Israeli sites, using 700 drones and hundreds of missiles.
"Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war," top Iranian official Ali Larijani warned.
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According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, 555 people have been killed by US and Israeli attacks.
Four US military personnel have been announced killed during the operation, and at least 11 people have been killed by Iranian bombing in Israel.
On Monday, Iranian attacks disrupted energy infrastructure across the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil and gas company, Saudi Aramco, shut as a precautionary measure its Ras Tanura refinery after drone strikes caused a fire there.
The 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, which is part of an energy complex on the kingdom’s Gulf coast, also serves as a critical export terminal for Saudi crude oil.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister said Iran was not responsible.
Two Iranian drones struck energy facilities in the Qatari industrial city of Ras Laffan and Mesaieed, according to Qatar’s defence ministry, which later said it shot down two SU24 fighter jets coming from Iran.
No casualties were reported from the drone strikes, but Qatar Energy, the largest liguid natural gas (LNG) producer in the world, announced that it had stopped production of LNG and associated products.
Oil prices surged 13 percent to above $82 a barrel, the highest since January 2025, as shipping stopped at - or turned away from - the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows.
It came a day after sources told Middle East Eye that senior Saudi officials were angry at the scale and timing of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, and urged Gulf allies to avoid steps that would trigger a response by Tehran and its proxies.
Elsewhere, Lebanon was dragged into the conflict as limited Hezbollah rocket fire towards Israel prompted an Israeli bombing campaign that killed 31 people and wounded 249 others.
Ongoing strikes on Beirut's suburbs, southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley have displaced thousands of people, with Israeli expulsion orders issued to dozens of villages and towns.
Hezbollah said it launched rocket and drone strikes on northern Israel "in revenge for the blood" of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US-Israeli operation on Tehran on Saturday.
Later on Monday, the Lebanese government announced a total and immediate ban on Hezbollah’s military and security activities, calling for it to hand over "illegal" weapons to the state.
Influential parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a longtime ally of Hezbollah, whose secretary-general Naim Qassem refers him to as "big brother", approved the decision taken by the government, two sources close to Berri told Middle East Eye.
The sources said Berri, who heads the Amal party, ordered his ministers in the government not to object to the ban or voice any opposition.
They added that the speaker’s position changed because Hezbollah had previously given him several reassurances that it would not take part in a war involving Iran, a point he had personally conveyed to diplomatic channels.
Reuters reported that rockets fired at a British airbase in Cyprus were believed to have been launched by the Lebanese movement.
US F-15s downed in Kuwait
Meanwhile, three American F-15s were downed in Kuwait, which the US military said was caused by "an apparent friendly fire incident".
Iran, however, claimed it had shot down the jets near the Kuwaiti border. MEE could not independently verify either account.
The Kuwaiti defence ministry said all six crewmembers ejected safely and that it is coordinating with US forces to determine the circumstances of the incident.
Iranian attacks have caused havoc to businesses in Gulf states previously considered safe havens in the region.
In the UAE, Amazon's cloud unit reported a disruption to its services after its data centre in the Emirates was struck by "objects", sparking a fire.
Amazon Web Services Inc (AWS) said that one of their "availability zones" - a regional grouping of one or more data centres - was temporarily shut down after it was "impacted by objects that struck the data centre" on Sunday afternoon.
In occupied Palestine, Israeli authorities closed Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque for the third consecutive day, preventing Palestinian Muslims from praying at the site during the holy month of Ramadan.
Palestinians warn that the move forms part of a broader Israeli strategy to exploit security tensions to impose further restrictions and consolidate control over Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The closure comes under what Israeli authorities describe as a state of emergency following its launch of a war with Iran on Saturday.
Dr Mustafa Abu Sway, a professor who teaches at al-Aqsa Mosque and a member of the Islamic Waqf Council in Jerusalem, said the closure was further evidence that long-feared Israeli changes to the status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque have taken effect.
“I do not recall it ever being closed in this way,” Abu Sway told MEE.
“The new reality at al-Aqsa, which we had feared, has now materialised,” he added.
“There are dramatic changes introduced under the latest strategy, and it is not only during Ramadan. This includes preventing and banning a large number of Waqf employees from Al-Aqsa Mosque, restricting the entry of certain loudspeakers and other measures.”
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