The U.S. military said today that it launched new airstrikes against Iran to “swiftly punish” the country’s Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalisation.

The strikes were designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command said.

Read more:

U.S. President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but nothing has been finalised, a senior administration official said Sunday. The news comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been traveling around the Mideast this past week trying to prevent the war with Hamas from igniting a broader regional conflict

In an interview on Sunday, the president warned Israel not to reoccupy Gaza, in his strongest public effort to hold Israel back.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Mr. Biden said. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas, and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.”

Still, he said, “taking out the extremists … is a necessary requirement.”

– AP