Saudi Arabia issues Riyadh alert as Iran sends war terms via Qatar

Saudi Arabia issued emergency alerts in Riyadh as Iran sent Washington terms to end the war via Qatar. The overnight developments underlined widening regional strain even as civilians in Gaza try to restore daily life.

In Short

• No casualties were reported after residents near Riyadh airport saw smoke
• Tehran sought asset release and an end to naval blockade
• Israeli strikes killed three men in Gaza and hit Lebanon targets

Saudi Arabia issued a series of emergency alerts overnight over what it called a "hostile aerial threat", including the first such alert in Riyadh since the latest escalation in fighting with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. At least one explosion was heard in the Saudi capital, while in a separate regional development, a senior Iranian official said Tehran had sent Washington its conditions for ending the war through Qatar and was waiting for a response.

Elsewhere in the region, Israeli strikes killed three men in Gaza and Israel said it hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. Iran announced the execution of a man accused of spying for Israel, race organisers in Tehran were charged after women ran without headscarves, and Syria held a funeral for 11 soldiers killed in a blast. In Gaza, the UN said more than 280,000 children are now attending school in tents and badly damaged classrooms.

In Saudi Arabia, residents near Riyadh airport said they later saw a plume of smoke after the alert in the capital. No casualties or damage were reported. Saudi authorities did not comment and did not say what prompted the alerts, though they have previously reported intercepting Houthi missiles and drones.

Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Al Jazeera that Iran is awaiting President Donald Trump's response after conveying its conditions for ending the war via Qatar. It was not clear when the conditions were shared. Rezaei said they included ending the war on all fronts, releasing assets seized from Iran and ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. He also said Iran wanted the fighting involving Yemen and Saudi Arabia to end. Earlier US-Iran negotiations had collapsed.

Iran's state television said a man identified as Hossein Pedram was executed after being convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad. The report said he had shared classified information on "sensitive military sites" in Isfahan province. It did not say how he accessed the information. He was reportedly arrested after those sites, including missile bases, were targeted in last year's 12-day air war involving the US and Israel. A recent rise in executions in Iran has drawn an international outcry from rights groups.

The head of US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said the military had supported the transit of 1 billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the past two months, and claimed Iran had "exported zero barrels" because of a US blockade. He said the strait's main shipping lanes had been cleared of mines, and that the volume of oil, natural gas and cargo moving through in the past two weeks was the highest in six months, or since shortly after the war began with US and Israeli strikes. But monitors say shipping traffic remains well below prewar levels, and Iran continues to attack ships as it asserts control over the waterway through which about one-fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas had passed before the war.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry and officials at Shifa Hospital said one man was killed in Gaza City's Shijaiyah neighbourhood, while another man, identified as the son of the ministry's director general, was killed while walking in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. The Israeli military said it had struck "several military operatives" and would provide more details later.

Later, officials at Shifa Hospital said an Israeli strike on a civilian vehicle in Gaza City killed one person and wounded at least four others. Managing director Rami Mhanna said, "The body was completely charred." Israel's military said it "struck a Hamas military operative". The heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas has eased since a ceasefire last October, but, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, Israeli fire has killed more than 13,780 Palestinians in Gaza since then.

Israel's military also said it struck Hezbollah targets in several parts of southern Lebanon after two soldiers were wounded when their vehicle ran over a Hezbollah explosive device in an area occupied by Israeli troops. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported three Israeli airstrikes on the southern town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa and said the third strike nearly hit paramedics heading to the area. It said no one was injured.

In Tehran, the prosecutor's office filed charges against race organisers after women took part without covering their hair because "legal and Islamic Sharia" was not observed, Iran's state TV said. Iran's ruling theocracy requires women to wear scarves covering their hair and loose-fitting clothes. Footage circulating online showed women running the 10-kilometre race without headscarves. Habib Sotoudehnejad, head of Tehran's sports department, said about 5 per cent of participants had violated race rules. The race was held separately for men and women.

In Syria, the Defence Ministry held a funeral for 11 soldiers killed a day earlier in an explosion in the village of Ayash in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. The ministry did not give a cause for the blast, which also wounded several other military personnel. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said the explosion took place in an arms depot at a military post.

In Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said more than 280,000 children are attending school in tents and heavily damaged classrooms. At one school in Nuseirat, some classrooms have no desks, leaving children to sit on blankets on the floor. Some families said the return to school had brought back a sense of routine disrupted by war. UNRWA education programme chief Tawfiq al-Hourani said the agency had operated 182 fully equipped schools three years ago, but 95 per cent of them had since been lost.

Across the Middle East, the latest developments reflected a region still under strain, with fresh security alerts in Saudi Arabia, continued exchanges involving Iran, Israeli military action in Gaza and Lebanon, and civilians in places such as Gaza trying to rebuild some measure of daily life.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends