Trump Claims Gaza Disarmament Deal as Iran Strikes US Base in Kuwait
Hours after the White House announced a breakthrough, Iranian drones hit an American air base — a reminder that paper deals and shooting wars are running on separate clocks
By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
Donald Trump announced Friday that a deal had been reached for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas in Gaza and an Israeli withdrawal. Almost immediately, both sides pushed back in ways that suggest the announcement is more aspiration than settlement.
Briefings from Hamas and Israeli officials revealed points of contention over implementation, according to the Guardian's live coverage of the crisis, and support for the terms remains uncertain. The BBC's Rushdi Abualouf wrote that, if the disarmament plan holds, it could mark "the first credible step to ending Gaza war" — but he framed that as conditional, not achieved.
The announcement landed the same day Iran's military said it had launched drone strikes on US facilities in Kuwait. Iran's army said in a statement it had targeted "fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities" at Ahmad al-Jaber air base, describing the strike as retaliation for US attacks on Thursday that ended a nearly week-long lull in the fighting between Washington and Tehran.
The timing underscores a wider pattern the Guardian's Friday briefing newsletter flagged this week: legal protections once considered foundational in conflict — hospitals, civilian infrastructure, the basic laws of war — are being routinely bypassed across multiple fronts, from Ukraine to Lebanon to Gaza, with what the paper called increasing impunity. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two years ago; that warrant has not altered events on the ground.
Separately, Saudi Arabia is preparing a sea and possible land offensive against Houthi forces in Yemen, according to Guardian reporting — another front in a regional conflict that shows no sign of resolving into anything as tidy as Friday's announcement suggested.
What's confirmed: a deal was announced. What's not: whether either side intends to keep it.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian, the BBC and NPR.
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