U.S. forces struck Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz in their first military action in a month on Sunday, breaking a lull in fighting during an intermittent war that has lasted more than six months. Vowing to retaliate for what it called a deadly attack, Iran later said it had launched missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan.

Forces with the Revolutionary Guard Corps were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait, according to Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Central Command. The U.S. military last week completed clearing sea mines from the strait's international shipping routes.

The United Arab Emirates' air force intercepted an Iranian drone over its territorial waters Monday, the Defense Ministry said, an attack that comes after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire on the weekend, the first significant military action in a month.

In a short statement, the Defense Ministry said it "dealt with" an Iranian drone that was detected over its waters approaching from Iran.

Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern occupied West Bank after nearly three weeks of tension in the area, drawing rare condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Sunday called on Muslim countries in the region to unite against the United States and Israel, in a written message issued six months on from the start of the Middle East war.

Khamenei, in power since shortly after his father Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the war on February 28, has yet to be seen in public since his appointment, and authorities have not released any video or audio of him.

The U.S. Treasury Department is due to cut off a major Egyptian bank's operations in the United Arab Emirates from the U.S. financial system, an official said Friday, as Washington pushes to choke Iran off economically.

The move impacts UAE branches of Egypt's second-largest bank, Banque Misr, blocking their banking access to U.S. financial institutions.

Iran has left the door open to diplomacy, six months into a war with the United States that has upended the Middle East, but only if Washington abandons its pressure campaign.

President Donald Trump arrives at an awkward moment for his presidency on Friday as the U.S.-Israel war against Iran reaches the six-month mark, a notable milestone for a conflict that the Republican leader repeatedly assured Americans would be a "little excursion" lasting a matter of weeks.

The war isn't over, though Trump claims that through bombs and blockade, he has already devastated Iran's leadership, military and economy.

Two people were killed by an explosion on Friday in front of the Hassakeh courthouse, in Syria's predominantly Kurdish northeast, state news agency SANA reported.

SANA quoted a security source as saying that the blast was from a hand grenade and that it killed, according to health authorities, a man and a 13-year-old child.

It's been six months since the United States and Israel attacked Iran with the perennial goal of transforming the Middle East through military force. The region has changed, but not in the way they had hoped.

The Islamic Republic survived the assassination of its top leaders and weeks of heavy bombing, and found a potent form of leverage in the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf Arab nations saw worrying gaps open up in the American security umbrella they have relied on for decades — and some are looking at alternatives.

A Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge acquitted a man accused of attacking a Catholic nun based on his insanity defense, but ordered him committed to psychiatric hospitalization for up to six years.

The violent assault in April on a nun walking in her habit in Jerusalem's Old City sent shock waves across Israel and its many Christian communities.