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The Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most vital shipping routes and a chokepoint for about one-fifth of the world's oil, is becoming a flashpoint in the Iran war as explosive-laden boats have attacked fuel tankers, setting ships on fire and killing at least one crew member, according to Reuters.

Iran has warned that commercial ships won’t be allowed through while the fighting continues, a threat that is already changing behavior at sea as shipping companies are backing away from the strait.

Despite U.S. strikes on mine-laying boats, insurers have pulled coverage, traffic has dropped sharply and dozens of vessels are sitting offshore. Even the threat of attacks in the narrow channel is enough to rattle markets and push prices higher.

Here's what to know about sea mines and why they're posing new dangers in the Strait of Hormuz:

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HRRC demands that Israel immediately stop all use of artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions in populated residential areas. The deployment of these weapons risks indiscriminately harming civilians, thereby violating international law. We also call on states that provide Israel with weapons to stop supplying the country with white phosphorus munitions.

On Monday, March 9, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a news release accusing Israel of unlawfully deploying munitions containing white phosphorus, a dangerous chemical substance, over civilian homes in Lebanon. According to images verified and geolocated by HRW, artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions were deployed on March 3 in a residential area of Yohmor, located in southern Lebanon, resulting in fires in at least two homes and one car.

White phosphorus can cause severe and extremely painful burns that are deep and slow to heal. The smoke can also irritate the eyes and respiratory tract, leading to a range of harmful health effects. It can take up to 24 hours for systemic effects to occur and, in severe cases of exposure, these effects can lead to death.

Although white phosphorus is not officially classified as a chemical weapon, munitions containing the substance may be considered incendiary weapons—weapons designed to start fires—and their use may violate international law in some circumstances. 

Under Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), an international treaty that regulates the use of weapons that pose excessive risks to civilians, it is prohibited to “make the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects the object of attack by incendiary weapons.” However, white phosphorus munitions often have other purposes, such as obscuring or marking targets, and may therefore not always be technically classified as incendiary weapons when used in warfare.

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TEHRAN, IRAN—Less than an hour before a deadly airstrike tore through a residential neighborhood in Resalat Square in eastern Tehran late Monday evening, Hassan Sharifi was walking through the area on his way home. He passed by the mid-rise apartment buildings that housed bakeries, shops, cafes, and small grocery stores on their ground floors. When the missile struck, he immediately ran back to the square.

“I didn’t think about myself,” Sharifi, a 40-year-old accountant, told Drop Site News. “I ran toward the collapsed buildings to help whomever I could. I felt that every minute mattered.”

What he found was devastating. The building facades had been blown away. Balconies had collapsed. Windows shattered. Rubble was everywhere. Inside, where families lay buried under the broken concrete, screams began to fill the air.

At least 40 people were killed, according to official reports. Most of the victims were civilians who had been inside their homes when the strike hit, Iranian media reported.

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DUBAI – In a bold move, Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor has sent an open letter to US President Donald Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham, expressing his strong opposition to involving Arab states in a potential war with Iran.

Al Habtoor criticized the push from some US officials for Arab countries to attack Iran. He emphasized that the region is being pressured into conflicts without consulting its own leaders.

He stated that Senator Lindsey Graham encouraged Arab nations to strike Iran, but thankfully, countries like the UAE and other Gulf states remain secure.

Al Habtoor warned that risking American lives and soldiers for Israel’s interests is a choice made by Trump and Graham, not by the UAE.

He stated that Senator Lindsey Graham encouraged Arab nations to strike IrAl Habtoor warned that risking American lives and soldiers for Israel’s interests is a choice made by Trump and Graham, not by the UAE.

He also highlighted that Senator Graham, while a US lawmaker, acts more in favor of Israel than the American people. He stressed that the UAE does not need American protection and is capable of making its own decisions.

Al Habtoor warned that risking American lives and soldiers for Israel’s interests is a choice made by Trump and Graham, not by the UAE.“While Iran’s threat is real, using Arab nations as fuel for others’ conflicts is unacceptable,” Al Habtoor wrote. He criticized attempts to control Iranian oil and reshape the Middle East, calling such strategies “dangerous and deceptive.”

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Video released by Iranian media shows what appears to be a Tomahawk cruise missile strike near an Iranian school where up to 175 people were reportedly killed, most of them school-age girls.

As more information about the strike emerged, Iranian officials blamed the United States and Israel. U.S. defense officials said they were investigating the incident. Israel has said it was not aware of an attack in that area and is also investigating what happened. The United States is the only force involved in the conflict that uses this type of missile, according to The New York Times.

Photos of missile fragments that bore the markings of an American cruise missile and described as “the remains of the American missile that landed on the children of Minab school” were posted to Telegram by Iranian media.

We have annotated the video below and slowed it down to make it easier to see the apparent missile and landmarks:

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Yosef, an Iranian Jew who studied history at university, is talking to Middle East Eye about the distinction between Judaism and Zionism.

Part of a small community that now numbers less than 10,000 in a country of 90 million, Yosef – like other Iranian Jews – is trying to stay safe from air and missile strikes that often originate in Israel, a country he is supposed to feel some affinity with.

“It is Zionism that has damaged Israel’s reputation around the world,” he says. “Today there is hardly any influential left-wing movement left in Israel. The competition is between hard-right politicians and even more radical ones.”

Yosef describes himself as a strong critic of Zionism, which he believes has played a major role in destabilising the entire Middle East. 

“What happened in Gaza will remain in history,” he says, referring to Israel’s genocide. “The shame of it will stay with Zionism and those who supported it.”

With Israeli strikes on oil sites now turning the skies above Tehran black, Yosef is frustrated with Iranians who support Israel’s actions.

“When I see some of my fellow Iranians believing Netanyahu’s speeches, it makes me very sad,” he says. “They should listen carefully to his messages to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine to understand who they are dealing with.”

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