Middle East Crisis Live Updates: US embassy in Lebanon urges citizens to evacuate on ‘any available flight’

Middle East Crisis Live Updates: Yemenis wave flags and lift placards of Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike, and slain Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, during a rally in the Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa on August 2.

Latest developments here

– US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers to the Middle East and areas under U.S. European Command, as well as a new fighter squadron to the region.

– Groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria have already become involved in the ongoing nearly 10-month war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

– On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike in the occupied West Bank killed a Hamas commander and four Islamic Jihad fighters, according to the militant groups’ media. The Israeli military also reported killing four more gunmen in a separate strike.

– The Israeli military stated that the initial airstrike targeted a vehicle in a town near Tulkarm, aiming at a militant cell en route to an attack. Hamas media claimed the strike hit a vehicle carrying fighters and included a commander of its Tulkarm brigades.

– On Friday, thousands attended funeral prayers in Qatar for Haniyeh, who was buried north of Doha two days after his death.

– Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported on Saturday that Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range projectile” fired from outside his accommodation area.

– Haniyeh had been in Iran for the swearing-in ceremony of President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday.

– Israel, accused by Hamas, Iran, and others of the attack, has not issued a direct comment.