Iran war updates: Trump says talks ongoing, says ‘last chance’ for a deal

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This live page will soon close. Before we go, here’s a look at the day’s main developments:

• US President Donald Trump says talks with Iran are ongoing, but warns that this is the “last chance for them to sign a good document”.
• Iran denies the negotiations, saying it’s speaking to Oman over the Strait of Hormuz.
• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says its fighters are standing ready for any “miscalculation by extra-regional enemies or terrorist groups”, in northwestern Iran.
• US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it’s continuing to enforce the blockade against Iran and has redirected 44 commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz since it reimposed the measure mid-July.
• Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in Gaza as Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye condemn Israel’s violations of the ceasefire in the Strip, especially the attacks on healthcare facilities.
• Trump’s Board of Peace says Israeli forces will fully withdraw beyond the “Yellow Line” in eastern Gaza once Hamas has completed the weapons decommissioning process.

Oil prices settled about 7 percent lower at the end of trading on Monday, their lowest closing level since July 13.

Brent crude futures fell $6.35, or 7 percent, to $83.77 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude declined $4.33, or 5 percent, to $80.34 a barrel.

The drop in crude prices came as data released by the US Energy Department showed that crude oil inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve had fallen to their lowest level since 1983, after the Trump administration approved the release of 172 million barrels from the reserve.

A Hamas delegation led by its new political bureau chief, Khalil al-Hayya, has met Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), in Istanbul, according to a statement from the Palestinian group.

The Hamas delegation also included former political chief Khaled Meshaal and Muhammad Darwish, Hamas’s Shura Council chief.

The meeting addressed the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and Israel’s intensifying attacks in the Palestinian enclave in recent days, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Gaza with North Korea in a Hebrew-language podcast, saying it’s one of the few places in the world where residents cannot leave.

Israel had blockaded Gaza, by land and by sea, for nearly 15 years before its genocidal war on the enclave started in October 2023. Israeli forces permitted a limited number of Palestinian residents to leave and enter the Strip.

But Netanyahu attributed this constraint to third-party countries refusing to accept Gaza refugees out of a reluctance to assist Israeli objectives.

“People simply aren’t allowed to leave Gaza. Countries say, ‘No, we won’t take them, because it would help Israel,’” Netanyahu said. “I ask: What about helping the Gazans? Why don’t they have the same basic right that billions of people around the world have, the freedom to move?”

Celeste Marcus, the executive editor of Liberties Journal and the cohost of Protective Presence USA, a podcast dedicated to protective presence activism in the occupied West Bank, explains that justice is “elusive” in the territory.

“Not only because there’s no way to appeal to a Palestinian authority, but also because the court system they can appeal to is an Israeli court system, and usually, when these human rights groups are appealing to the courts, what they’re appealing are destruction orders that are given by the Israeli government [for] towns or homes,” Marcus told Al Jazeera.

The appeals take “many, many years” to go through the courts as Israeli attacks take place on a daily basis in the occupied West Bank, she explained.

“There’s not a lot we can hope for from the Israeli court system, both in [the] long term, but also, definitely [in the] short term,” Marcus added.

Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye have issued a joint statement expressing their “strong condemnation and denunciation” of ongoing Israeli violations of last year’s ceasefire in Gaza, especially the attacks on healthcare facilities.

The three countries that mediated the ceasefire stressed the need for Israel to comply with its obligations under international law and uphold the terms of the ceasefire agreement. The violations undermine the “efforts aimed at implementing its second phase, particularly following Hamas and the Palestinian factions’ announcement of their acceptance of the roadmap”, the statement says

“These violations threaten the path toward de-escalation and exacerbate the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip. The mediators renew their call for ensuring the full protection of civilians, medical facilities, and humanitarian personnel, and for guaranteeing the unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance and medical supplies throughout the Gaza Strip.”

The statement calls on the international community to exert the “necessary pressure” on Israel to abide by international law and the ceasefire.

Joint Statement Issued by the Mediators: The State of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Republic of Türkiye on the Ongoing Israeli Violations in Gaza

Doha | 03 August 2026

The State of Qatar, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Republic of Türkiye, in their capacity as… pic.twitter.com/dSjACtqsxk

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) August 3, 2026

Israeli forces stormed the eastern area of Nablus city this evening amid heavy gunfire and tear gas, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli military vehicles, accompanied by a bulldozer, stormed the area to secure the entry of settlers into Joseph’s Tomb, the agency reported.

It quoted the director of the Red Crescent’s emergency and ambulance centre in Nablus, Amjad Ahmad, as saying that ambulance crews treated a 56-year-old woman who fell from a height during the incursion. She was transferred to hospital.

Let’s bring you up to speed:

• Donald Trump claims that US talks with Iran are ongoing, but warns that this is the “last chance for them to sign a good document”.
• Mohammad Karami, ground forces commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), says that in northwestern Iran, fighters are standing ready for any “miscalculation by extra-regional enemies or terrorist groups”.
• The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it’s continuing to enforce the blockade against Iran and has redirected 44 commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz since it reimposed the measure mid-July.
• The so-called Board of Peace says Israeli forces will fully withdraw beyond the “Yellow Line” in eastern Gaza once Hamas has completed the weapons decommissioning process.
• The Israeli army says it killed Mahmoud Fatair, whom it identified as a commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, during an attack over the weekend in the Deir el-Balah area of central Gaza.

Israeli forces have intensified their military operations in the Gaza Strip since the roadmap for a second stage of the Palestinian enclave’s “ceasefire” was announced last week.

United States President Donald Trump described Hamas’s acceptance of the Gaza deal as a monumental step towards security and stability.

In Gaza, the reality is very different, with at least 19 Palestinians killed on Saturday in Israeli attacks, raising the weekend death toll to 26, including women and children.

Despite Hamas agreeing to a phased disarmament, Israel’s government says it has “serious security concerns” about the plan and there’s strong resistance from Israeli politicians to the deal.

The continued bombardment of Gaza, contributing to Israel’s continued breaches of October’s “ceasefire” agreement, will likely threaten Trump’s peace plan and exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians in the enclave.

Read more here.

While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Donald Trump essentially confirmed what had been widely reported late last week, which was that the Pentagon had presented him with a plan to escalate the war on Iran.

The US president said that this would have been much bigger than the series of air strikes that have been carried out against Iranian military targets since the war began on February 28.

Trump suggested that this would have been akin to a sort of Armageddon – my word, not his – but essentially saying that there would be so much damage. And that only after being what he described as begged by countries in the region did he decide not to go ahead with an attack that would have resulted in the deaths of many thousands of people.

The US president said that he was happy to be urged restraint in this matter. Trump also basically said he’s imposed a deadline on the Iranians to do what he says is the right thing: commit to not developing a nuclear weapons programme and to essentially stop being an existential threat to Israel and to the greater Middle East’s security.

There is a degree of frustration on the American side.

CENTCOM, which coordinates all operations in the Middle East, has refused to push back on reports here in the United States, just in the last couple of hours, that an email has been sent out to senior officers, senior officials across the military branches looking for “creative and unconventional ways to punish Iran”.

Obviously, we’re not in the rooms; Donald Trump says it’s [Vice President] JD Vance, it’s [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio, it’s [his son-in-law] Jared Kushner and [Special envoy] Steve Witkoff – they’re conducting these negotiations, but there’s nothing public-facing that tells us beyond the public statements from either side that this is going on.

But it’s clear from what CENTCOM are refusing to push back on that the American military perhaps realises they’re in a bit of a stalemate.

Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh says his country has an economic resilience plan for at least two years, state news outlet Fars reports.

Madanizadeh said Iran has a counterplan for “any conspiracy the enemy carries out against us”, adding that those who said they wanted to destroy the country through economic means will “take their wish to the grave”.