Iran's military announced on July 31, 2026, that it launched drone strikes against a US military base in Kuwait called Ahmad al-Jaber air base. This happened just hours after Donald Trump said on social media that a deal had been reached for Hamas to give up its weapons and for Israel to pull its soldiers out of Gaza. Both developments were reported in a major Middle East crisis live blog The Guardian.

Drones are unmanned aircraft that can be flown remotely to carry out attacks. Iran's army said the strikes hit "fighter aircraft shelters, satellite communications systems and equipment storage facilities" at the Kuwait base. Iran said the attack was payback for what it called a "brutal attack" on a home on Qeshm Island, which sits in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which much of the world's oil supply passes. Qeshm is used by Iran to store attack boats, drones, sea mines, and other equipment used to threaten ships passing through the strait. Qeshm has been hit by American attacks frequently in recent months. Local media reported on July 30, 2026, that three members of a family were killed in US strikes on the island. The US military had earlier said it carried out a "heavy wave of strikes" against Iran. There was no immediate comment from US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, on Iran's claimed drone strikes.

This is not an isolated incident. The US and Iran have been trading attacks in and around Kuwait for the past two months. On June 3, 2026, an Iranian drone attack hit Kuwait's main airport, badly damaging a passenger terminal, killing one person, and forcing the airport to close temporarily AP News. On June 28, Iran launched drone and missile attacks on both Bahrain and Kuwait in response to US airstrikes on Iran. On July 8, Kuwait's Defense Ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones, while Qatar briefly issued an "elevated security threat" alert. On July 16, Kuwait said Iran targeted important facilities and its armed forces detected and intercepted 32 "hostile drones." Two days later, on July 18, the US confirmed two of its military personnel were killed by an Iranian attack, and Kuwait came under further attack with intercepted ballistic missiles and drones.

There is also an additional layer of complexity. Al Jazeera reported on July 30, 2026, that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful military force in Iran that operates separately from the regular army, said it had targeted US bases in both Kuwait and Jordan in retaliation for the Qeshm strikes. On July 25, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of helping Iran by providing satellite imagery of US base locations in the Middle East CBS News.

On the diplomatic side, Trump announced on Truth Social on July 31 that "the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza" Truth Social. Disarmament means giving up weapons and no longer operating as an armed fighting force. Reuters published an explainer on July 31 looking at what the "Board of Peace" is. Trump's post described a step-by-step plan: "The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases… As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors." An International Stabilization Force would be a multinational military or police presence deployed to keep order during a transition. Axios reported on July 30 that the agreement included Hamas agreeing to disarm and to "transfer civilian and security" control, and the Washington Post reported the same day that US officials said they had reached a roadmap for Hamas disarmament.

The announcement came nine months after the US helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. A ceasefire is an agreement to stop fighting. Negotiations had largely stalled over how to carry out the second phase of that ceasefire, which included Hamas disarmament and the rebuilding of Gaza. Reuters reported on July 30 that Israeli strikes killed three people in Gaza, including two children, amid renewed ceasefire negotiations.

Senior Hamas officials have reportedly agreed to the disarmament plan in principle, but the order of steps has become a major sticking point. Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera: "We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel's withdrawal from the Strip." In other words, Hamas wants Israeli soldiers to leave Gaza first before it gives up any weapons. An Israeli official told Reuters that the proposed terms were not satisfactory, stating: "Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process." That means Israel wants Hamas to fully give up its weapons before any other steps are taken. The official added that the plan under discussion did not "provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections." Al Jazeera, BBC, and ABC News all independently reported Trump's announcement on July 31.

The broader context here is that the Trump administration has been running two efforts at the same time: a military campaign against Iran's weapons and bases near the Strait of Hormuz, and a diplomatic push to resolve the stalled Gaza ceasefire. The Gaza plan Trump described would have disarmament happen before or at the same time as Israeli withdrawal, with an international force filling the security gap. But Hamas wants Israeli withdrawal first, and Israel wants full disarmament before anything else begins. These are not just tactical disagreements over timing. They go to the heart of who holds power at each step, and whether any side will trust the other enough to go first.

Meanwhile, the fighting between the US and Iran shows no signs of slowing down. Kuwait has been hit repeatedly since June, acting as a kind of frontline staging area for attacks on American military sites. If the report about Russia supplying Iran with satellite images of US base locations is accurate, that would connect this conflict to the Russia-Ukraine war in a new way. With US Central Command yet to comment on the latest strikes and no confirmed damage assessment from Ahmad al-Jaber, the immediate military picture remains incomplete. What is clear is that the two crises are now feeding off the same news cycle, and any progress on one front will have to survive the noise from the other.