Saudi Arabia has announced a military alliance with 14 countries aimed at protecting shipping in the Red Sea and around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait following attacks on its vessels.

The alliance includes Gulf states Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, as well as Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, according to Saudi officials.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said Thursday that the group's goal is to safeguard freedom of navigation, international trade routes and global energy supplies. The alliance will focus on joint military operations, planning, exercises and intelligence sharing.

"Maritime security is a shared responsibility," the ministry said, adding that the alliance is "purely defensive" and is not intended to target any state, alliance or international organization.

The announcement comes after attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Saudi-linked ships. The Houthis began a campaign of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in 2023, prompting the creation of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian and the European Union's Aspides naval mission to protect shipping lanes.

Saudi Arabia has been seeking alternative export routes for its oil after disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz. Some Saudi crude is currently transported by pipeline to the Red Sea for export, but renewed Houthi attacks have raised concerns about the security of that route.

Oman and the United Arab Emirates were notably absent from the list of participating countries, despite sharing some security concerns with Saudi Arabia regarding Iran and regional tensions.

A source with U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace told Haaretz on Thursday that there had been significant progress in the talks between Israel and Hamas, and that the board is "close to finalizing" an agreement that could be signed in the coming hours or days.

The source, who spoke with Haaretz on condition of anonymity, said that while there "could be last-minute surprises," the Board of Peace believes there are "agreements on the critical points, or close to agreement."

"NoThere's not another round of negotiation," he said.

The source also said that Hamas, the mediators and the representatives of the Board of Peace will sign the agreement, but Israel will be bound to it since it is "bound by agreements with the United States, and the U.S. President is the chairman of the Board of Peace."

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with ‌Iraqi armed groups, according to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners, reflecting growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias, two officials in the region said.

The assessments, which differ from ⁠official accounts, indicate that members of Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance have deepened their ties and ability to inflict damage to U.S. allies in the region despite years of U.S and ⁠Israeli strikes on them from Lebanon to Iran after Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel.

The attacks included strikes on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, the kingdom's main crude hub.

Saudi Arabia carried out joint airstrikes with the United States on Iraqi sites on Wednesday that it said were linked to the attacks, officially blaming Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran. Yemen's Houthis have said they carried out the attacks. Iraq has said it is investigating.

The officials in the region who said some ‌of the attacks were carried out from Iraqi territory jointly by the Iraqi groups and the Houthis, added that it was under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

After the ‌Saudi-U.S. strikes on Wednesday, Iran-aligned media mourned members of the IRGC, Iraqi fighters and at least one Houthi.

Kuwait's ‌chief of staff, ⁠General ⁠Khaled Al-Shuraian, met in Saudi Arabia with ‌a "maritime ‌defense coalition" for preserving freedom of navigation in Bab ⁠el-Mandeb Strait, Kuwait's state ‌news ⁠agency ‌reported Thursday.

The Bab al-Mandab Strait, which lies between Yemen and Somalia, connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ⁠urged Bulgaria to ‌reconsider its decision to allow the temporary deployment of ‌U.S. military aircraft at the Bezmer air base, Iranian state media ⁠reported on Thursday.

During a phone call with his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava ⁠Petrova-Chamova, Araghchi said Sofia's approval of a U.S. request to station military aircraft at the base to support military operations amounted to facilitating aggression against Iran, adding the move was unacceptable and contrary ‌to the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries.

Iran has repeatedly warned ‌countries allowing their territory to be used for U.S. military operations against it that they could "face consequences".

Araghchi held a separate phone call with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, during which he stressed the importance of preventing foreign military bases in Cyprus from being used against Iran.

Bulgaria's parliament last week approved the temporary deployment of up to eight U.S. KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 personnel at Bezmer ⁠air base despite Iranian objections. Sofia has said no offensive weapons would be deployed and that the move did not ‌make Bulgaria a party to ⁠military operations.

Cyprus hosts two British sovereign military ‌bases, including RAF Akrotiri, which was struck by an Iranian drone in early March, a few days after Israel and the U.S. initiated ⁠strikes on Iran.

Britain agreed early on in the war to a U.S. request to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers.

This arrangement was maintained by ‌the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July, prompting Iran's Revolutionary Guards to warn Britain against facilitating U.S. military operations ⁠against Iran.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip rose to six Thursday after one Palestinian was killed in a drone strike and a woman died from wounds sustained earlier.

According to medical sources, one Palestinian was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli drone strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

Separately, a woman died after succumbing to wounds sustained in a drone strike in Gaza City earlier Thursday.

Medics and Palestinian media had previously reported four Palestinian deaths in strikes across Gaza, including an 8-year-old child and an 18-month-old child.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard claimed responsibility Thursday for an attack on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, the semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

The air base, located about 37 kilometers (23 miles) from the Iraqi border, hosts U.S. Air Force units.

The base has been targeted in multiple attacks claimed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including a drone attack in April that wounded 15 Americans, according to CBS News.

Mediators and representatives of the Board of Peace are advancing a proposal that would place all weapons in the Gaza Strip under the "full control" of a Palestinian technocratic committee, a diplomatic source involved in talks with Hamas in Cairo told Haaretz on Thursday.

The source said discussions among Hamas, the mediators and Board of Peace representatives are progressing, but that Hamas has not yet accepted the proposal.

Under the plan being discussed, all weapons in Gaza, including heavy and light arms, would eventually come under the committee's authority. The proposal also calls for dismantling tunnels, weapons storage sites and facilities used for weapons production.

The source said Hamas would have no role "either on the front lines or behind the scenes" under the proposed arrangement.

"No one is talking about registration," the source said, adding that weapons would be collected and consolidated by the technocratic committee. "One authority, one law, one weapon."

The source said Israel has supported the Board of Peace's work, conducted briefings and coordinated with its representatives.

"The Israeli cabinet's decisions last weekend reflect the Israeli government's support," the source said, referring to a security cabinet decision Sunday to allow Board of Peace representatives to enter Gaza.

"We have shared understandings on the path forward," the source added. "All steps must be fully implemented and verified."

Iranian state media reported Thursday that a U.S. strike on a residential building on Qeshm Island killed a couple and their child.

Two other children were wounded in the strike and taken to a hospital, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

Videos from the Chah-Tango neighborhood of Qeshm City in Hormozgan province showed rescue workers searching through rubble for survivors.

The U.S. military did not immediately comment on the report. Earlier Thursday, U.S. Central Command said it had "successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes" against Iranian targets.

Qeshm Island is located in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route that has become a focal point of the conflict.