Iranian media report five explosions on Qeshm island near the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian media reported a series of explosions on Qeshm island in southern Iran on Sunday evening, according to several Israeli news outlets monitoring Iranian broadcasts and agencies. Abu Ali Express, an Israeli Telegram channel that tracks Arabic and Iranian media, cited official Iranian outlets as saying 5 explosions had been heard on the island shortly before, and quoted the state news agency IRNA as saying targets on Qeshm had apparently been attacked.

Ynet, the news site of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, reported in its alerts channel that explosions were heard both on Qeshm and in Bandar Abbas, the port city on the Iranian mainland facing the island. The Israeli television news outlet N12 carried a report from its correspondent Asaf Rosenzweig placing the blasts on Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz. None of the outlets reported casualties or damage.

Where Qeshm and Bandar Abbas are

Qeshm is an island off Iran's southern coast, lying in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open sea beyond. A large share of the world's seaborne oil passes through the strait, which makes any military activity in the area closely watched by governments and energy markets.

Bandar Abbas sits on the mainland across a short stretch of water from Qeshm and is one of Iran's principal ports. Because the two places are so close, blasts in one can be heard in the other, and none of the material available to us explains whether the explosions reported in Bandar Abbas were separate events or the same blasts heard from across the water.

Who is said to be behind it

The outlets diverge on what caused the explosions. News.co.il, an Israeli news channel, said Iranian outlets were describing a targeted strike by the United States Air Force on an air defence system, and headlined its item with the question of whether the US was attacking. That attribution appears only in News.co.il's reports. Ynet and N12 described only explosions, without naming a cause or a party responsible, and the IRNA wording cited by Abu Ali Express said targets had apparently been attacked without saying by whom.

News.co.il later posted what it described as additional footage from the moment of the strikes on Qeshm. We have not reviewed or verified that footage.

A repeat of earlier reports

N12's correspondent framed the evening's reports as happening again, writing that explosions on Qeshm were being reported in Iran this evening as well. That phrasing suggests similar reports had circulated previously, but the N12 item does not describe any earlier incident, and none of the other outlets refer to one.

How these reports reach Israeli audiences

All of the reports here came from the Telegram channels of Israeli news organisations, which relay breaking items within minutes of their appearance in foreign media. In this case every outlet was passing on what Iranian media were saying rather than reporting from the scene. Israeli journalists have no access to Iran, and early accounts of explosions there frequently change as more information emerges. N12, for example, issued an edited version of its first alert within minutes.

What the reports do not say

No government, including those of Iran, the United States or Israel, is quoted in any of the reports as confirming or denying a strike. The claim that the US Air Force hit an air defence system rests on News.co.il's account of Iranian media and is not supported by the other outlets. There is no information on casualties, damage or the precise targets, and it is not clear whether the explosions in Bandar Abbas reported by Ynet are linked to those on Qeshm.