The day so far
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Donald Trump suggested there is still hope for a deal with Iran, but added that the US might have “to just finish the job” if they’re not satisfied with it. “We’re not satisfied with it. But we will be - either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” he told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. He later added that he could, “make a good deal now but maybe not a great deal, and if it’s not a great deal, we’re not making it.”
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His secretary of state Marco Rubio said there has been “some progress” made in talks, but added, “we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress can be made.” He reiterated that Washington would “prefer the negotiated, diplomatic route and we’re going to give it every chance to succeed”, but also warned that Trump has “other options available ... if that doesn’t work”. The sentiment was echoed by Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
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Trump also issued an extraordinary threat to “blow up” Oman. Asked about reports that Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal to jointly manage the strait of Hormuz, the US president told reporters: “Oman will behave just like everybody else. Or else we’ll have to blow them up, they understand that, they’ll be fine.”
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The US president also insisted that November’s midterm elections are not motivating him to reach a deal to end his war more quickly. He once again dismissed Americans’ concerns over the cost of living as a result of his war, declaring: “I don’t care about the midterms.” He went on: “The primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
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Earlier, the White House blasted an Iranian state television report about a framework deal with the United States to end the Middle East war as a “complete fabrication”. The Iranian report cited a draft outline of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it said included a US commitment to lift the naval blockade on Iran and withdraw its forces from the Gulf region.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a return to war with the United States was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack. The statement came a day after Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire in place since April, and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
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Meanwhile in Lebanon, where Israel continues to wage war despite a ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of the southern city of Tyre on Wednesday, state media and an AFP correspondent reported, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for swathes of the city and its surroundings. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that “Israeli enemy warplanes launched a strike on the outskirts of Tyre”, also reporting another raid near the city despite a ceasefire.
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The Lebanese army said a soldier had been killed in an Israeli air strike near his post in Bekaa and that it had retrieved his body. It said the retrieval was delayed from the previous day due to the security situation in the area.
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Hezbollah said it traded fire with Israeli soldiers in Lebanon as the Israeli military pushes deeper intp the country. The Iran-backed group said its fighters engaged in close-range combat with Israeli troops in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a town north of the Litani river and beyond the buffer zone that Israel has enforced in parts of southern Lebanon.
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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to health officials, in one of the deadliest attacks since a ceasefire took effect in April. The Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon with “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone.
'If it's not a good deal, we're not making it,' Trump says
And after lashing out once again at the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated with Iran by the Obama administration, Donald Trump added that he could “make a good deal now but maybe not a great deal, and if it’s not a great deal, we’re not making it”.
Trump doubles down on demands that more Arab countries should join Abraham Accords
Trump also doubled down on his demands that more Arab countries should join the Abraham Accords, the agreement that normalised relations between several Arab signatories and Israel during his first term in office.
Trump said it would be “historic” if the countries that haven’t signed up yet would join, adding, “they owe that to us.”
His special envoy Steve Witkoff said he’s “pushing it” in talks with all sides, before Trump added:
I’m not sure we should make the deal, if they don’t sign.
But at the same time, Trump refused to confirm that the Iran deal would be contingent on other countries joining the accords.
Updated
Donald Trump also (once again) dismissed the rising cost of living in the US amid the blockade of oil transiting through the strait of Hormuz.
“The primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” said the US president, apparently unfazed by his sinking approval ratings, largely driven by Americans’ frustrations with their economic situation as a result of his war, ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“We have tremendous amounts of energy. We’re blessed with something very special,” he went on. “Those prices are going to come down. They’re going to come down fast.”
A recent poll found that fewer than one in four Americans said that Trump’s war on Iran had been worth the costs, a week after Trump told reporters: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” when asked if the economic hardship inflicted on Americans was motivating him to seek a peace deal.
Updated
As if that wasn’t extraordinary enough, the US state department then posted Trump’s threat to Oman on X.
Trump threatens 'Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up'
Donald Trump also took questions from reporters, and was asked about reports that Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal to jointly manage the strait of Hormuz.
The US president said he would not accept such an arrangement as part of a peace deal with Iran, adding:
The strait is going to be open to everybody ... Nobody’s going to control it. We’re going to watch over it. We’ll watch over it. But nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation that we have.
Trump “they would like to control it” but stressed that the strait is part of international waters.
He then added, extraordinarily:
Oman will behave just like everybody else. Or else we’ll have to blow them up, they understand that, they’ll be fine.
Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth also chimed in during the meeting, saying that the United States has imposed a “world-class blockade” on Iran that has left its economy “hurting big time”.
He claimed that Iran’s inability to restock its missiles, drones and navy made it “cry uncle” and come to negotiate with the US. He went on:
We put in a world-class blockade, and they haven’t been able to bring anything in or anything out from Iranian ports. And we know from the intel that their economy is hurting big time because that is their lifeblood, and again, bringing them to the table.
So whether it is through the efforts of your negotiators that ensure that they never have a new weapon, or we have to go back to the war department to finish the job, we’re prepared to do that.
Trump briefly interjected Marco Rubio’s briefing, my colleague Maya Yang notes, to boast that the US is “producing right now more oil by double than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined”, before adding:
We don’t need oil, we don’t need the straits, we don’t need anything but we have more oil now being produced by double, by two times than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined.
As you will remember, Trump previously threatened to bomb Iran several times - including his infamous warning that “a whole civilisation will die” – if Tehran refused to comply with US demands to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
Updated
Rubio says 'some progress' made on Iran deal but 'we'll see over next few hours and days'
Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, added that there has been “some progress” made between the US and Iran towards reaching a deal.
He reiterated that Washington would “prefer the negotiated, diplomatic route and we’re going to give it every chance to succeed”.
But he also warned that Trump has “other options available ... if that doesn’t work”.
He told reporters at the cabinet meeting:
If there’s an agreement to be made, we want that to be made. I think there’s been some progress and some interest, and we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress can be made.
Rubio also repeated Trump’s so-called red line that Iran “cannot ever have a nuclear weapon”.
'Maybe we'll just have to finish the job' if US not satisfied with Iran deal, Trump tells cabinet meeting
More now from Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting, where the US president once again suggested that there is still hope for a deal with Iran, but he also hasn’t ruled out resuming his military operation
“They want very much to make a deal,” he said. “So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it. But we will be - either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
He claimed that the Iranian team is “negotiating on fumes” and “has no choice” but to make a deal, given the US’s decimation of their military capabilities (Trump ran through his usual, “their air force is gone, navy is gone” etc) and Tehran’s economic struggles.
“Maybe we have to go back and finish it. Maybe we don’t right now,” Trump added.
The day so far
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The White House on Wednesday blasted an Iranian state television report about a framework deal with the United States to end the Middle East war as a “complete fabrication.” The Iranian report cited a draft outline of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it said included a US commitment to lift the naval blockade on Iran and withdraw its forces from the Gulf region.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday said a return to war with the United States was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack. The statement came a day after Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire in place since April, and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
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The United States is extending the designation of Lebanon for temporary protected status until 27 November, according to a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday.
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Strikes hit the outskirts of the south Lebanon city of Tyre on Wednesday, state media and an AFP correspondent reported, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for swathes of the city and its surroundings. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that “Israeli enemy warplanes launched a strike on the outskirts of Tyre”, also reporting another raid near the city despite a ceasefire.
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The Lebanese army said on Wednesday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli air strike near his post in Bekaa and that it had retrieved his body. It said the retrieval was delayed from the previous day due to the security situation in the area.
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Hezbollah said it traded fire with Israeli soldiers in Lebanon as the Israeli military appeared to push deeper in the country. The Iran-backed group said its fighters engaged in close-range combat with Israeli troops in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a town north of the Litani river and beyond the buffer zone that Israel has enforced in parts of southern Lebanon.
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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to health officials, in one of the deadliest attacks since a ceasefire took effect in April. The Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon with “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone.
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South Korea said a probe into an attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz assessed that it likely involved an Iranian missile. Components in the debris from unidentified objects that were found inside the HMM Namu, which came under attack on 4 May, indicated they were likely made in Iran, according to a South Korean foreign ministry official.
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Israel has claimed to have killed Mohammed Odeh, head of Hamas’s armed wing, in a strike on Gaza City last night. If confirmed, his death comes just 11 days after the Israeli military killed his predecessor. Hamas has yet to comment on the report.
Donald Trump has said Iran “very much” wants to make a deal with the United States but that so far “they haven’t gotten there”.
Speaking during a cabinet meeting at the White House, the US president said:
They want very much to make a deal.
So far they haven’t gotten there that we’re not satisfied with it, but that we will be we will be.
The United States is extending the designation of Lebanon for temporary protected status until 27 November, according to a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday.
Strikes hit the outskirts of the south Lebanon city of Tyre on Wednesday, state media and an AFP correspondent reported, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for swathes of the city and its surroundings.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that “Israeli enemy warplanes launched a strike on the outskirts of Tyre”, also reporting another raid near the city despite a ceasefire.
An AFP correspondent in Tyre also reported at least one strike in the city’s vicinity.
White House says Iran report on draft deal is 'complete fabrication'
The White House on Wednesday blasted an Iranian state television report about a framework deal with the United States to end the Middle East war as a “complete fabrication.”
The Iranian report cited a draft outline of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it said included a US commitment to lift the naval blockade on Iran and withdraw its forces from the Gulf region.
“This report from Iranian controlled media is not true and the MOU they ‘released’ is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. FACTS MATTER,” the White House said on X as it lashed out at US media for reporting the Iranian claims.
Updated
The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Wednesday for residents of the city of Tyre in south Lebanon and the surrounding areas, saying it was about to strike Hezbollah targets there.
“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre and the surrounding camps and neighborhoods as shown on the map – In light of the terrorist Hezbollah organization violating the ceasefire agreement and targeting Israeli territory, the IDF is compelled to act forcefully against it,” Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, wrote on X, attaching a map of the Tyre region with some localities highlighted.
“The IDF does not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately, according to the area shown on the map, and move north of the Zahrani River.”
About a third of Palestinians killed by Israel since an October truce were in areas near the military’s armistice line with Hamas, raising concerns that troops may be shooting at civilians merely for approaching the area, the UN human rights office said.
The office said such actions would constitute unlawful killings and thus war crimes. Israel’s military, which says fire by its troops near the armistice line aims to thwart militant threats, did not immediately provide comment on the allegations.
Israel has demarcated its armistice boundary with Hamas since the truce with a “yellow line” marked on the ground with spaced out concrete blocks. Israeli troops remain deployed to its east, with Hamas in control in a coastal strip of land.
But the military has frequently shifted those blocks deeper into Hamas-controlled territory, and Israeli maps show a widened restricted zone of military control now covers nearly two-thirds of Gaza.
Israel’s expanding zone of control has stirred fears among displaced Palestinians living in tent encampments and bombed out homes near the yellow line that they may be deemed military targets, as the population is squeezed into an even smaller area.
My colleague, William Christou, has written this fascinating report from southern Lebanon where villagers are trying to survive inside Israel’s '“yellow line” occupation zone. They talk about the constant raids, surveillance and fear in Kfarchouba, where the Israeli military has allowed people to remain in their homes as long as they obey strict conditions akin to a West Bank-style occupation.
William writes:
They must guard their towns against Hezbollah. Israeli military officials have called them and told them in no uncertain terms that if any member of the armed group enters the town, it will be bombed.
Those who have stayed in the town, mostly elderly people, have agreed to Israel’s conditions so that they can remain in their homes. But they are uncomfortable being appointed guards against Hezbollah, an armed group which is said to rival some European militaries in size.
“If someone from Hezbollah comes and asks to put a rocket on my roof, I couldn’t refuse. How could I stop them? I would just flee,” said al-El, a 72-year-old retired sociology teacher, while sitting with his wife in his kitchen.
Read more here:
The IDF has issued a warning forcing people in the major southern Lebanese city of Tyre and surrounding areas to flee their homes ahead of potential strikes. It includes several camps housing thousands of Palestinian refugees and displaced Lebanese.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, AvichayAdraee, said people should move north of the Zahrani river about 25 miles away.
The warning came as rescue workers searched through the rubble in Burj al-Shemali, near the ancient coastal city of Tyre, after Israeli airstrikes devastated the village yesterday. Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), citing the mayor, reported 15 people were killed there.
Iran’s Mizan news agency has reported more details on the unofficial draft proposal outlining the US-Iran memorandum of understanding.
It reports:
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The US will lift the naval blockade on Iranian ports.
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Iran will commit to returning commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz to prewar levels within a month.
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Shipping in the narrow waterway will be managed by Iran and Oman.
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The US will withdraw troops “from the area surrounding Iran”, although it is unclear whether this includes forces deployed to the region or stationed in bases.
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If a final agreement is reached within a two-month period, it will be endorsed in the form of a UN security council resolution.
The US and Iran have yet to publicly comments on the reports. Mizan described the unofficial proposal as an “Islamabad framework”, pointing to the diplomacy efforts of Pakistan to bring an end to the war.
Updated
The Lebanese army said on Wednesday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli air strike near his post in Bekaa and that it had retrieved his body.
It said the retrieval was delayed from the previous day due to the security situation in the area.
Iran says draft US deal would reopen Hormuz shipping
Iran’s state TV said Tehran had obtained a draft of an initial unofficial framework for a memorandum of understanding with the US.
Under the framework, Iran would restore commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within a month, while the US would withdraw military forces from Iran’s vicinity and lift a naval blockade.
Updated
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday said a return to war with the United States was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack.
The statement came a day after Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire in place since April, and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect.
In Lebanon, where violence has far from ceased despite a truce in Israel’s war with Hezbollah, Israeli strikes killed 31 people on Tuesday, four of them children, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
“The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” said Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying.
Summary of developments so far
A recap of today’s events:
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Hezbollah said it traded fire with Israeli soldiers in Lebanon as the Israeli military appeared to push deeper in the country. The Iran-backed group said its fighters engaged in close-range combat with Israeli troops in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a town north of the Litani river and beyond the buffer zone that Israel has enforced in parts of southern Lebanon.
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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to health officials, in one of the deadliest attacks since a ceasefire took effect in April. The Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon with “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone.
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US president Donald Trump is expected to hold a cabinet meeting today as talks on ending the nearly three-month war with Iran reach a crucial stage amid conflicting signals over whether an agreement is close.
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An Iranian official said Tehran and Washington have not yet reached an agreement on the strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively shut since the start of the war in February. “Until we agree on all the issues, we consider that we have agreed on nothing,” Ali Bagheri, Iran’s deputy secretary of the supreme national security council, was quoted as saying.
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He also said Iran was negotiating with Oman, whose territory sits on the other side of the strait, on a new procedure for ships to pass the key waterway.
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South Korea said a probe into an attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz assessed that it likely involved an Iranian missile. Components in the debris from unidentified objects that were found inside the HMM Namu, which came under attack on 4 May, indicated they were likely made in Iran, according to a South Korean foreign ministry official.
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Israel has claimed to have killed Mohammed Odeh, head of Hamas’s armed wing, in a strike on Gaza City last night. If confirmed, his death comes just 11 days after the Israeli military killed his predecessor. Hamas has yet to comment on the report.
The IDF said it carried out attacks on more than 150 sites in southern Lebanon in the past day which it claimed belonged to Hezbollah.
These include in Bint Jbeil, Maroun al-Ras and the Bekaa valley, the IDF said in a post on X.
Here are some of the latest images from southern Lebanon, where Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people on Tuesday in one of the deadliest since a ceasefire took effect in April:
Donald Trump will host the 12th cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday as talks on ending the nearly three-month war with Iran reach a crucial stage amid conflicting signals over whether an agreement is close.
The gathering had originally been scheduled to take place in the bucolic setting of Camp David, the presidential retreat that had previously been the site of sensitive Middle East negotiations, including the historic Israeli-Egyptian peace accords.
But Trump switched it back to its more accustomed White House setting, citing adverse weather forecasts.
“Based on the possible bad weather conditions tomorrow, we will be having our Cabinet Meeting in the White House, and will be postponing the Cabinet trip to Camp David,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Heavy rain is expected in the area on Wednesday.
The initial decision to stage it at Camp David had raised eyebrows, given that Trump had visited the presidential retreat deep in the Maryland countryside, 62 miles north-west of Washington, much less frequently than most of his predecessors.
Read more:
Zawtar al-Sharqiyah is a short distance from Nabatieh, where the Israeli military has issued another warning for people to flee their homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani river.
Hezbollah says its fighters 'clashed' with Israeli soldiers north of Lebanon's Litani river
Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in a town north of the Litani river, beyond the boundary of Israel’s self-declared military security zone in southern Lebanon.
It comes a day after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced he had instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon with “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone.
In a statement carried by the Hezbollah-owned Al Manar TV, the group said its fighters “clashed with enemy forces at point-blank range” in the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, about a mile north of the Litani river.
South Korea says strike on ship in strait of Hormuz likely involved Iranian missile
South Korea said a probe into an attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz assessed that it likely involved an Iranian missile.
The ship, operated by South Korean shipping firm HMM Co, was struck by “two unidentified aircraft” in the strait on 4 May, causing a fire and leaving one of the vessel’s 24 crew members with minor injuries.
At a briefing today to announce the outcome of a government investigation into the attack, the first vice minister of foreign affairs, Park Yoon-joo, said: “Various pieces of evidence point toward Iran.”
But he added that Seoul had not conclusively determined who was responsible for the attack or whether it was intentional.
Components in the debris from unidentified objects that were found inside the ship indicated they were likely made in Iran, according to Park.
“Their engines were similar to turbojet engines made in Iran,” he said, adding that South Korea will summon the Iranian ambassador to share the results of the investigation and deliver a protest message.
Iran and US have not reached agreement on strait of Hormuz, says Tehran official
Iran and the US have not yet reached an agreement on the strait of Hormuz, said Ali Bagheri, Iran’s deputy secretary of the supreme national security council, according to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a security summit in Moscow, he said: “Until we agree on all the issues, we consider that we have agreed on nothing.”
He said Iran was negotiating with Oman on a new procedure for ships to pass the vital waterway, which has been effectively shut since the start of the war in February.
“Iran and Oman, as adjacent coastal states, are negotiating together to determine a new mechanism for passage through the strait of Hormuz,” Bagheri was quoted as saying.
When asked about Iran’s enriched uranium, he said it was “not on the agenda” in talks between Tehran and Washington, despite US president Donald Trump claiming earlier this week that it would be transferred to the US “immediately” to be destroyed.
Bagheri added that indirect negotiations are continuing.
The deputy political chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said renewed war with the US was unlikely but warned his country stands ready to thwart any attacks.
“Today, although the likelihood of war is low due to the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with a full magazine,” Mohammad Akbarzadeh said, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
He added that Iranian forces will turn Chabahar to Mahshahr along Iran’s southern coast “into a graveyard for the aggressors”.
Israeli officials say Hamas military chief killed in airstrike in Gaza
Israel has claimed to have killed Mohammed Odeh, head of Hamas’s armed wing, in a strike on Gaza City last night.
If confirmed, his death comes just 11 days after the Israeli military killed his predecessor.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the joint operation with intelligence agency Shin Bet targeted “several buildings” in the northern Gaza Strip which it claimed were used as a “hideout” by Odeh.
Israel considers Odeh one of the architects of the 7 October attacks.
“We committed to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre,” the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, posted on X. “All of them are marked for death, wherever they may be.”
He added:
We committed that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily, and so it shall be, and also the voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will be implemented – everything at the right timing and in the right manner.
Odeh was appointed as chief of the Qassam Brigades last week after his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza on 16 May.
The continuing US-Israel war on Iran has compounded other global disasters to drive record numbers of people into hunger at a time when funding to combat famine has fallen dramatically, the head of the UN World Food Programme has said.
The WFP says 363 million people around the world are now at risk of acute hunger, 45 million of them as a result of conflict in the Middle East and the consequent oil price spike.
The surge in need comes against the backdrop of a cut in funding last year by a third, with the US, the largest donor by far, cutting its contribution by more than half.
Carl Skau, the WFP’s acting executive director since its former leader Cindy McCain stepped down for health reasons earlier this year, said the huge gap between needs and funding had forced the organisation to cut programmes supporting populations in food emergencies so as to focus on those already facing catastrophic famine.
“We take from the hungry to give to the starving. That’s the reality,” Skau told the Guardian. “Much of this is driven by conflict. Last year, we had two famines declared. That hasn’t happened in decades, so these are historic levels of hunger.”
Read more:
Muslims around the world are observing Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, the second major festival in Islam. In Lebanon, war and displacement have overshadowed celebrations, as Israeli attacks continue to inflict death and destruction on the beleaguered country.
The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said Eid has come as Lebanon “is still enduring the most difficult circumstances, of war, destruction, and tragedies”.
“Yet Eid remains an occasion to hold fast to hope and confidence in our ability to achieve our goal of building a strong and just state to raise Lebanon up,” he wrote on X.
Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Israel pounded Lebanon with more than 120 airstrikes on Tuesday in one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks, Lebanese security sources said, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military was deepening its operations in the country.
The bombing raids further strained a ceasefire announced on 16 April that was meant to halt fighting between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and came as Iran said the US had violated a separate truce by striking southern Iran.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 31 people and wounded 40, state news agency NNA reported on Wednesday. It said 14 people were killed in the town of Burj al-Shamali in southern Lebanon, including two children and three women.
In a statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu said the Israeli military “is operating with large forces in the field and capturing and controlling areas”.
“We are fortifying the security strip to protect the northern communities,” he said in a reference to a self-declared security zone occupied by Israeli troops several kilometres inside southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had targeted Israeli forces and tanks advancing toward the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya with explosive drones, rockets and artillery.
Here are the main developments in the Middle East conflict:
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On Monday Netanyahu said Israel was “intensifying” its military operations in Lebanon, with the IDF operating with “large forces on the ground” in order to take control of “strategic areas”.
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Meanwhile, the proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed to remain on the table despite US bombings of Iranian targets. The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack – aimed at missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz – as “an act of bad faith” and “a definitive violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not leave aggression unanswered. But Iran did not pull out of talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar. Here’s our report.
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US president Donald Trump will hold a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, with the Iran war expected to be at the top of the agenda. All cabinet members, including outgoing director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who leaves her post on 30 June, were expected to attend the meeting.
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US Central Command denied reports that that US navy has “quietly” resumed so-called ‘Project Freedom’ in the strait of Hormuz. “US forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the strait of Hormuz,” Centcom said in a statement shared on X.
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Oil rose back above $100 a barrel on Tuesday, after the fresh US strikes on Iran dashed hopes of a breakthrough, with experts saying that whatever the outcome of peace talks, the global energy market may now be past the “point of no return”.
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In Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have killed Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Odeh in an airstrike, 11 days after killing his predecessor. In a statement on X, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, praised the IDF and intelligence agency Shin Bet for their “brilliant execution”.
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