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Palestinian health ministry says infant killed by Israeli fire in West Bank
Israeli gunfire killed a Palestinian infant and wounded his parents in the south of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry reported.
Sam Fahd Abou Haikal, aged seven months, died and his parents were lightly injured "after the occupation forces opened fire on them on Friday evening" in the south of the city of Hebron, the ministry said. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lebanon says Israeli strike kills at least five people
Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike in the south killed five people including a woman and an emergency worker, condemning "the targeting of paramedics carrying out rescue operations".
"The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Zebdine in the Nabatieh district killed five people including a woman, and a paramedic from the Risala Association, and wounded two people including a paramedic," a ministry statement said, referring to emergency responders affiliated with Hezbollah ally the Amal movement.
- US forces board sanctioned tanker in Indian Ocean
- US says it has issued new Iran-related sanctions
- Iran dismisses idea of Trump meeting supreme leader
Witkoff, Kushner meet nuclear experts at national lab in Tennessee, Axios reports
US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner traveled to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee on Thursday to consult with experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Axios reported.
The source, confirming an Axios report, did not provide additional details.
President Donald Trump is adamant that any deal to end the war with Iran include a provision that Tehran will not develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran ex-PM hospitalised after years under house arrest: aide
Iran's former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was the focus of a 2009 mass protest movement and has spent the last 15 years under house arrest, has been hospitalised after his health deteriorated, an advisor said.
Mousavi, the last person to serve as Iran's premier before the post was abolished, had claimed to be the rightful victor of the disputed 2009 presidential elections.
Most recently, he urged Iran's clerical leadership to step down because of its deadly crackdown on protesters in January in which many thousands were killed.
Last week, "he suffered a health crisis and was transferred to a hospital," his advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, who is based outside Iran, told BBC Persian.
Two convicted over London stabbing of Iranian TV reporter
Two Romanians were convicted over the stabbing of an Iranian journalist outside his home in London in a 2024 attack that prosecutors linked to Tehran.
Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were found guilty of wounding with intent over the stabbing of Pouria Zeraati, a news presenter for Persian-language outlet Iran International.
The attack was "designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence", the British prosecution service's anti-terrorism chief Frank Ferguson said after the verdict at Woolwich Crown Court.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that the attack was a proxy operation linked to the Iranian state and the victim was targeted because of his work as a journalist.
US forces board sanctioned tanker in Indian Ocean
US forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean overnight that was sanctioned by Washington for transporting Iranian crude, the US military said on Friday.
"US forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel MT DAVINA located in the Indian Ocean," the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a post on X.
"We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate," said the post, which included photos and a video clip of the operation.
The Davina was sanctioned in 2024 by the US Treasury, which said it had delivered oil from Iran to China.
US says it has issued new Iran-related sanctions
The United States imposed sanctions on a network allegedly exporting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) from Iran to South and Eastern Asia by falsely flagging it as originating in Oman, the Treasury said.
The network used front companies in the United Arab Emirates and China and a "shadow fleet" of vessels, according to a Treasury statement.
The system, designed to evade existing US sanctions, moved LPG worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it added.
The United States has tightened sanctions on Iran since it jointly launched its war on the country with Israel in late February.
In addition, Washington on Friday also sanctioned an Iranian currency exchange house and individuals associated with it for allegedly helping Iran facilitate billions in financial transactions.
US preparing draft resolution condemning Iran at IAEA, diplomats say
The United States is preparing a draft resolution condemning Iran ahead of next week's meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors, diplomats said, a step that could complicate wider talks between the US and Iran.
Washington and Tehran are negotiating an extension of their ceasefire that would pave the way for talks on issues including Iran's nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump insisting Iran must never develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran says it never would.
Israeli and US military strikes last June destroyed or badly damaged the three uranium-enrichment plants known to have been operating in Iran at the time. Much of its highly enriched uranium, however, is thought to have survived, though the UN nuclear watchdog has not had access to check.
Photos show Lebanese and UN troops take positions in a village vacated by Israeli soldiers
Lebanon president tells Iran 'not your job to interfere' in country
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged Iran not to interfere in his country in an interview broadcast on Friday, also telling the Tehran-backed Hezbollah that diplomacy was the only solution to the conflict with Israel.
"It's not your country, it's our country... It's not your job to interfere into our country," Aoun said in the interview with CNN, addressing Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
"They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It's unacceptable," he said.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun speaks during a press conference after the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, April 24, 2026. © Petros Karadjias, AP
US military rejects Iran's claim of firing on American warships
The US military rejected Iran's claim that it fired warning shots at American warships, saying it would have been a serious breach of the fragile ceasefire between the two countries.
"Iranian forces did NOT attack or fire at US Navy warships. Doing so would be a gross violation of the ceasefire," US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a post on X.
Iran dismisses idea of Trump meeting supreme leader
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed the idea of his country's supreme leader meeting Donald Trump, after the US president floated the prospect.
On Wednesday, Trump told the New York Post: "Yeah, I'd like to meet him," when he was asked about a possible encounter, adding that "we probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out".
Iran's top diplomat however played down the chances in an interview with Lebanese media aired on Thursday night, suggesting it was not realistic.
"I saw a report which apparently said that he (Trump) had stated that he was ready for a meeting or that he wanted to hold a meeting," Araghchi told Al Mayadeen television channel.
"I think we should be realistic and think and live in the real world," he said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gestures as he arrives for a group photograph during the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on May 14, 2026. © Arun Sankar, AFP
Lebanon PM tells Iran to stop treating country as 'bargaining chip'
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged Iran to stop treating his country, where Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah are at war, as a "bargaining chip" in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict.
"If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations," Salam told a press conference for a UN aid appeal for Lebanon.
Israel plans first embassy in Slovenia, says foreign minister
Israel plans to open an embassy in Slovenia, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said late on Thursday, a sign of a thaw in relations since a new centre-right government took power in Ljubljana.
Iran army says fired 'warning missiles' at US destroyers in Gulf of Oman
Iran's navy said it had fired warning missiles and drones at US warships in the Gulf of Oman, accusing the US Navy of harassing maritime traffic and seizing commercial vessels and oil tankers, Iranian state media reported.
Earlier, the US Indo-Pacific Command said US forces had intercepted the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T DAVINA in the Indian Ocean overnight.
"We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate," it said in a post on X.
Lebanon ceasefire brings little comfort to displaced families in Beirut
Months after fleeing the fighting in eastern and southern Lebanon, thousands of displaced people remain in makeshift camps across Beirut. Despite the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, many say they feel no safer and have little confidence the truce will hold. FRANCE 24's special correspondent Antonia Kerrigan reports.
Israel army warns of imminent strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon
Israel's military on Friday warned residents of south Lebanon's Sarafand, a town on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate ahead of expected attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
FRANCE 24's Antonia Kerrigan reports from Beirut.
Hezbollah ally says group to withdraw from south Lebanon if full truce reached, Israel pulls back
Lebanese parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri has said that the Iran-backed group would withdraw from the area south of Lebanon's Litani River if Israel pulls out and a comprehensive ceasefire is reached.
"I agree to... Hezbollah's withdrawal from south of the Litani River in parallel with an Israeli withdrawal from the areas it occupies" and "a complete and comprehensive ceasefire without conditions", Berri, who acts as Hezbollah's mediator, said in a statement.
Lebanon’s Speaker of parliament says he would agree to hezbollah withdrawal from southern Lebanon in parallel with Israeli withdrawal
Lebanon's parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said on Friday he would agree to the withdrawal of the Iran backed group from southern Lebanon if Israeli troops simultaneously left territory they occupy in the country.
In written comments distributed by his office, Berri criticised the U.S.-mediated ceasefire framework announced this week as unfair, saying it should have included an "unconditional ceasefire by land, sea and air." He added that he "agrees to... Hezbollah's withdrawal from south of the Litani River, in parallel with the Israeli withdrawal from the areas it occupied."
Yesterday's key developments:
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Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militants would be banned. However, Hezbollah rejected the agreement, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei called for national unity in a message in which he said that Iran’s enemies, having been defeated on the battlefield, were now seeking to undermine public resilience and sow internal divisions.
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A UN peacekeeper in Lebanon has died after his position was hit by mortar shells near Marjayoun in southeastern Lebanon late on Wednesday, the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL said. Two other peacekeepers were wounded in the incident.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
