“I have just been ​informed by our ​Great Military that last night ‌the ⁠Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters ​while patrolling ​over ⁠the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote ​in a social ​media ⁠post.

Earlier, President Donald Trump said two US pilots were “fine” after their helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, following a report that the crew of an Apache gunship had been rescued after going down close to the Iranian-controlled waterway.

“The pilots are fine,” Trump said, speaking on the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport before returning to Washington, D.C. “Nobody injured.”

“I would say rising very meaningfully,” Wright said when asked how ship traffic is flowing through the Strait compared to a week or two ago.

Wright made the remarks during an Atlantic Council conference and added that it would take many months to get back to normal flows of energy once the war is over.

Vessel movements on the strait have been largely blocked since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, interrupting around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. But some vessels have since begun transiting the narrow waterway bordering Iran, often with transponders turned off and under cover of darkness.

Disruptions to normal flows have triggered a surge in global energy prices, upending economies around the world and creating a political vulnerability for U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican party ahead of midterm elections in November.

Washington has been pressing for a peace deal with Tehran that would include a full reopening of the strait.

The deaths followed a single strike on the city’s eastern edge, the ministry and state media said, in one of the deadliest Israeli bombing raids on Tyre since the war between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah erupted on March 2.

A video of the aftermath, in a location verified by Reuters as being in the neighbourhood of the strike, showed debris strewn across the length of a road. In a smoke-filled alleyway, a crane could be seen operating near a damaged building.

The health ministry said rescuers were still searching through the rubble of the strike for survivors.

MSF suspends operations at hospitals

The Israeli military had on Tuesday morning issued an online evacuation warning for the entire city, including its northwestern Christian quarter, where people displaced from elsewhere in the city were seeking shelter and which had been left out of previous evacuation orders.

Last week, the Israeli military said Hezbollah were hiding out in the area, without providing evidence. It urged Christians in the city to demand Hezbollah depart, and threatened to order the district’s evacuation if the fighters did not leave.

Lebanese state media said people were fleeing the city on Tuesday, with civil defense teams transporting elderly residents who stayed behind into temporary shelters.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement it was deeply concerned by what it called “forced displacement practices,” referring to Israel’s warning for people to leave before the strikes.

It said they “expose people to further harm by compelling them to move in unsafe and chaotic conditions.”

MSF said it had to suspend its medical activities at several hospitals nearby, as well as its mobile clinic operations, for the day.

The latest war in Lebanon erupted when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of its ally Tehran. Israel has retaliated with heavy strikes and a ground invasion that has occupied swathes of the south.

The U.S. announced a ceasefire on April 16, but it has failed to halt fighting in southern Lebanon.

Israel has continued to issue evacuation orders for southern Lebanon that have effectively emptied a fifth of the country, including areas far beyond the front lines.

It was not immediately clear whether the Apache had been shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure, or encountered some other problem, the New York Times report said.

The White House, U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Asked if he knew what had brought the helicopter down, Trump said a report would be issued later on Tuesday.

“The pilots are fine,” Trump said, speaking on the runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport before returning to Washington, D.C. “Nobody injured.”

Iran allowing more ships through Strait of Hormuz: state TV

Iran and Israel stop attacks on each other

Iran and Israel said on Monday that they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Trump, settling back into a tenuous ceasefire announced on April 8.

Tehran warned, however, that it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to hit Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. On Tuesday, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the Lebanese city of Tyre ahead of possible strikes.

The order included the Christian quarter, an area previously excluded from evacuation warnings. The military said Hezbollah were operating there, without providing evidence.

Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped trigger the latest missile exchanges between Iran and Israel — the most direct confrontation since the April ceasefire — complicating Trump’s push to end a war that the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28.

US says shot down Iran drones as war reaches 100th day

Trump also told reporters he might have “an idea” for an Iran deal within a few days, without elaborating. The Republican president, struggling with record low approval ratings as November’s midterm elections approach, has often hinted at an imminent deal with Tehran, but none has yet materialised.

Iran had fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday, calling the strikes retaliation for attacks on the Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut.

Israel then hit Iranian air defence systems and a petrochemical plant that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it retaliated with a strike aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa. No deaths were reported by authorities on either side.

Lebanon army chief visits US-Iran mediator Pakistan: Lebanese military

Trump tells Netanyahu to ‘be careful’

U.S. and Israeli officials said Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday.

In an interview with Axios, Trump said he had warned the Israeli leader not to return to war with Iran: “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’.”

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. depends in part on an end to fighting in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who had fired across the border.

Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people, saying the conflict should be treated separately from any U.S.-Iranian ceasefire. Hezbollah has also continued its attacks.

At the same time, Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump has said any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran’s demands include the lifting of international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait.

The airline continues to route passengers through Dubai to destinations including India and Australia, taking precautions such as carrying extra fuel.

“We have no intention of cutting back, reducing,” Clark said, adding he was not concerned about the extra cost.

Emirates is also seeking broader expansion in Germany, saying most stakeholders would benefit from new long-haul capacity, while it rolls out free Starlink connectivity on as many aircraft as possible despite limited hardware.

Emirates begins ‘reduced flight schedule’

Emirates has long campaigned for greater access to Berlin.

Clark said Emirates had secured slots at Berlin airport but still lacked approval to operate. It has regularly used the air show as a platform to highlight its contribution to the local economy, dating back to an order for 32 more Airbus A380 securing thousands of German jobs in 2010.

Clark also criticised Deutsche Lufthansa, which has long argued Gulf carriers enjoy an unfair regulatory advantage in Europe.

“It is a listed company, and it needs to fight its own corner without going to the government and hiding behind its skirts,” he said.

The offering had been covered multiple times at the top of its price range of 12.5 riyals ($3.33) per share last week. However, the company opted to withdraw after consultations with its advisers, according to a bourse filing by Al Rajhi Capital.

MGC “remains committed to its expansion and strategic plans”, will explore various expansion options, and will reconsider the IPO in the future, the filing reads.

Saudi PIF assets reach $910bn in 2025, below Vision 2030 target

Founded in 1977, MGC specialises in large-scale water infrastructure, transport and selective urban development projects. The company reported a backlog of 10.6 billion riyals ($2.82 billion) as of the end of March.

Shareholders had planned to offer 240 million existing ordinary shares to investors, representing a 30% stake, and had appointed Al Rajhi Capital and Morgan Stanley as joint financial advisors for the offering.

The listing was set to rank among the largest in the region this year, at a time when Middle East equity capital markets have slowed after a post-pandemic rush of offerings driven by economic diversification programmes.

Proceeds from equity and equity-related issuance in the Middle East and North Africa totalled $427.9 million during the first quarter of this year, down 91% from the same period a year earlier and the slowest annual start in the region since 2011, according to LSEG data.

Saudi PIF to unveil new 2026–2030 strategy this week, sources say

The report also showed real non-oil GDP reached $892 billion, missing the $904 billion target, and foreign direct investment represented 2.8% of GDP, compared with a 3.4% goal.

Iran still has not informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of what happened to those bombed nuclear sites or the nuclear material, including uranium enriched to near bomb grade, that was stored there.

While the bombings destroyed or badly damaged uranium-enrichment facilities, much of the highly enriched uranium, including some enriched to up to 60%, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons grade, is thought to have survived.

Communication channel ‘broken’

“It’s very important that we re-engage,” Grossi told the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors on the first day of a quarterly meeting.

“I call on Iran to engage the Agency constructively in order to facilitate the full and effective implementation of safeguards in Iran,” he added in a separate, written statement to the board, using a term that encompasses inspections.

The IAEA has conducted some inspections at sites that were not bombed, but it halted those on safety grounds in February because of renewed military strikes, and has since only inspected Iran’s operating power plant at Bushehr.

“I have sporadic contacts with the foreign minister and others, but basically the channel of communication is broken,” Grossi told a press conference after he addressed the board.

The reports came as mediators in Cairo said they were pressing on with efforts to salvage a fragile US-brokered ceasefire deal that has ended major clashes but left many key points unresolved.

Medics said two people were killed when an Israeli strike hit near a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, medics said three Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed and others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit near a group of people digging a well. Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, killed one person and wounded three others, medics said, taking Monday’s death toll to six.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports of the attacks or of its forces moving markers to expand the “Yellow Zone” under their control.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce. Israeli strikes have killed more than 950 people since the truce, health officials say, while Israel says four soldiers were killed by militants during the same period.

Israeli troops still control more than 60% of Gaza’s territory, where they have ordered residents out and destroyed remaining buildings. Nearly the entire population of 2 million people now live in a tiny strip of land along the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.

“We are not allowing them to arm themselves or harm us, and we are also eliminating their senior commanders,” he said in a speech.

Witnesses in the southern Gaza areas said the Israeli forces have in the past few days expanded the “Yellow Zone”, in some areas in eastern Khan Younis and northern Rafah where new markers and concrete blocks have been placed.

“We are ready, we are willing, we are committed. Are you? If you are, let’s sit and talk,” said Aoun.

Also read: Lebanon president tells Iran ‘not your job to interfere’ in country

He said he would not meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before reaching an agreement to end the war, which he said would be a non-aggression pact and not a full peace deal.

The wave of attacks over the ‌past 24 hours marked the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire, threatening to wreck Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than three-month war

Oil prices which had risen by as much as 5% after the flurry of attacks - later pared gains when Iran’s military said its first wave of strikes on Israel was over. The dollar retreated from its highest level in nearly two months.

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Israel had also decided to halt its ​attacks on Iran.

Israel struck Iranian targets after Tehran fired missiles towards Israeli territory late on Sunday. Tehran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah on the outskirts of ​Beirut.

Israel hit a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran that it said was used to produce ballistic missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated with a strike ⁠aimed at a similar Israeli plant in the city of Haifa.

‘Painful response’

Iran’s military headquarters said it had “delivered a painful response” against Israel for its attacks on Lebanon, including Sunday’s strikes on the outskirts of Beirut.

“Accordingly, the operations ​of the armed forces are hereby declared halted; however, it is emphasized that if the aggressions and acts of mischief continue — including in southern Lebanon — much more severe and crushing actions than before will follow.”

The exchange has complicated ​Trump’s push to end the war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, and underscores how easily the conflict could widen into a broader regional confrontation. A ceasefire announced on April 8 had paused all-out warfare but flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.

In one of several posts on social media, Trump said Israel and Iran both wanted “an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.” He added that a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would remain in ​place till a final deal was reached.

In the first hit on an energy site inside Iran since the April 8 ceasefire, Israel said it struck targets at the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, while a provincial official told Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency parts of the plant were damaged.

Yemen’s Houthis pledged to stop Israel’s maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and said it was behind the first missile attack on Israel since the ceasefire, which spurred the Israeli military to activate aerial defence systems.

“We consider all enemy movements to be legitimate military targets for our armed forces,” the Houthis added in a statement.

Hours earlier, Trump had said new strikes by Israel and Iran would not affect his administration’s peace talks with Tehran, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t call the shots.”

Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks in Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran, including rebuking Netanyahu with obscenities in a phone call last week.

Trump says will urge Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iranian missiles: Axios

However, earlier on Sunday Israel launched strikes in the Beirut area for the first time since the U.S. announced a truce plan for Lebanon last week.

Iran fired salvos of missiles at Israeli targets in retaliation, but Trump insisted that an agreement to end the wider war remained within reach.

“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump told the Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He (Netanyahu) doesn’t call the shots.”

Israel attacks Iran petrochemical plant

A few hours later, Israel’s defence forces said they had struck Iranian military targets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles in its attacks.

Iran had fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel, its ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said on X, adding, “Everyone has had enough of this maniacal Iranian regime.”

Israel was targeting Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launch sites and infrastructure facilities, he added.

The latest hostilities drove oil prices up more than 3% on Monday, with benchmark Brent futures back above $96 a barrel.

In a brief statement, Israel’s defence forces said they struck several targets at Mahshahr.

Authorities there ordered all employees to evacuate, but there were no injuries and damage was being assessed, Iran’s state media reported, adding that five production lines at the complex had been hit since the Iran war began on February 28.

The IRGC said it had targeted Ramat David air base, near Nazareth. The Israeli military said it identified missiles launched from Iran and its defence systems had intercepted them.

Trump urged Netanyahu to hold off further strikes

Trump spoke with Netanyahu by telephone from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a little less than half an hour on Sunday, an Israeli official said, without giving details.

The White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump told Netanyahu during the call to refrain from further strikes because “we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal,” according to a U.S. official quoted by Axios.

Since the start of the talks, Israel has kept up attacks in Lebanon in a conflict with Hezbollah that Israeli officials insist should be treated separately from any Iran ceasefire.

Tehran has long said any peace deal with the U.S. would depend on a ceasefire also holding in Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of Hezbollah fighters who fired rockets and drones across the border in solidarity with Tehran.

Iran’s chief peace negotiator, Parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, said U.S. bases and Israeli assets were legitimate targets because of hostile acts, including the “violation of agreements over Lebanon.”

Before Sunday, Iran had not attacked Israel since a ceasefire in the wider war started in April, although Hezbollah had done so.

Trump has insisted repeatedly that Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement on ending the war.

“We’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in a recorded interview that aired on Sunday to mark 100 days of the conflict.

Trump urges more ‘surgical’ strikes against Hezbollah: NBC

Trump wants no attacks in Lebanon

Israel has never halted its Lebanon campaign, which has killed thousands of people and driven hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

Hezbollah, which kept out of truce talks, has also continued its attacks and says it will not give up its weapons unless Israel halts its attacks and withdraws from Lebanon.

Netanyahu said Israel’s Sunday strikes on Beirut’s southern outskirts, a district known as Dahiyeh and a longtime Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered after Hezbollah fired toward Israel.

The wider war has been stalled since the U.S. and Israel paused attacks on Iran in early April, with Tehran blocking most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.

Washington has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Though Washington and Tehran have said they are close to a preliminary deal to reopen the strait, they have repeatedly traded strikes, with escalations in recent days that included attacks on nearby Arab states hosting U.S. bases.

Trump has said any deal to end the war must prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he is under pressure to deliver terms tougher than those agreed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama in a deal Trump later repudiated.

Tehran’s demands include the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its sway over the strait.

A source familiar with U.S. plans told Reuters on Saturday that Washington could make Iranian assets available to Gulf neighbours to repair damage inflicted by Iran.

However, any such diversion of Iran’s assets would be illegal, and Tehran would take measures in response, Kazem Gharibabadi, its deputy foreign minister, said on Sunday.

Explosions were reported in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan early on Monday, according to local media, clouding hopes for a near-term end to the broader conflict.

Still, after Iran fired a salvo of missiles at Israeli targets on Sunday in retaliation for an attack near Beirut, U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal to end the war remained within reach. He also reportedly urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid further strikes.

Dubai’s main share index dropped 1.3%, hit by a 1.2% slide in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and a 1.6% decline in toll operator Salik.

Iran has long maintained that any agreement with Washington would depend on a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel launched an invasion in March against Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters after cross-border rocket and drone attacks carried out in support of Tehran.

However, Israel struck the Beirut area again earlier on Sunday, marking its first attack there since the United States unveiled a truce proposal for Lebanon last week.

In Abu Dhabi, the index retreated 0.9%, with conglomerate International Holding  losing 0.6% and the country’s biggest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank  falling 1.3%.

The Qatari index was down 0.9%, with the Gulf’s biggest lender Qatar National Bank  dropping 1.1%.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index edged 0.1% lower, with Al Rajhi Bank  shedding 0.5%.

On the other hand, oil major Saudi Aramco gained 0.7% on the back of the latest oil price rise. Benchmark Brent crude futures rose $4.42 or 4.47% to $97.15 a barrel as of 0609 GMT.

The July OSP for flagship Arab Light crude has been set at a premium of $9.50 a barrel above the average Dubai and Oman quotes, a pricing document reviewed by Reuters showed on Monday, $6 a barrel lower than the OSP for June.

July OSPs for other Saudi grades to Asia also fell by $6 per barrel from the previous month.

The price cut came in line with market expectation following a price decline and tepid trading in the spot market in May.

The cash Dubai price’s premium to swaps averaged $9.59 a barrel last month, down from April’s average of $13.92, Reuters data showed, with spot Oman premiums showing a similar trend.

Saudi oil sales to China to halve next month, Bloomberg News reports

Refiners in China, the world’s No. 1 oil importer, have cut runs and drawn on inventories due to mounting refining losses, which has led to a sharp decline in the country’s imports. They lifted less Saudi crude in May and June.

Still, July OSPs to Asia remain much higher than before the Iran war as the conflict has largely halted energy flows out of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has largely cut oil flows via the strait, which before the conflict saw one-fifth of the world’s oil pass through. Several tankers have managed to leave the Gulf recently, but oil and liquefied natural gas flows are still severely constrained.

“Of course, this strait will be open, but with new conditions to be determined by the Iranian and Omani authorities,” Ambassador Kazem Jalali told the Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview published on Monday.

“We understand that Iran and Oman provide certain services related to this strait. And fees will be charged for those services,” he said without elaborating.

Iran has asserted that a permanent peace deal should allow it to demand fees for ships passing through the strait, which would vary depending upon the type of ship, its cargo and prevailing conditions.

That position is vehemently opposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. In late May, the U.S. warned Oman not to get involved in any effort with Iran to impose a toll and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Oman’s ambassador had told him there were no plans to impose such tolls.

On Monday, Israel said it struck military targets in western and central Iran, even after Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from further attacks.

Japan, which imported about 95% of its oil needs from the Middle East before the war, said it did not pay a fee after a Japan-linked crude oil tanker passed through the waterway in May.

Also read: Iran fires missiles at Israel for first time since truce

“The IDF will strike the enemy with force as soon as the green light is given,” Zamir said in a statement as he conducted a situational assessment, the military said.

Air raid sirens sounded across large areas of northern and central Israel, including the cities of Haifa, Caesarea and Hadera, according to the military.

Afterwards, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir vowed the military would “strike the enemy with force as soon as the green light is given”, the military said.

In a series of statements issued over a short period, the military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran and that all of them had been intercepted.

Responding to a request for details, the military said a total of 11 missiles had been fired from Iran.

Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said there were no reports of any casualties from the missiles, but some people were injured while rushing to shelters.

Also read: Iran fires missiles at Israel for first time since truce

“The Iranian terrorist regime has made a grave mistake by once again choosing the path of terror,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised statement.

Tehran said the missile launches were intended as a “warning” following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day, adding that any further aggression would be met with a “broader” response against all US-Israeli targets in the region.

Israel said it had targeted a Hezbollah command centre in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.

The Iran-backed group has been engaged in hostilities with Israel since shortly after the outbreak of the wider regional conflict.

“We struck in Dahiyeh in response to Hezbollah’s relentless attacks on the communities of northern Israel,” Defrin said.

“The IDF will continue to operate throughout Lebanon and will intensify its actions against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation.”

All schools across Israel will be shut Monday, the education ministry and the military’s Home Front Command said in a joint statement on Sunday evening.

The Middle East war, triggered by a US-Israeli offensive against Tehran that began on February 28, entered its 100th day on Sunday.

Also read: Iran fires missiles at Israel for first time since truce

In a brief statement, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority reported the closure of Iraqi airspace for 72 hours. Syria’s authority closed the country’s “southern air corridors” for 12 hours.

The comments from Iran’s Parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, follow Israeli attacks on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, a stronghold of Iran’s ally Hezbollah.

“They are neither committed to a ceasefire nor believe in dialogue, and through the naval blockade and violation of agreements regarding Lebanon they showed that they only understand the language of power,” Qalibaf said in an apparent reference to the U.S. and Israel.

Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of near-daily ceasefire violations, keeping the Gaza Strip gripped by bloodshed as progress on permanently ending the war remains stalled.

A strike on a vehicle near the Al-Buraq school in western Gaza City killed four people, said the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas.

Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital confirmed receiving the four bodies.

Another Israeli airstrike targeting a police station in the Al-Noss area of Al-Mawasi district in western Khan Yunis killed five people and wounded another 17, the agency reported.

Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital confirmed receiving five bodies and treating the wounded, some of them in “critical condition”.

The Gaza police directorate confirmed that Israeli warplanes struck the police station in Khan Yunis.

In a separate incident, Israeli naval forces shot dead a fisherman in the early hours of Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah said after receiving his body.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the attacks.

Sunday’s bloodshed followed a deadly Saturday that saw at least 12 people killed across Gaza, including a man the Israeli military identified as a Hamas “terrorist cell commander”.

At least 961 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10 last year, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.

Restrictions imposed on media outlets and limited access in Gaza prevent AFP from independently verifying tolls or freely covering the violence there.

“I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press,“ according to a transcript of the interview recorded Friday.

“I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life,” he added.

Israel carried out strikes on Sunday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, saying it was retaliating for attacks targeting its territory despite a ceasefire that has not stopped the cycle of violence.

Asked whether he was demanding that Lebanon be included in the Iran deal, Trump replied: “No, no.”

“Not at all. I’m not demanding,” he said. “I think they’d like to see it, but I’m not demanding.”

Trump has said previously he would like to “separate” the discussions on Lebanon from the negotiations on an agreement with Iran, while Tehran, on the contrary, wants to link the two conflicts.

Trump confirmed in an interview last week with The New York Post that he had a tense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during which he reportedly reprimanded his close ally about the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have destroyed numerous buildings and killed more than 3,560 people since the restart of fighting on March 2, according to the latest official figures.

On the Israeli side, 29 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed in Lebanon, according to the army.

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the broader Middle East war when it began attacking Israel to avenge Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of the US-Israel offensive.

A ceasefire that was supposed to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on April 17, but has never been fully respected.

In the interview, Trump also said that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa – a former jihadist who has forged close ties with the United States – would “love to help” forge an agreement in the Lebanon conflict.

“We can recommend Syria. Syria’s doing a very good job of cleaning up their act. They have a very good leader,” he said. “And he would love to help.”

It came as mediator Pakistan delivered a message to Iran’s supreme leader, following weeks of indirect talks marked by tit-for-tat threats and sporadic exchanges of fire.

Efforts to turn a ceasefire into a lasting settlement have repeatedly stalled, while the war has rattled global markets and increased pressure on US President Donald Trump at home ahead of midterm elections.

But there were signs of fresh diplomatic efforts over the weekend with Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi visiting Tehran.

Naqvi said upon his arrival Saturday that he would deliver a “special letter” from Pakistan’s army chief to Iran’s Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and a message from the prime minister “regarding the current situation”, according to Iranian state television.

Pakistan’s military leader Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir has played a key role in mediating talks between Iran and the US, following a single round of direct negotiations in Islamabad.

“I think it’s a very important message,” said Naqvi, a frequent visitor to Iran.

His trip came as US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it destroyed two Iranian drones “that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz”, hours after announcing it struck four other drones and coastal surveillance radar sites.

‘Deadlock’

Tehran on Saturday fired a salvo of missiles at US allies Bahrain and Kuwait, drawing a furious response from the Gulf monarchies and piling pressure on the shaky ceasefire agreed on April 8.

Iran’s foreign ministry denounced the latest US strikes as “flagrant” violations while condemning Washington’s “hostile and provocative behaviour”.

Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, had earlier told CNN that negotiations with the US “are at a deadlock, and Trump must break this deadlock”, as he called for the release of some $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

But Washington instead may seek to use those funds to pay for damage wrought by Iranian strikes on Gulf allies.

The US “Treasury will utilise all tools available to allow Iranian assets to be made available to our Gulf allies to support rebuilding and repairs for any future damage caused by Iran”, a source familiar with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s thinking said.

Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal meanwhile left on Saturday for his own talks in Pakistan, as Beirut also seeks a permanent end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2. Iran, in its peace negotiations with Washington, has insisted the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked.

On Saturday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike in the country’s south killed three of its soldiers. Israel’s military said it was “reviewing the incident” and insisted its campaign in Lebanon was targeting Hezbollah, not government forces.

Lebanon’s health ministry said two women were also killed and 22 people wounded in an Israeli strike on Saksakiyeh in the south.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced the death of two of its soldiers.

The ceasefire announced in April did not stop the fighting in Lebanon, and a new conditional truce deal announced this week was flatly rejected by Hezbollah.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said it had intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

The measures, which would include asset freezes and travel bans, have yet to be finalised and countries may adopt different lists of individuals, the diplomats said.

The move comes amid escalating violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and underscores anger in many Western countries toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has expanded settlements. Diplomats say that expansion is aimed at undermining prospects for a Palestinian state.

No EU unanimity for tougher measures on Israel

The diplomats said that with efforts blocked at the European Union to advance tougher measures against Israel, several countries had concluded that coordinated national sanctions were the best option for now.

READ MORE: EU agrees long-stalled sanctions on Israeli settlers

“There is no unanimity at the EU level, so we have moved to discussions at the national level,” one diplomat said.

Two of the diplomats said the announcement would be in the coming days.

Another diplomat said Britain and Norway were among the countries France was coordinating with, although it remained unclear who else could join.

Most countries avoid publicly discussing national sanctions for fear that potential targets could shift assets in advance.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said after some new EU sanctions on May 11 that the bloc had “chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis.”

Seven Western nations, including France, Britain, Australia and Canada, accused the Israeli government on May 22 of aggravating tensions in the occupied West Bank.

A key concern is Israel’s plan to build a settlement east of Jerusalem, known as the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, fragmenting territory Palestinians seek for an independent state.

“In the face of settlement expansion and violence in the occupied West Bank, we have already taken measures. More could follow,” a French diplomatic source said, declining to elaborate.

Britain’s Foreign Office declined to comment. The Norwegian foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

France hosts meeting to keep issue on the table

The push to increase pressure on Israel at the national level comes just days before France hosts a meeting on June 12 in Paris, bringing together Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups and about a dozen foreign ministers.

The meeting will mark one year since the adoption of the New York Declaration, a non-binding United Nations resolution endorsed by the General Assembly that set out a roadmap towards a Palestinian state and led to about a dozen countries, including France, recognising a Palestinian state in September.

French officials have said they want to keep the issue on the international agenda as wars in Iran and Lebanon draw attention away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while talks over Gaza’s future remain deadlocked despite a fragile ceasefire.

Israel has launched an operation into Lebanon to root out the Hezbollah, which is said to have dragged Lebanon into the wider Middle East war by launching missiles on behalf of its sponsor.

Lebanon has vowed that it will disarm Hezbollah over time, but has also denounced Israel’s invasion, accusing it of employing scorched earth tactics to drive civilians out of southern towns and villages.

In the latest incident, the Lebanese army said, two officers and a soldier were killed in a strike on a military vehicle on the road between Khardali and Nabatieh.

The Israeli military said the vehicle targeted was “moving suspiciously” in “an active combat zone” in an area it had ordered evacuated ahead of operations.

But it insisted it “operates against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, not against the Lebanese army” and added that it was “reviewing the incident”.

Hezbollah dubbed the attack a “heinous crime” and accused the Lebanese government of exposing its own country to bloodshed through its “complete surrender to the enemy’s demands in Washington”.

Weeks of indirect talks marked by tit-for-tat threats and sporadic strikes have failed to secure a deal to end the Middle East war or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for Gulf oil and gas shipments.

On Saturday the island kingdom of Bahrain, which hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet, denounced the latest attacks against its territory and that of Kuwait.

READ MORE: US attacks Iranian sites after Iran launches drones, in latest Gulf flare-up

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran had launched seven ballistic missiles towards the countries, but that six had been intercepted and one had fallen short. Manama described the attacks, the second against both nations in three days, as “blatant aggression” and “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of both countries”.

Kuwait’s foreign ministry warned that the Iranian attacks “represent a dangerous escalation” and a direct threat to the “lives of citizens and residents”.

In Bahrain’s capital Manama, an AFP journalist heard three explosions as air raid sirens sounded.

In Kuwait, another AFP journalist heard repeated blasts near the country’s international airport, which had been struck on Wednesday in an attack blamed on Iran that killed one person.

“We woke up to a huge explosion. The explosions were very loud,” Reem, an Egyptian mother-of-two, told AFP, after the latest blasts. “My children were terrified, and I couldn’t calm them down.”

Formally, a ceasefire in the war — which was triggered almost 100 days ago by US and Israeli strikes that wiped out Iran’s top leadership — has been in place since April 8.

But tensions rose on Friday, when the US military said it struck radar sites in Iran after downing drones headed towards the strait.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said early Saturday they had targeted “enemy bases in the area” with missiles in response to a US operation targeting the country’s Sirik and Qeshm islands.

“There are currently no reports of harm to US personnel, and Iranian claims of damaging US 5th fleet headquarters in Bahrain are false,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

The latest flare-up came despite the United States moving ahead with allowing Iran’s national football team to travel to the FIFA World Cup it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack confirmed the visa issuances, saying “sports transcends borders, and we look forward to welcoming competitors and fans from around the world”.

An Iranian state television report confirmed that the team’s players and technical staff had received their visas but that 15 administrative and managerial members of the delegation had been refused.

An unnamed US administration official said in a statement: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”

The team is due to fly from Turkey to Spain on Saturday before arriving at their base camp in Mexico on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Friday that Iran retains roughly “21, 22 percent” of its missile stockpile — more than the figure of 18 percent he gave in May — despite Washington’s repeated insistence that Tehran’s military capacity had been crippled.

Efforts to turn the truce into a lasting settlement have repeatedly stalled, while the conflict has rattled global markets and increased political pressure on Trump at home ahead of midterm elections.

“The negotiations are at a deadlock and Trump must break this deadlock,” Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN in an interview on Friday, as he called for the release of frozen Iranian assets to the tune of “$24 billion”.

Lebanon — which was drawn into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 — called Friday for Iran to stop interfering in its affairs.

On Saturday, Lebanon said an Israeli strike in the south of the country had killed three of its soldiers. The Israeli military said it was “reviewing the incident” and insisted its operation in Lebanon was targeting Hezbollah, not the government army.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded attacks after a new truce deal was flatly rejected by the group. Iran, in its peace negotiations with Washington, has insisted that the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked.

Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag, was buried in Hebron after funeral prayers were held at a nearby mosque. The infant was killed on Friday while traveling with his family by car near the city of Hebron.

“What happened to us is not a matter of an apology. What happened is not that shots were fired by mistake and led to this tragedy,” the child’s father, Fahd, said on Saturday.

“To say it happened by mistake, that ‘I didn’t know you were coming here,’ or that the bullet passed through by accident — no. There is no such thing as ‘by mistake’ in this case.”

The Israeli military has said a single shot was fired after soldiers “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them”. It has acknowledged that “uninvolved civilians” were injured and said that the incident was under review.

According to the child’s grandmother, Firyal, the family had stopped their car after seeing Israeli soldiers in the Tel Rumeida area, south of Hebron. Shots were fired, the grandmother said, with one bullet piercing the car, killing Abu Haikal and wounding his parents.

“Immediately after the presence of the occupation forces, a soldier holding his weapon opened fire on us. The bullets struck the car,” Fahd said.

“The soldier that shot at us was 10 metres away. The bullet penetrated the front windshield, went through my arm, and then struck my son in the head and my wife in the face.”

The military has not identified the soldiers involved nor said if those soldiers were still carrying out their duties while the review into the shooting was underway.

In a statement, the army said Haykal, “left Lebanon for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, at the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart”.

A source with knowledge of the matter told AFP Haykal’s visit is “linked to the Pakistani mediation to resolve” issues between the United States and Iran who are negotiating an end to the Middle East regional war.

“Lebanon is critical part of the negotiations,” the source added, requesting anonymity.

Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

Israel responded with an extensive campaign of airstrikes and a ground invasion that have killed nearly 3,600 people, and exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have not stopped despite an ongoing truce.

Iran insists Lebanon be included in any agreement with the United States to end the regional war.

But Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said, in an interview with CNN aired on Friday, that Iran must stop interfering in Lebanon, which has engaged in its own direct talks with Israel.

“It’s not your country, it’s our country,” he said. “It’s not your job to interfere into our country.”

“They are using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in their negotiation with the United States. It’s unacceptable,” he added.

Lebanon’s military said earlier on Saturday that three soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on the country’s south.

A new conditional truce was announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys this week in Washington.

It would require Hezbollah to stop firing, withdraw from near the Israeli border and would see Lebanon’s army deploy to new “pilot zones” in the area, where it will exercise exclusive control.

But Hezbollah has rejected the agreement, demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

“They still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say, percentage wise, maybe 21, 22% of their missiles,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.

That estimate for Iran’s remaining missile stockpile is higher than the 18% Trump gave in May. He has often claimed to have completely destroyed Iran’s war-fighting capacity.

Iran’s military said Friday it had fired “warning missiles” at two US destroyers in the Gulf of Oman – a claim promptly denied by the US military.

Two days earlier, Kuwait said it had intercepted 30 ballistic missiles fired as part of “heinous Iranian aggression.”

Weeks of complex talks marked by threats and flare-ups of violence have failed to secure a deal to end the war.

But Trump said Iran has “got no choice” except to reach an agreement.

“They’re strong, they’re proud, there are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do,” he told NBC.

Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain hours after CENTCOM shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that were launched toward the Strait of Hormuz, the statement said, adding that the attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic.

Iran says it fired warning missiles and drones at US warships in Gulf of Oman

US forces subsequently struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island to defend against further maritime attacks, it said.

CENTCOM said that initial assessments indicate six of the missiles launched by Iran were intercepted and a seventh did not reach its intended target.

Aoun said on Friday that Iran was using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States and that Lebanese people were paying the price for Iran’s interests.

“Had Lebanon been bargaining chip for Iran, we’d have a deal long ago,” Araqchi posted on X. “Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr. President.”