Lebanese official says Israeli strikes on Tyre have killed eight people
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern city of Tyre before an Israeli military warning on Tuesday killed at least eight people and wounded 32 others, noting the toll was provisional.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike not long before Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning for the entire city and surrounding areas ahead of strikes there.
Key events
France has banned Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, as part of coordinated sanctions with other countries over settler violence against Palestinians.
Smotrich is the second member of the Israeli government to be forbidden from entering France in recent months, after national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir was barred on 23 May for mocking activists detained by Israeli soldiers from a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid for the Palestinian territory.
The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway already slapped a travel ban on both ministers in June last year over inciting violence against Palestinians.
Other countries have also banned the ministers, including Spain, Slovenia and most recently Ireland.
The Israeli army on Tuesday said its forces killed a gunman who had managed to infiltrate Israeli territory from Lebanon and opened fire on its troops.
“A short while ago, an initial report was received regarding a shooting toward IDF soldiers operating in the Ramim Ridge area,” the army said, referring to a mountainous area stretching between Israel and Lebanon.
“The soldiers returned fire and eliminated a terrorist in the area. No IDF injuries were reported,” the army said, confirming to AFP that the gunman had managed to enter Israel.
Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced new coordinated sanctions on Tuesday against Israeli networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The move follows escalating violence by Israeli settlers, which diplomats say is intended to undermine prospects for a Palestinian state.
Tyre church leaders issue appeal to prevent Israel attacking Christian district of city
The heads of several churches in Tyre have appealed for the international community and Lebanese leaders, including the president Joseph Aoun, to act quickly to prevent Israel from attacking the Christian district of the major southern Lebanese port city.
“The Old City is the heart of Tyre, and any attack on it would be a national catastrophe,” the statement said.
It went on to describe the Old City as being home to innocent civilians and “centuries-old cultural and religious heritage”.
“We call for immediate political and security efforts to preserve the ability to remain steadfast, and we call on the international community and UN agencies to fulfil their moral responsibility to protect the population in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the church leaders said.
The statement by the Christian leaders was from George Iskandar, the metropolitan archbishop of Tyre for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; Elias Kfoury, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Tyre, Sidon and Dependencies; and Charbel Abdullah, the archeparch of the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.
The Israeli military earlier issued an urgent evacuation order for residents in Lebanon’s fifth biggest city to flee ahead of attacks it claimed were aimed at Hezbollah. For the first time in this current conflict, the evacuation order was issued for an entire area in Tyre which is a Christian neighbourhood.
At least eight people were reportedly killed following an Israeli airstrike on the city earlier with dozens of people reported to have sustained injuries.
In a post on X, France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said:
With our British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and Norwegian partners, we are today imposing new sanctions against those responsible for intensifying colonization and violence in the West Bank.
At the national level, we have banned from our territory minister Bezalel Smotrich, four leaders of settler organizations, and twenty-one violent settlers.
Bezalel Smotrich actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the recolonization of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and its deleterious consequences on the Palestinian population: this is a policy that the overwhelming majority of the international community cannot accept, firmly committed to the two-State solution.
The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, is to announce that illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank will be hit with new sanctions by Britain and its allies.
The package, due to be revealed in the House of Commons today, has been co-ordinated with Australia, Canada, France and Norway, who in a joint statement said they aimed to “hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians”.
As part of the moves, the UK will impose sanctions on six entities and one individual involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was “deeply alarmed” by the renewed escalation in violence in the Middle East.
“All attacks must stop immediately. The ceasefires in Lebanon, Iran + Gaza must be fully respected,” he said in a post on X.
Lebanese official says Israeli strikes on Tyre have killed eight people
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern city of Tyre before an Israeli military warning on Tuesday killed at least eight people and wounded 32 others, noting the toll was provisional.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported the strike not long before Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning for the entire city and surrounding areas ahead of strikes there.
The son of a prominent Palestinian doctor who was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2024 and held for more than 500 days without formal charges has spoken of his deep concern for his father’s wellbeing after he was transferred without explanation to solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on 27 December 2024. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said last week it had received information indicating that the 53-year-old had been transferred from Ketziot prison to Ramon prison, part of the Ganot prison complex, where he had been put in solitary confinement. PHRI said it had not been told the reasons for the transfer.
During a visit by a PHRI lawyer last month, Abu Safiya described harsh detention conditions, untreated medical problems and severe food shortages. You can read the full story by my colleagues, Lorenzo Tondo and Seham Tantesh, here:
A US navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew from a US Apache attack helicopter from the waters of the strait of Hormuz, the US military’s Central Command has told the Reuters news agency (see this post for more details about the incident).
Hezbollah urges Lebanese authorities to build closer ties to Tehran
Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, has thanked Iran for attacking Israel “in defence” of Lebanese people, suggesting that Lebanon’s government should take this opportunity to improve relations with Tehran.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hezbollah said Lebanese authorities should “take advantage of this opportunity and correct their official relations with the Islamic Republic in a way that serves the interests of both countries.”
Iran’s support for Lebanon’s “legitimate rights, and its bearing of material and political costs, reaffirms that Iran is the one that supports Lebanon, not the other way around,” the group added.
Lebanon’s government has been engaging in US-mediated talks with Israel, something that Hezbollah, which is more powerful than the Lebanese army and operates independently of the state, opposes and sees as an act of humiliation.
Israeli troops have taken control of around a fifth of Lebanon since Hezbollah launched attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Iran days after the US and Israel killed the former Iranian supreme leader in Tehran in February.
The Lebanese state accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest escalation of fighting. Hezbollah has refused to hand over its arsenal in full and said the dispute over the group’s weapons is an internal affair.
Last week, Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, demanded a complete ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, and said that as long as Lebanese villages were being bombed, northern Israel would not be safe.
At least two Iranian military members killed in Israeli attack on Iran
Iran’s state TV said at least two members of an Iranian air defence unit were killed in Israeli attacks on Monday.
State TV identified the men as Bahman Hosseini and Ali Reza Abiri, without offering a rank for them. Their funerals will reportedly be held today. The report said they would be buried in a city outside of Tehran, suggesting they had been posted near the capital.
Graeme Wearden
The oil price is dropping this morning, after Donald Trump declared that negotiations towards an Iran peace deal are in their “final throes”.
The US president made the comments to reporters at JFK airport after attending the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden (where he was roundly booed by the crowd).
Brent crude has dropped by 1% this morning, to $93 a barrel – still around $20/barrel above its levels before the conflict began in late February.
You can follow the latest business and market news in our live blog here:
