- Two killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut, defying US request not to attack Lebanese capital
- Trump repeats claims that US and Iran are “very close” to deal in sit-down interview
- President says Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “pretty badly injured”
- Iranian drones shot down by Strait of Hormuz overnight, US Central Command says
- Palestinian gunman kills one and injures five in Israel shooting
- Four Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza
Israel has struck southern suburbs in Beirut without warning, defying a US request not to attack the capital amid the ongoing ceasefire agreement.
Two people were killed and 11 others injured in the strikes, which hit a residential building and damaged four floors, Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said.
A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strikes were in retaliation for Hezbollah firing toward northern Israel, and that the attacks targeted “command centres” in the neighborhoods.
“We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run,” Netanyahu told his cabinet.
Hezbollah has not immediately claimed responsibility for firing at Israel.
The strike comes days after a ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon in Washington went into effect.
Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would renew full-scale war across the Middle East, despite Pakistan’s attempts to manage talks between Tehran and Washington.
The nation wants a deal to include ending the war in Lebanon, but negotiations have come to a stalemate as the war hit 100 days on Sunday.
Iranian MP Ebrahim Rezaei, who is a spokesperson for Iran’s national security, wrote on X that Tehran would give a “painful” response to Israel’s attack on Beirut.
He warned the nation: “Look at the sky over the occupied lands tonight.”
Trump says Iran deal “very close”
US President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview aired Sunday he is not demanding Lebanon be part of the deal with Iran, but said he’d like to see the country have a “better life”.
“I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical,” Trump said.
The president also repeated his claims that the US and Iran are “very close” to finalising the deal to end the war, stating that he was finding the regime’s new leadership “more rational, very smart”.
Trump said he had not spoken directly with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war began, and speculated that he was “pretty badly injured”.
The president also said the US would work with Iran to retrieve and destroy the nation’s highly enriched uranium if a deal is struck, but warned the material will be collected by force if no agreement is made.
“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said.
“Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly. And we’ll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way.”
US Central Command said that US forces had shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz during the early hours of Sunday morning.
“American forces remain postured and ready to continue defending against Iranian aggression,” it said in a post on X.
Strikes on Gaza kill four as one dead in Israel shooting
At least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a police point in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The dead were taken to a field hospital run by the Red Crescent, and at least 10 others were wounded, the charity said.
In Israel, a Palestinian gunman with Israeli citizenship killed one person and wounded five others in a rampage through multiple towns close to the boundary with the occupied West Bank.
Fears of a widespread attack prompted authorities to order residents to stay at home, and children at school in the area were kept in lockdown for at least three hours.
Tensions have been heightened amid a spate of Israeli settler attacks, and the death of a Palestinian baby over the weekend, who was killed when Israeli troops fired at a car.
Seven-month-old Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while driving in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron City, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
An investigation into the shooting has been opened by the Israeli Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, the IDF said on Sunday in a statement.
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