Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah dedicated his life to documenting the voices of his people, showcasing their grief, displacement, survival and resilience under Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, before he was killed by an Israeli attack.
Published On 21 Jun 202621 Jun 2026
Share
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a televised speech during a gathering in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 27, 2025. Analysts say southern Lebanon could remain a battlefield and a bargaining chip in regional negotiations despite a preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA
BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 19 (UPI) — The Iran war may be over, but southern Lebanon is likely to remain a battlefield and a bargaining chip in regional negotiations, despite Lebanon’s inclusion in the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States — a provision Israel rejected to preserve its freedom of action against Hezbollah, analysts said.
Violence in southern Lebanon subsided after the United States and Iran announced a 14-point preliminary agreement to end hostilities, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and begin nuclear talks under a 60-day extended ceasefire.
The MOU was signed remotely on Wednesday by U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, two days ahead of a formal signing ceremony scheduled to take place in Switzerland.
Rather than a cessation of hostilities, southern Lebanon witnessed a sharp escalation in fighting, with Israel intensifying its airstrikes and Hezbollah targeting Israeli forces seeking to seize the strategic Ali Taher hill in the Nabatiyeh district. Both sides traded accusations of violating the ceasefire established under the MOU.
The overnight exchange left 47 people dead, including women and children, and 97 others wounded in Israeli strikes on several areas of Lebanon, including Nabatiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley. Four Israeli soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, were also killed by Hezbollah fire.
Israeli airstrikes continued beyond a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, brokered by the United States and Qatar with Iranian assistance, and set to take effect at 4 p.m. Friday.
It remains to be seen how long this new truce will last, as is the case with the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, given ambiguities in the MOU and differing interpretations of its clauses.
Israel, which rejected Trump’s “betrayal” and the agreement with Iran, is seeking to change the arrangement by force in order to preserve its freedom of action against Hezbollah threats in southern Lebanon. It also seeks to maintain control of a security zone in southern Lebanon and is not willing to withdraw its forces unless its northern region is secured and safe.
Riad Tabbarah, Lebanon’s former ambassador in Washington, said Israel believes it has the right, as it usually does, to modify the agreement on the ground after “accepting it on paper, so as not to annoy Trump.”
“This is exactly what they did last time, and what they do every time,” Tabbarah told UPI. “Today, they are doing the same.”
He was referring to the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States and France to halt the war that began when Hezbollah opened a support front for Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023.
Despite the truce, Israel continued to carry out strikes against Hezbollah, which refrained from retaliation for 15 months as it sought to reorganize its ranks before resuming fighting on March 2 in support of Iran.
The March escalation increased the human and material toll in Lebanon after Israel applied what was described as a “scorched earth” policy to empty border areas of residents and render them uninhabitable.
More than 3,980 people have been killed and 12,001 injured in the past 109 days, with 1.2 million displaced under Israeli evacuation orders. Large areas were devastated, including the complete destruction of 70 villages and heavy damage to infrastructure.
It would be “pure imagination and illogical” to think that Israel would easily withdraw and relinquish the security zone it is building in southern Lebanon, intended to prevent anyone from crossing its border and carrying out kidnappings like Hamas did from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Tabbarah.
What could stop the frustrated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from sabotaging Trump’s efforts to finalize a lasting peace deal with Iran and continuing his military campaign in Lebanon?
The tension between Trump and his administration on one side, and Netanyahu and his government officials on the other, over the Iran deal “is growing, and we need to wait and see how it will develop,” said Lebanese former foreign minister Fares Boueiz.
As for Iran, Boueiz noted that as long as it believes it is benefiting from the deal with Trump, it “won’t do anything to jeopardize the understanding.”
“It is clear that the U.S.-Iran war is over, with no winner and no loser and no complete victory for anyone,” he told UPI. “The next 60 days will determine whether a final agreement is reached and whether Netanyahu will be able to obstruct it.”
The fear that Lebanon remains an open battlefield and a bargaining chip has grown, despite Iran’s pledge to Hezbollah that it will not proceed with the MOU talks if Israel fails to observe a full ceasefire in Lebanon and withdraw from the southern region.
Lebanese retired Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Chehaitli argued that the war in south Lebanon was “an Iran-Israel war sponsored by the U.S.”
“Now that Iran has reconciled with the U.S., signed an agreement, and is negotiating, the battle is over for them,” Chehaitli said in an interview with UPI. “This means that Lebanon should work toward a solution with Hezbollah and engage in serious negotiations to secure Israel’s withdrawal and end any illegitimate armed presence.”
Lebanon, which opted for U.S.-mediated direct talks with Israel to end the war despite Hezbollah’s objections, is preparing for another round of diplomatic talks with Israel scheduled to take place in Washington next week.
While Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem has set new terms for the talks, saying they should be limited to “mutual security,” Israel is insisting on disarming the Iran-backed group and keeping it away from its borders.
Hezbollah has also been pushing to drop the Lebanon-Israel direct negotiations in favor of the U.S.-Iran track.
“Hezbollah can say whatever it wants, but Lebanon should negotiate on its own,” Chehaitli said, adding that the militant group “is concerned about the day after, seeking security guarantees or immunity.”
Lebanon has no option but to negotiate its way out of the war, but the process will be long, and southern Lebanon will remain under Israeli fire and a bargaining chip in Iran’s hands until a final deal with Washington is reached, according to some analysts.
Tabbarah argued that Israel did not go through all this war only to back down, while Iran seeks a high price in return for Hezbollah and its other regional armed proxies.
“I don’t think Iran will go to war again. It will find a formula to save face for its armed militias,” he said, adding that the U.S., on its part, will have to restrain Israel and force Netanyahu to accept a full ceasefire in Lebanon.
He explained that a decision by Trump to stop U.S. military assistance to Israel, or “anything of the sort,” would be a serious step.
Tabbarah, however, warned that the solution “is not for tomorrow unless Israel drops its dream of establishing Greater Israel.”
Minutes after a new ceasefire had come into force between Israel and Hezbollah, explosions were seen in southern Lebanon
Source link
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has signed a US-Iran memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war between the two countries. US President Donald Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian signed on Wednesday.
Published On 18 Jun 202618 Jun 2026
Share
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure after he was cut out of the US-Iran agreement. Crucially, the Memorandum of Understanding includes Israel’s war on Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explains.
Published On 18 Jun 202618 Jun 2026
Share
Supporters of Hezbollah hang a banner depicting portraits of late Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah (R) and Hashem Safieddine in a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike, during the first day of Ashura in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday. Israel and Lebanon have been trading strikes for several days. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA
June 17 (UPI) — Israel carried out strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday as leaders prepared to sign the Iran-United States cease-fire Friday.
President Donald Trump criticized the attacks at a press conference Wednesday at the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France.
Israel and Hezbollah have attacked each other since their own cease-fire agreement was signed Sunday.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Israeli military would stay in Lebanon “for as long as necessary,” the BBC reported.
On Tuesday, Lebanese media reported that four people were killed in Israeli attacks, and Iran warned Israel that it would deliver a “harsh response” if it didn’t end its “malice” in Lebanon.
Naim Qasem, leader of Hezbollah, said in a televised statement on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran was a “great victory.” He urged Lebanon to focus on restoring sovereignty with the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he would work for an “independent path” when negotiating with Israel, but said he is “in favor of a cease-fire and welcome the support of any country that helps us, including Iran,” the BBC reported.
There has been a dip in violence since the MOU was announced, but attacks have not stopped, Al Jazeera reported.
Reporters on the ground reported that Israeli forces carried out an airstrike near Kfar Tebnit in the Nabatieh district. They also launched raids on the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa and shelled the Ali al-Taher heights and the outskirts of the town.
Hezbollah launched at least 10 rockets toward Israeli forces near Kfar Tebnit. The Israeli army said an explosive Hezbollah drone detonated near its troops in southern Lebanon, wounding four of them, Al Jazeera said.
The Israeli army said that minutes later, another drone exploded and injured one more soldier.
On Tuesday, Israeli attacks killed at least four in Nabatieh, including in drone strikes on several vehicles, Al Jazeera said.
Trump’s remarks in France show his frustration with Netanyahu’s unwillingness to stop fighting.
“I think they could do better with respect to Hezbollah. I am not saying they should not protect themselves. I am saying when two drones are shot into the desert and dropped harmlessly, you do not have to knock down buildings in Beirut,” Trump said. “They could behave better and, frankly, they could do a better job.”
Governments across the world have welcomed the tentative deal between the US and Iran to end the war, calling it a major diplomatic breakthrough. But Israeli politicians have been quick to criticise it, claiming it would undermine Israel’s security.
Published On 15 Jun 202615 Jun 2026
Share
People stand near the site of an apartment targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA
June 14 (UPI) — The Israeli military launched an attack on Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday, accusing the group of violating a cease-fire agreement earlier in the day and throwing an Iranian peace deal into question.
The Israeli strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, specifically in Dahiyeh, a neighborhood where Hezbollah holds sway, The New York Times reported.
Lebanon‘s state-run news agency, NNA, reported that two people died and four others sustained injuries in the attack. A strike hit a residential building, the agency said, as reported by NBC News.
Lebanese security sources told NBC News that Israel fired two missiles in a targeted strike. Israel said it hit a Hezbollah command center used to “advance terrorist attacks against the citizens of the state of Israel and [Israel Defense Force] soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.”
Hours before the strike, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of violating a cease-fire by firing toward Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement confirming they ordered the strike.
“Israel will not tolerate fire into its territory,” they said.
Sunday’s violence between Israel and Lebanon could complicate U.S. and Iranian negotiations for a peace deal. The United States and Pakistan — which has acted as a mediator — said Saturday the agreement was ready to be signed Sunday in an additional round of talks, but Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said there were no plans for Iran’s negotiators to be involved in any talks for the next few days.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and chief negotiator with the United States, accused Washington of “giving the green light” to Israel for its attack on Dahiyeh.
“The game of bad cop and good cop is outdated,” he said in a post on X.
“If you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible.”
President Donald Trump was apparently incensed about Sunday’s attack and issued a rare rebuke against Netanyahu — saying he has “no [expletive] judgment” — in comments to Axios.
Trump called on Israel and Hezbollah to stand down in a post on Truth Social.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” he wrote. “Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.
“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!”
Four-year-old Malika was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack that killed her mother while she shielded her from falling debris. Now, with support from her family and the Ghassan Abu Sitta Children’s Fund, she is recovering from her injuries. Her story reflects the lasting impact of war on children in Lebanon.
Published On 10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026
Share
The aftermath of an earlier Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese port of Tyre in May. On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces ordered residents, including for the first time those in Christian neighborhoods, to evacuate well to the north of the city for their safety as it prepared to target Hezbollah “elements, facilities and combat means.” File photo by Stringer/EPA
June 9 (UPI) — The Israel Defense Forces ordered residents of the Lebanese city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter and more than 10 refugee camps, to evacuate Tuesday, pending Israeli military action against targets of Iran-proxy Hezbollah.
IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X that “out of concern for your safety,” residents should leave their homes immediately and move some 20 miles north beyond the Zahrani River and warned that anyone remaining south of the river was putting their life at risk.
“Your presence near Hezbollah elements or their facilities or combat means endangers your lives. As we warned in the past days, following Hezbollah elements’ actions inside the Christian Quarter in the city, the Israel Defense Forces will be compelled to act against their terrorist activities in the quarter in the near term,” said Adraee.
“Any building used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting. To ensure your safety — evacuate your homes immediately and move north beyond the Zahrani River. Attention — any movement south of the Zahrani River may endanger your lives,” he added.
The development came a day after Israel and Iran backed away from direct confrontation that flared up at the weekend over an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut that prompted Tehran to fire as many as 30 missiles at Israel with Israel striking back against military targets in central and western Iran.
In standing down its military, Tehran warned that in the event Israel continued its attacks in Lebanon, including in the south, “much more severe and crushing measures will be on the way.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X Monday evening that Israel had only halted hostilities because “after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it ceased attacking us” and threatened to “respond with overwhelming force” if Iran made the mistake of attacking Israel again.
Netanyahu said that by firing into Israel over the past day, Iran and Hezbollah had attempted “to impose a new equation upon” where they believed they could fire at Israel from Lebanese territory and from Iran and Israel would not react.
“That did not happen, and it will not happen. Not on my watch! It is an equation I find intolerable and unacceptable,” wrote Netanyahu.
The sides halted their respective military strikes at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump who urged them to “stop shooting” because a deal ending the 100-day-long U.S.-Iran conflict was imminent.
Speaking on the tarmac at JFK Airport in New York on Monday night, Trump said the United States and Iran were very close to “a very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons.”
“And the [Hormuz] Strait will open up right away — they’ll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days,” said Trump.
He said he didn’t believe there were any sticking points.
Trump said the alternative was to return to bombing Iran but that would be counterproductive because it would mean the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed for many months and the needless deaths of many more people.
“Who wants to do that? I don’t. And we’ll have a signed document that’s actually stronger than doing the bombing,” he said.
United States President Donald Trump has warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he might find himself fighting on his own if Israel returns to war with Iran.
The warning on Monday came as Israel and Iran said they would pause attacks following their most serious escalation since a ceasefire took effect in April.
list of 3 itemsend of list
Trump, who has reportedly grown increasingly exasperated with Netanyahu, demanded that both sides stop “shooting” in a post on his Truth Social platform and said that “final negotiations” towards peace would proceed “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way”.
He also called Netanyahu and told him to stop the strikes, according to media reports.
In an interview with Axios, Trump said he had warned Netanyahu about the consequences of continuing the war.
“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’,” Trump said.
The flare-up began on Sunday, triggered by Israel’s deadly bombardment of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Iran – which has long said any peace deal with the US depends in part on an end to the fighting in Lebanon – responded with a wave of missiles at northern Israel.
Trump reportedly called Netanyahu on Sunday evening and asked him not to retaliate, but Israel launched attacks on Iran early on Monday.
Israeli forces struck Iranian air defence systems and a petrochemical plant, while Iran retaliated by hitting a similar facility in Haifa and targeting two Israeli airbases. Many of the missiles were intercepted over the occupied West Bank.
No deaths were reported on either side.
The exchanges complicated Trump’s push to end a war that the US and Israel launched on February 28. A ceasefire announced on April 8 paused all-out warfare. But flare-ups in the Gulf have continued.
For his part, Netanyahu said in a televised statement that he had told Trump that “Israel has a full right to self-defence, and we are exercising it as required”.
“Right now, the fire at the front is contained, because after we hit the terrorist regime in Tehran, it stopped attacking us,” he said.
Netanyahu also warned that should Iran “make the mistake of resuming attacks against us, we will respond with full force”.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, downplayed reports of tension between the US and Israeli leaders, telling Fox News that “sometimes, lovers have a spat”.
He said that while Netanyahu had “decided” to “lower the temperature” at Trump’s request, the US president understands “full well” that Israel cannot “absorb ballistic missiles into our country without responding.”
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, blamed Washington for the escalation.
“The US is directly responsible,” he said. “They are party to the ceasefire negotiations. Therefore, any act in violation of the ceasefire, be it through the interception of vessels [in the Strait of Hormuz], the targeting of southern Lebanon by Israel, or any other event, will cause the United States to be directly responsible for the escalation in the region.”
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said the operation against Israel, dubbed “Nasr” or victory, showcased “a new level of deterrence from mighty Iran” and that Israel had been “forced to beg once again” for a ceasefire.
Behind the scenes, diplomatic efforts continue.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that Tehran was still “at the negotiating table”, while Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said that Washington and Tehran, through Pakistan as an intermediary, are “presenting and exchanging views” towards an agreement.
Iravani told The Associated Press news agency he was hopeful that “very soon” the two sides would reach “a conclusion”.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said efforts for a peaceful diplomatic solution was ongoing “earnestly and painstakingly” and called for restraint, “especially when the final objective is just about to be achieved”.
He also said Israel and Iran’s exchange of fire was a “reminder of the dangers associated with a tenuous ceasefire and the unbearable consequences it may lead to”.
The escalation on Monday also drew in Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The group fired missiles at Israel early in the morning and declared a complete ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, warning that all Israeli movements would be considered “legitimate military targets”.
Later on Monday, air raid sirens sounded in the Israeli port city of Eilat, with the military saying a suspected aerial target was launched from Yemen.
Violence has also continued in southern Lebanon.
An Israeli strike killed five people in the city of Tyre, while another, in the Nabatieh district, left seven dead. A third strike in Marwanieh killed two people, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, said Trump was trying to give an impression that he was tougher on Israel than he actually is.
“The words could be significant if they were matched by actions,” she told Al Jazeera.
“As long as they’re sending billions of dollars directly to the Israeli military, and as long as they’re protecting Israel from being held accountable in the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court, as long as those actions don’t change, the words just don’t mean very much,” she added.
Residents in Tel Aviv voiced mixed reactions after Israel and Iran said they would halt strikes following a day of missile exchanges. While some wanted a stronger response against Iran, others said Israelis were ‘losing’, citing disruptions to daily life, schools and tourism.
Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026
Share
EXPLAINER
Tensions have escalated between Iran and Israel while ongoing diplomatic efforts have failed to yield a lasting peace deal.
Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026
Iran and Israel were on Monday locked in tit-for-tat missile attacks, as the fragile ceasefire that has held in place since April 8 appeared closer to collapse than at any point in the past seven weeks.
These escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel come as the United States-Israel war on Iran enters its 101st day on Monday.
Here is what is happening:
1 of 2 | A woman holds a photo depicting late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as people gather during a rally following Iran’s attack on Israel in Tehran on Sunday. The Israeli military confirmed it struck “military targets” in western and central Iran early Monday local time. Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
June 7 (UPI) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed it struck military targets in western and central Iran on Monday in retaliation for a wave of airstrikes launched against the Jewish state by Tehran hours earlier.
“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran. Details to follow,” the IDF said in a post on Telegram as a fragile cease-fire in the Iran War continued to unravel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, confirmed the attack, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.
“The Zionist enemy has attacked targets on our country’s soil using air-launched ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said.
Official Iranian media also said residents in neighboring Iraq heard explosions in parts in the capital Baghdad while unidentified objects were seen over the Iraqi city and in Beirut.
The strikes against Iran came just hours after the Islamic regime lobbed missiles into northern Israel for the first time since the beginning of the cease-fire, which came into effect on April 8.
Tehran said those strikes were in response to Israeli bombings targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Iranian missiles, which the IDF said had been intercepted, were the first direct attack on Israel since the cease-fire.
The attacks follow an announcement on Sunday that Israel had launched strikes at alleged Hezbollah targets in Beirut — attacks which it has continued throughout the cease-fire — and some of which have been in suburban neighborhoods.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who reportedly has been briefed on Iran’s actions, told Iran “that’s enough, get back to the table” for peace negotiations, Fox News reported.
“The Israeli army must stop its attacks on southern Lebanon and the suburbs, and if it expands its attacks to that region or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more devastating and regrettable blows,” General Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya command, said in a statement.
Trump has reportedly also told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back after the Iranian strikes, which Netanyahu agreed to on the condition that Hezbollah — which is funded by the Iranian regime — not launch strikes into northern Israel from Lebanon.
The United States and Iran have been negotiating an end the war for more than a month, as a cease-fire has mostly held but the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, preventing the shipment of oil and other products from the Middle East.
Hawkish voices in Israel have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of holding back on bombing Beirut, to appease the Trump Administration and ensure his own political survival. Nida Ibrahim explains.
Published On 3 Jun 20263 Jun 2026
Share
In January 2024, the publication Axios reported that the United States president at the time, Joe Biden, was “running out of patience” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had been raging for months by that point, and Biden was facing public backlash over US support for the conflict.
list of 3 itemsend of list
The assault would continue for the rest of Biden’s term and bleed into the first 10 months of Donald Trump‘s second presidency.
Since then, media outlets have continued to publish anonymous accounts of rifts and “frustrating” calls between Trump and the Israeli prime minister. But US support for its Middle East ally has never wavered.
Another anonymously sourced report about a furious, expletive-laden call between US and Israeli leaders came out this week, and it spread rapidly across international media.
Axios reported on Monday that Trump called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” and berated him over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon.
Around the same time, an Israeli attack killed six people, including two children, in the southern Lebanese town of al-Marwaniyah.
Experts say that despite leaks of feuds and harsh words between US leaders and Netanyahu, policies are ultimately what matters, and they have changed very little.
Ryan Costello, the policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action (NIAC), said political observers have grown to “mock” reports of closed-door anger from US presidents against Netanyahu.
“What’s really important is what actually happens in practice,” Costello told Al Jazeera.
Though there are reports of Trump giving Netanyahu a dressing-down, Isabelle Hayslip, an advocacy manager at the US-based rights group DAWN, said that US policy remains aligned with Israeli interests.
“Single-source reporting of Trump as a strongman who picks up the phone and yells at Netanyahu for undermining US policy is contradicted by the actual policy outcomes where Netanyahu gets exactly what he wants,” Hayslip told Al Jazeera.
“Trump has no final say over Israeli actions. Like his predecessors, the president has proved completely unable to prioritise American interests, instead catering to Israel’s expansionist whims.”
The latest report comes as Trump faces increasing pressure from his Democratic rivals and segments of his base over his handling of the war on Iran, which he launched jointly with Netanyahu on February 28.
The conflict, which saw Iran close the Strait of Hormuz, has sent gasoline prices soaring in the US and fuelled inflation.
Critics have accused Trump of allowing Israel to drag the US into a war that does not advance Washington’s priorities.
With negotiations to end the war stagnating, Israel’s escalation in Lebanon and its threat to bomb Beirut risks derailing the fragile truce that came into effect in April.
Iranian officials have suggested that they cut off contact with the US over the Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Before the Axios report, Trump announced he had spoken to Netanyahu and an unidentified Hezbollah representative, and both sides agreed that “all shooting will stop”.
But Netanyahu was quick to assert that the Israeli military “will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon”, where it is deepening its invasion and turning entire towns into rubble.
Advocates say Israeli atrocities in Lebanon and across the region could not have happened without US backing.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the US has provided Israel with nearly $25bn in military aid, helped fend off retaliatory Iranian attacks against the country and vetoed several ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council.
Nonetheless, anonymous accounts that the US president is angry at Netanyahu have become a regular feature in the media.
Such reports are attributed to US officials, but it is unclear how leaks with a similar message on the same topic have continued across two administrations from different political parties.
Publicly, aides of both Biden and Trump have largely refrained from criticising Israel.
Trump has regularly praised the Israeli prime minister, arguing on more than one occasion that Israel would have ceased to exist without Netanyahu’s leadership.
In December, the US president also called the Israeli prime minister a “hero” during a meeting in Florida.
“We’re with you, and we’ll continue to be with you,” Trump told Netanyahu.
Two weeks earlier, Axios reported that the White House had “scolded” Netanyahu over Israel’s ceasefire violations in Gaza.
“The White House message to Netanyahu was: ‘If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza,” the publication quoted a US official as saying.
Few people know the exact content of high-level calls at the White House. Sometimes, top officials, including members of the National Security Council, sit in on conversations between the president and world leaders after briefings.
Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a research nonprofit, said the leak about the tense call between Trump and Netanyahu may be aimed at making Trump look tough on Israel to quell outrage over the war.
“It could be sort of a way of moderating the anger or the blame at the US for continuing this unpopular, illegal, unnecessary war,” Mortazavi told Al Jazeera.
She added that the message it sends is, “Look, we’re very angry at Israel. We yell at them. We call them names.”
But Mortazavi stressed that policy is more important than rhetoric: “Does that change the facts on the ground?”
For his part, Costello argued that the leak was likely directed at Iran.
“I see this one primarily as a signal to the Iranians that Trump is serious, and he wants to insulate what’s happening in Lebanon and Israel’s attacks from the Iran negotiations,” Costello said.
“It remains to be seen the extent to which that excoriation has actually led to a change in Israel’s policies, and I think there is a strong incentive for continued defiance from Netanyahu.”
Axios, meanwhile, has defended its coverage.
“We stand by our reporting, which by the way noted ‘Trump and Netanyahu have had several tense calls in the past but have still coordinated closely on Iran and other issues,’” Jake Wilkins, a spokesperson for the publication, told Al Jazeera in an email.
Mortazavi warned that all sides of the war on Iran are trying to influence public perceptions of the conflict.
She pointed to recent reports that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had resigned, a rumour that was promptly denied by his office.
“This is a very hybrid war. It’s a war on the battlefield. It’s an intelligence war. It’s a war of narratives,” Mortazavi told Al Jazeera. “And then there’s also an information war, which includes disinformation, half-truths and strategic leaks.”
A provision in a bill before the United States Congress could tie the American and Israeli militaries far more closely together, deepening their cooperation on weapons research, production and technology.
The proposal, titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” appears as Section 224 of the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual US defence policy bill.
list of 2 itemsend of list
The measure is still at an early stage. The NDAA is passed by Congress each year to set US military policy and authorise defence programmes and spending levels.
If enacted, the provision could mark a major change in one of the world’s closest military relationships, shifting the two countries from a partnership centred largely on American military aid towards one in which their defence industries are more deeply intertwined.
Section 224 would require the US defence secretary to appoint an “executive agent”: a single official to coordinate military cooperation between the US and Israel.
That work would cover joint research and development, the shared production of weapons, and the linking of military systems and data.
“What Congress is trying to do now is find different ways of entrenching the relationship so deep in America’s own defence industrial base that it’s impossible to root it out,” Josh Paul, a former US State Department official and founder of the advocacy group A New Policy, said about the controversial provision.
“A new section of law in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would give Israel unprecedented access to American technology and would force the United States military to integrate Israeli defence technologies into our own critical military supply chain, giving Israel incredible leverage over America’s own defence priorities,” he added in a video posted on social media on Friday.
The two countries already build missile defence systems together, such as the Iron Dome.
The bill would extend their joint work into many more areas of modern warfare, from artificial intelligence (AI) to drones and cyber operations.
The provision comes amid turmoil in the Middle East following the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year.
In February, US and Israeli forces attacked Iran together, triggering five weeks of war; Iran struck back at Israel and at US bases in the Gulf before a ceasefire took hold in April.
Israel is also facing genocide allegations in a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, over its war on Gaza.
The bill must first clear the House Armed Services Committee, which is due to take it up in early June, and then pass the full House and the Senate.
It was proposed by the committee’s Republican chairman, Mike Rogers, and its most senior Democrat, Adam Smith, giving it support from both main parties, even as opinion polls suggest growing opposition among American Democrats and some Republicans to further military support for Israel.
The US has supported Israel’s military for decades.
Since 2008, US law has required Washington to protect Israel’s “qualitative military edge”, keeping its forces stronger and more advanced than those of any rival in the region, on the grounds that a small country must rely on better weapons rather than greater numbers.
Under the current aid deal signed during the administration of former President Barack Obama, Washington provides Israel with about $3.8bn a year in military assistance. The 10-year agreement runs through 2028.
Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid since 1948, almost all of it now military and worth well over $300bn when adjusted for inflation.
The nature of that support may now be changing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently that he wants to end Israel’s reliance on US military aid within 10 years, saying his country had “come of age”.
Closer cooperation between the two defence industries, rather than cash, would likely fit that goal.
Egypt races to salvage Gaza ceasefire as Israeli attacks and displacement threats push deal to the brink of collapse.
Published On 30 May 202630 May 2026
Egypt has launched an urgent diplomatic intervention to rescue a fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement that is on the brink of collapse.
The government warned Israel against expanding its occupation in Gaza, which would undermine efforts to end the war amid of wave of deadly air strikes.
list of 3 itemsend of list
According to an Egyptian intelligence official who spoke to Al Jazeera, Egypt has also invited a senior Hamas delegation, led by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, for urgent talks to salvage the peace process.
The source described contacts between the parties as intense, saying Cairo was racing to arrange negotiations before the end of the week in order to prevent all-out war in Gaza.
The diplomatic moves come in the wake of renewed Israeli military attacks on Gaza and statements from top Israeli officials that threaten to unravel months of diplomacy.
At least 141 Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks in an intensification of Israeli attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday issued a directive ordering the military to expand the area under its control from 53% to 70%.
This fundamentally violates the US-brokered comprehensive peace plan signed in October 2025 under the Trump administration, mediators say.
Compounding the crisis, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz also triggered regional outrage by publicly reviving a blueprint for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of the enclave.
Speaking during an announcement confirming the assassination of Hamas’s newly appointed military chief, Mohammed Odeh, Katz asserted that the forced displacement scheme would be implemented “at the right time and in the right manner”.
Cairo sent a warning to the Israeli government, rejecting any measures designed to push Gaza’s residents towards voluntary emigration or direct Palestinians towards the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Egypt has been coordinating with mediators in Qatar and Turkiye, as well as US officials, to return the process to a negotiating track, including revisions to the addendum of the original Gaza peace plan, designed to reduce violence.
The source said Egypt and its fellow mediators were aware that Netanyahu’s recent statements on expanding Israel’s occupation of Gaza, as well as attacks that killed Hamas military figures Izz al-Din al-Haddad and Mohammed Odeh, were driven by electoral calculations and compounded by difficulties Netanyahu faces in Lebanon.
Egypt has contacted United States officials to ask President Donald Trump to urgently restrain Netanyahu, given the recent Israeli escalations in Gaza, the source said.
A senior Hamas official abroad told Al Jazeera that Hamas had received Egyptian communications aimed at containing the escalation and preventing talks from collapsing, suggesting a meeting in Cairo was expected within days.
Hamas said the ceasefire was on the brink of collapse due to repeated Israeli violations, and called on the US and guarantor countries to take “serious and urgent” steps to compel Israel to honour its commitments.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October to end two years of fighting, which had seen more than 72,000 Palestinians killed and the vast majority of Gaza’s population made homeless.
Despite a ceasefire still being in place, at least 929 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October.
Israel pushes deeper into Lebanon just days after Israel's prime minister ordered 70 percent of Gaza to be occupied.
Source link
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had crossed the Litani River in southern Lebanon and were operating in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley, in what he described as a “tactical victory”. This comes after Netanyahu said he ordered the Israeli military to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip.
Published On 29 May 202629 May 2026
Share
US President Donald Trump posted online that he’s heading into the Situation Room at the White House to make a “final determination” on potentially finalising a peace deal with Iran. Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reports from the White House.
Published On 29 May 202629 May 2026
Share
After two years of relentless bombardment and ground invasions, Israel’s future in Gaza had appeared to be settled with the signing of United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan on October 9, 2025.
Under the terms of that agreement, Israeli forces were meant to withdraw behind what planners called the “Yellow Line”, maintaining control of 58 percent of the territory, with their full withdrawal to be set at a date to be determined.
list of 4 itemsend of list
That withdrawal hasn’t happened. In fact, in the months since, as well as killing at least 922 people in near-daily strikes on the enclave during the “ceasefire”, Israel has expanded its territory by about 11 percent.
According to satellite data gathered in March, it has also established at least 32 military outposts, a ground barrier and infrastructure along what was supposed to be a temporary line.
Since October last year, numerous humanitarian agencies, including Oxfam, have accused Israel of compounding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by restricting deliveries of aid and other essential goods.
Then, on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel will take over yet more territory in Gaza, telling a conference: “We are currently squeezing Hamas; we now control 60 percent of the territory of the Strip – you know this. We were at 50. My directive is to move to …,” he said, pausing briefly as someone in the crowd yelled, “100!”
“Let’s go step by step,” he responded, “First of all, 70. Let’s start with that. We’re pressing them from all sides, we’ll deal with the remnants.”
Al Jazeera contacted the Israeli prime minister’s office for clarification of this, but received no response by the time of publishing.
“If Israel’s ultimate plan is to exercise permanent effective control over the entirety of the Gaza Strip, we are talking about unlawful annexation,” Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin, told Al Jazeera.
“As the International Court of Justice reaffirmed in a 2024 advisory opinion, annexation constitutes a violation of the bedrock prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force.”
Nevertheless, to date, since the onset of its war on Gaza in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 72,819 men, women and children in Gaza, with many thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble.
By 2025, Israel had caused a confirmed famine in the enclave and has now decimated nearly all infrastructure needed to support life. It has done all this without experiencing any meaningful international sanctions and still takes part in numerous international sporting and entertainment competitions – despite protests.
Hopes that the US might enforce its own conditions on Israel also appear ill-founded. Since announcing a ceasefire in the enclave in October last year, the US has failed to react as Israel has expanded and entrenched its presence in Gaza, choking off access to about two-thirds of the enclave for its inhabitants by April 2026.
Al Jazeera also contacted the US State Department for comment about this, but received no response by the time of publishing.
It’s very hard to tell. Several agencies, including the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), have expressed deep concern about how Gaza’s remaining population can continue to subsist in an ever-shrinking space.
Israel’s answer to this is simple. “The plan for voluntary emigration from Gaza will also be implemented, all at the proper time and in the proper manner,” Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote in a statement marking the killing of Hamas leader Mohammed Odeh on Wednesday this week.
“Voluntary emigration” is a term used by a number of Israel’s government ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Observers typically acknowledge that this means the ethnic cleansing of the enclave.
Israel’s Ministry of Defence did not respond to questions about this from Al Jazeera.
No.
“The idea of permanently removing Palestinians from Gaza smacks of forced displacement and would also violate the fundamental right to self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Becker said. The principle of self-determination serves as a “cornerstone” of the UN Charter, he said.
However, Becker said, the spotlight of international attention has now shifted from the crisis in Gaza to the US and Israel’s war on Iran, as well as Israel’s actions in Lebanon, where it has occupied large swaths of the south of the country.
“While the Trump administration may be willing to diverge from Israel’s interests in seeking a resolution to the disastrous and illegal war that the United States started against Iran, the United States seems to have lost interest in Gaza or pushing for restraint on the part of Netanyahu’s government. It is unclear what role the so-called Board of Peace is willing to play in terms of maintaining a future for the Palestinians of Gaza,” he said.