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Lebanese authorities said two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the southern area of Al Kharaib, according to the National News Agency. Israeli warplanes also struck multiple towns across southern Lebanon, while an Israeli force backed by military vehicles and bulldozers advanced into the Marj area near Rmeish and deployed at a nearby junction. In a related development, Israeli forces warned residents in several towns to evacuate their homes. Source link
A private school in the heart of Beirut converted into a wartime shelter has become a flashpoint for social tensions brewing across Lebanon over the mass displacement caused by the war between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Since Israel invaded Lebanon in pursuit of Iran-backed fighters who fired across the border in March, the Hariri School has been shut to students and converted to a collective shelter, with more than 1,500 displaced people living in its classrooms and tents in the school courtyard.In early May, parents of pupils — who have been taking classes online — protested against the indefinite closure and calledfor their children to be able to return to class. In a statement to Reuters, a representative of the school administration said it sympathised with the displaced. “But just as we are sympathising with them, there are also rights for our students to be at their premises,” the statement said. The two-month war has displaced more than a million people in Lebanon. While most are staying with relatives or renting apartments, at least 124,000 arestaying in government-run collective shelters. The displaced mostly hail from Lebanon’s Shia Muslim community, from which Hezbollah draws most of its support. They have largely fled to areas predominantly inhabited by other sects, deepening sectarian tensions. The Rafic Hariri School is named after a former prime minister whose 2005 assassination triggered an era of instability in Lebanon. An international tribunal found members of Hezbollah responsible for his killing. This year, many of Hezbollah’s critics have blamed the group for pulling Lebanon into another war by firing on Israel in support of Iran. As internal divisions simmer, many Lebanese see echoes of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. The representative of the Rafic Hariri School said she was worried history would repeat itself. She said that during a 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, displaced people broke into the school and damaged it, leaving the administration to foot the bill without state support. She said displaced families again entered the school this year without administrators’ permission. Mohammed Hammoud, 40, who supervises displaced families in the school and was himself displaced from southern Lebanon, said the families had been handed the keys and did not force their way in. They would leave if the school administration formally asked them to, but the government should find them a new shelter, he added. Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed told Reuters in March the government was working on plans to cope with long-term displacement.For those staying at the school, returning home is not an option. Um Mahmoud’s apartment was badly damaged in Israeli strikes, rendering it uninhabitable. “Something might fall on me while I am in the house,” she said from the school’s kitchen. “We can’t fix it because the war is still on. We want to fix it and go back, but we can’t.” Volunteers helped the displaced families set up a kitchen to prepare thousands of meals daily, distributed both to the displaced and the surrounding community as a goodwill gesture.Despite a ceasefire agreed on April 16, fighting has continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops are occupying a strip of Lebanese land. Related Story Source link
The UAE said it was under attack from Iranian missiles and drones yesterday, which Iran categorically denied even as Washington insisted a four-week-old ceasefire remained intact. The Emirates’ foreign ministry called the attacks a serious escalation and a direct threat to its security, reserving its “full and legitimate right” to respond. The strikes followed a US naval push, dubbed “Project Freedom”, to escort stranded tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. The US military said it destroyed six Iranian small boats, cruise missiles and drones. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation was temporary and the truce held: “We’re not looking for a fight.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a new map expanding Tehran’s claimed control over the strait and warned vessels to stick to designated corridors or face a “decisive response”. (Reuters) Related Story Source link
Iran hit several ships in the Strait of Hormuz Monday and set a UAE oil port ablaze, as President Donald Trump’s attempt to use the US Navy to free up shipping provoked the war’s biggest escalation since a ceasefire was declared four weeks ago.Trump’s new mission “Project Freedom”, which he announced on social media overnight to release ships stuck in the strait, was the first apparent attempt to make use of naval power to unblock the world’s most important energy shipping route.But at least in the initial hours Monday, the gamble appeared to have backfired, bringing no surge of merchant shipping through the strait while provoking a show of force from Iran, which had long threatened to respond to any escalation with new attacks on its neighbours.The US military said two US merchant ships had made it through the strait, without saying when. Iran denied any such crossings had taken place.The commander of US forces in the region said his fleet had destroyed six small Iranian boats, which Iran also denied. Admiral Brad Cooper said he “strongly advised” Iranian forces to keep clear of US military assets carrying out the mission.Iranian authorities, for their part, released a map of what they said was an expanded sea area now under their control, which went far beyond the strait to include swathes of international waters, including long stretches of the United Arab Emirates’ coastline on either side of the strait.South Korea reported one of its merchant ships had been hit by an explosion and fire inside the strait. The British maritime security agency UKMTO reported two ships had been hit off the coast of the UAE, and the Emirati oil company ADNOC said one of its empty oil tankers was hit by Iranian drones while trying to cross.”Iran has taken some shots at unrelated Nations with respect to the Ship Movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean Cargo Ship. Perhaps it’s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!” Trump posted on social media Monday.After reported drone and missile attacks inside the UAE throughout the day, including one that caused a fire at an important oil port, the UAE said Iranian attacks marked a serious escalation and it reserved the right to respond.Trump has struggled to find a solution to the disruption of international energy supplies caused by Iran’s blockade of the strait, which carried a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.In the more than two months since Trump launched an air war against Iran alongside Israel, Tehran has largely blocked the strait to ships apart from its own. Since last month, the United States has imposed its own blockade of ships leaving and entering Iranian ports.The warring sides issued contradictory statements Monday about the initial impact of the new US mission, and Reuters could not independently verify the full situation there.But there was no immediate sign that large numbers of merchant ships were making new attempts to cross, and major shipping companies said they were likely to wait for an agreed end to hostilities before trying to sail through.In a post on X, US Central Command said some of its Navy guided-missile destroyers were inside the Gulf supporting the operation, and that two US-flagged merchant vessels had crossed the strait “and are safely headed on their journey”.It did not identify either the warships or the merchant vessels or say when any of those crossings had taken place.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said no commercial vessels had crossed the strait in the past few hours, and that US claims to the contrary were false.Earlier, Iran said it had fired on a US warship approaching the strait, forcing it to turn around. An initial Iranian report had said a US warship was struck, but Washington denied this and Iranian officials later described the fire as warning shots.South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said there was a fire and an explosion onboard the Namu, a merchant ship operated by South Korean shipper HMM. Yonhap news agency reported that the government was checking intelligence indicating the vessel may have been attacked.The UAE, meanwhile, reported a fire at an oil installation in its port of Fujairah following an Iranian drone attack. Fujairah lies beyond the strait, making it one of the few export routes for Middle East oil that does not require passing through it.Oil prices jumped more than 5% in volatile trade as news of the increased Iranian attacks emerged.In his social media post announcing the new mission, Trump gave few details of what action the US Navy would take to get ships through the strait.”We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump wrote.In response, Iran’s unified command told commercial ships and oil tankers:”We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces … We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive US Army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”The United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, and US and Iranian officials held one round of face-to-face talks. But attempts to set up further meetings have failed.Iranian state media said on Sunday that Washington had conveyed its response to a 14-point Iranian proposal via Pakistan, and that Tehran was now reviewing it. Neither side gave details of any US response.The Iranian proposal would postpone discussion of Iran’s nuclear programme until after an agreement to end the war and resolve the standoff over shipping. Trump said over the weekend he was still studying it but would probably reject it. Related Story Source link
Palestinian medical sources said that one person was killed and another seriously injured early Tuesday in an Israeli occupation airstrike targeting Gaza City.The sources said a Palestinian was killed and another critically wounded when an Israeli drone struck a group of people on Al Jalaa Street, north of Gaza City.Earlier, three Palestinians were killed and others were wounded in the occupation strikes on the central and northern parts of the Gaza Strip.The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has risen to 72,612 people, with 172,457 injured, since Oct. 7, 2023. Source link
TOPSHOT – Security personnel escort Brazilian activist Thiago Avila to a court in Ashkelon on May 3, 2026. Two foreign activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla who…
The UAE on Monday strongly condemned an Iranian drone attack on an ADNOC oil tanker in the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, as the US was due to start guiding ships through the waterway.Two drones hit the MV Barakah off the coast of Oman but no one was injured, according to ADNOC, the UAE state oil giant, adding that the ship was not loaded. “Targeting commercial shipping and using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion or blackmail represents acts of piracy by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry said.The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency earlier reported that projectiles struck a ship in the same area late on Sunday. The latest incident came as President Donald Trump said the US would start guiding ships through the vital waterway from Monday.The US and Iran remain deadlocked in peace negotiations since a ceasefire in the Middle East war came into effect on April 8. Iran has maintained a stranglehold on the strategic Strait of Hormuz, and the United States has put in place a naval blockade in return.US Central Command said it would use guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms and 15,000 service members to guide ships through the Hormuz strait. As of April 29, more than 900 commercial vessels were located in the Gulf, according to maritime intelligence firm AXSMarine. There had been more than 1,100 at the start of the conflict.Oil prices have rocketed since the closure of the strait, which normally carries one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, threatening widespread economic damage. Related Story Source link
Dubai airport’s passenger traffic plunged by two-thirds in March following Iran’s attacks on the United Arab Emirates during the Middle East war, the emirate’s media office said in a statement on Monday. Traveller numbers at Dubai International, usually the world’s busiest for international passenger traffic, sank to 2.5 million, down 66 percent year on year, Dubai Media Office said.The airport endured “a period of regional disruption that significantly constrained airspace capacity and flight schedules”, it said. “With airspace within the UAE now fully restored, Dubai Airports is moving decisively to scale up operations, increasing flight movements in line with available regional routing capacity.” Dubai International was targeted several times by drones as the oil-rich UAE bore the brunt of Iran’s retaliation for US-Israeli strikes.Quarterly traffic was down 21 percent to 18.6 million in the first quarter of 2026. Dubai International handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year, and had been expecting to receive 99.5 million this year. “The extraordinary events of the past few weeks are unprecedented for any major airport hub,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths was quoted as saying in the statemen Related Story Source link
A Lebanese military source said that the army has repositioned its forces across several sites in southern Lebanon, after previously evacuating them due to Israeli attacks. In an exclusive statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the source said that the army has redeployed in more than 15 positions south of the Litani River, including Al Qasimia, after it was forced to evacuate some of these sites due to security risks and the Israeli attacks. The truce between Lebanon and the Israeli entity, which began on April 16, is no longer in effect and has lost its effectiveness on the ground, except for the ceasefire in Beirut, amid the continued attacks on southern Lebanon at a pace resembling the days of the conflict, the source added. The source stressed that the priority of the Lebanese army is to protect civil peace and stability, as well as to support the people and stand by them under all circumstances – whether during their return to their villages and towns, or by assisting state institutions in providing basic services such as communications and electricity.He added in his statement to QNA that despite being forced to withdraw from some high-risk security areas in southern Lebanon-known as the “yellow line” – the Lebanese army has not abandoned its duties, noting its presence in a number of highly dangerous field missions, as well as its participation in search and rescue operations for victims in areas subjected to Israeli air strikes and shelling. — QNA Related Story Source link
Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Saidov to discuss a number of international and regional issues, foremost the recent treacherous Iranian attacks on GCC states.During the meeting, they reviewed the strategic relations between the GCC and Central Asian states, expressing their anticipation for the upcoming second joint summit. They also discussed GCC-Uzbekistan bilateral relations and ways to strengthen and consolidate them to accomplish desired objectives. Furthermore, they explored several economic proposals aimed at enhancing investment and economic cooperation between the two sides.At the conclusion of the meeting, both sides underlined the significance of intensifying joint efforts to enhance security and stability both regionally and globally. Source link