Lebanon

Over 2,000 killed in Lebanon during Israeli strikes on Hezbollah: Officials

The death toll in Lebanon from Israeli strikes in the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah has risen to 2,020, the Lebanese health ministry said Saturday. The death toll from nearly six weeks of war includes 248 women,165 children and 85 health workers, the ministry said. Another 6,436 people have been wounded. Nearly 100 people were killed in the past 24 hours. The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired missiles into Israel on March 2 in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. A tentative truce is now in place in Iran, but the US and Israel say the agreement does not apply to Lebanon, while Tehran says it does. The question is likely to be one of the thornier points in the US-Iran ceasefire negotiations now underway in Pakistan.

US-Iran talks in Islamabad: Timing, venue, agenda; check key details here

Pakistan hosts US-Iran talks under tight security as a fragile ceasefire holds, with tensions over Lebanon, and Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz complicating efforts towards a lasting truce

Direct talks with Israel to start next Tuesday, says Lebanese president

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said that direct talks with Israel will start next Tuesday. The statement from Aoun's office comes after Lebanon and Israel's ambassadors to the US held a call with Washington's ambassador to Lebanon to discuss the terms of the negotiations, slated for next Tuesday in Washington, with the US State Department mediating. Beirut is keen to hold direct talks to end the ongoing war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, but under a ceasefire or truce similar to that of Washington's talks with Iran. Israel on Thursday announced that it authorised direct talks after Lebanon's request, but did not immediately issue a statement following the call. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the development, though it has opposed direct talks with Israel. During the past 40 days of war, more than 1,900 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes and more that 1 million others have been displaced, according to government figures.

MEA says deeply concerned by reports of civilian casualties in Lebanon

Israel invaded Lebanon last month in pursuit of Hezbollah after the group fired into Israel in support of Iran, as the US-Israel war on Iran raged

US-Iran set for talks as Netanyahu authorises negotiations with Lebanon

Negotiators from Iran and the United States prepared Friday for high-level talks planned to start a day later in Islamabad, seeking to steady a ceasefire teetering over Israel and Hezbollah exchanging fire and Tehran's chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz. US Vice President JD Vance was set to take off from Washington, with Iran still remaining mum over its team as it tried to pressure Washington to halt Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, claimed that talks would "remain suspended" otherwise. Meanwhile, Kuwait said it faced a drone attack Thursday night that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard denied launching any assault, it has in the past carried out attacks across the Mideast it did not claim. In addition to talks in Iran, Israel-Lebanon negotiations are also expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington - a potential boost to .

West Asia war: Iran warns Israel on Lebanon attacks; Trump targets Hormuz

The fragile US-Iran ceasefire faces new pressure as Iran warns Israel over Hezbollah strikes in Lebanon, while Donald Trump says Tehran is doing a 'very poor job' of allowing oil through Hormuz

Netanyahu authorises talks with Lebanon in boost to ceasefire efforts

In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorised direct negotiations with Lebanon "as soon as possible" aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbours. The two countries have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Netanyahu later stressed that there was no ceasefire between them. In a video statement, he said Israel will keep striking Hezbollah until security is restored in northern Israel. There was no immediate response from Lebanese authorities. But Israel-Lebanon negotiations were expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a US official and a person familiar with the plans who both spoke on condition of anonymity. The prospect of talks appeared to bolster the tentative ceasefire in the Iran war that has staggered under the weight of Israel's bombardment of Beirut, Tehran's contin

Israel complicates Trump's push for peace with Iran amid Lebanon offensive

President Trump said he had asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to scale back Israel's military campaign in Lebanon

No ceasefire in Lebanon, continuing to strike Hezbollah, says Netanyahu

Netanyahu also said he has instructed the Cabinet to open direct negotiations with Lebanese government to achieve 'disarmament of Hezbollah' and 'historic peace agreement'

Israel seeks to begin peace talks with Lebanon soon, says Netanyahu

Netanyahu said he had directed the cabinet to begin direct peace talks with Lebanon, focusing on the disarming of Hezbollah and efforts to establish peaceful relations between the two countries

Iran warns of 'strong response' if Israel continues strikes on Hezbollah

Iran's parliament speaker warned Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon would bring "explicit costs and STRONG responses." Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf issued the warning in a message on X. He insisted, like other Iranian officials, the two-week ceasefire extended to Lebanon, something denied by both Israel and the U.S. "Ceasefire violations carry explicit and STRONG responses," he wrote. "Extinguish the fire immediately." Qalibaf has been discussed as a possible negotiator who could meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance this weekend in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

Israeli military says it has killed nephew of Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem

Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and hit towns across the south on Thursday morning, Lebanese state media said

West Asia war: Iran ties truce to Lebanon; Israel says strikes to continue

A two-week US-Iran ceasefire begins with talks set in Islamabad on Saturday, but the situation remains tense as Israel says its military operations in Lebanon will continue

Israel strikes Beirut after ceasefire, says Iran deal doesn't apply there

Lebanon's health ministry said dozens were killed and hundreds wounded in an early estimate

Israel to establish buffer zone in south Lebanon up to Litani River

Radwan forces are an elite military unit of Hezbollah.

India condemns attack that killed two UNIFIL peacekeepers in south Lebanon

According to a statement issued by UNIFIL, the incident occurred near Bani Hayyan in Southern Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of two peacekeepers, while a third one sustained severe injuries

Iran says its expelled ambassador won't leave Lebanon as tensions soar

Iran on Monday defied Lebanon's expulsion order for its ambassador by saying he would stay, further increasing tensions in a country in the crosshairs of the latest fighting between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel. Lebanon had declared Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani "persona non grata" in an effort to weaken Iran's diplomatic presence and have a charge d'affairs at its embassy instead. But the deadline to leave the country was Sunday. "Our embassy in Lebanon is active," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told journalists. "Our ambassador, following remarks made by relevant Lebanese bodies and the conclusions reached, will continue his mission in Beirut and he is still there." Lebanese officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear what Lebanon would might do next or how diplomatic relations might be affected. The Iranian ambassador is reportedly in the embassy, where he is believed to have diplomatic immunity. The Lebanese

Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills 3 journalists covering conflict

An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed three journalists who were covering the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, their TV stations said. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said that its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed Saturday in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said that it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative without providing evidence. Meanwhile, Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike in the southern district of Jezzine along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. She had just been on air with a live report from southern Lebanon before the strike. Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a "flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists." Al-Manar said in a report that an Israeli airstrike targeted journalists, leading to the "martyrdom of the icon of resistance media." A ..

Lebanon orders Iran's ambassador out, tensions rise over Tehran influence

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry declared Iran's ambassador to Beirut persona non grata Tuesday, ordering him to leave the country by the end of the week. The decision was the clearest sign yet of deteriorating relations between the two countries and raises tensions within Lebanon over the role of Tehran and its Lebanon-based ally, the militant Hezbollah group. The decision is the latest step taken by Lebanon's government against Iran after the most recent Israel-Hezbollah war broke out on March 2, during which Israel's military killed several members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard in strikes around the long-suffering country. Hezbollah triggered the latest war by firing rockets into Israel two days after Israel and the United States began their attacks on Iran, in which they killed top Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah said one of the reasons it attacked Israel was to avenge the killing of Khamenei, who was one of the most important Shiite Muslim religious

Israel strikes Hezbollah's civilian, military wings, kills 12 in Lebanon

An Israeli strike on a health center in southern Lebanon instantly killed 12 medical workers, seriously wounded one and left four missing under the rubble for hours. The March 13 strike in the village of Burj Qalaouiyah, one of the single deadliest strikes in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, targeted a center run by Hezbollah's health arm, the Islamic Health Society, which has so far lost 24 members over the past two weeks. Since the latest war began, Israel's military has not only been targeting the group's military assets but also its civilian institutions in an apparent attempt to weaken the Iran-backed group further and try to push its supporters away from it. Hezbollah is a political party as well as an armed group, and its health and social service institutions have helped strengthen its base of support over the years. In addition to health centers, Israel has destroyed more than a dozen branches of Hezbollah's financial arm, al-Qard al-Hasan. .