Three paramedics at health centre among dead, while Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in Gaza strike

Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire.

Israel also said it had killed the Hamas military chief, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, in a targeted strike in Gaza on Friday.

JERUSALEM, May 16 — Israel’s military called on residents of several buildings in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre to immediately evacuate ahead of planned strikes in the area yesterday.

“Urgent warning to residents of Lebanon, especially to residents of the city of Tyre... you are located near Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure against which the IDF is preparing to operate,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

“We urge you to immediately distance yourselves from these buildings and the surrounding structures, and move at least 300 metres away from them,” the post said, alongside a map identifying the sites. — AFP

Statement following ‘productive’ talks in Washington comes as Israel launches strikes on southern city of Tyre

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US state department has said.

It came after two “productive” days of talks, and more negotiations would be held from 2-3 June, the department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

You don't need a meteorite to end the lives of many people, nor a nuclear weapon to wipe out, more or less quickly, a city and a town

The 32.3m surpasses those caused by disasters for the first time, as 82.2m people displaced in total around world

The number of internal displacements triggered by conflict or violence around the world reached a record high in 2025, surpassing the number of disaster-driven internal displacements for the first time.

A report published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) shows that by the end of 2025 there were 32.3m conflict-driven internal displacements. That is 60% higher than those recorded the previous year, and – for the first time since data collection began in 2008 – above displacements driven by natural disasters, which reached 29.9m in 2025.

IDF says two soldiers will spend weeks in military prison over incident it said was viewed with great severity

Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in military prison for the desecration of a Christian object after one stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon and the other photographed it.

The photo of the soldier, a cigarette dangling from his own mouth, went viral and sparked widespread outrage. It was the latest act by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to be denounced as anti-Christian.

This blog is now closed. See full report: Trump calls Iran’s response to peace plan ‘totally unacceptable’ as ceasefire frays

Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, will visit Qatar later today for talks on the war, its impact on the region and efforts to ensure navigational safety in the strait of Hormuz is resumed, a Turkish diplomatic source told the Reuters news agency.

Turkey, which neighbours Iran, has been in close contact with the US, Iran and mediator Pakistan since the start of the conflict. It condemnded the US and Israel for launching the war, widely seen to have been done illegally, but also criticised Iran’s counter strikes on Gulf states.