War, latest news. The truce is under threat: Iranian drones target US ships in the Strait of Hormuz, retaliatory air strikes. Tehran attacks Kuwait and Bahrain

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the framework agreement signed yesterday with Lebanon as “a historic achievement for Israel”, stating that it promotes progress towards ending the bilateral conflict and opens up the prospect of “a possible peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon”. Speaking at a press conference, Netanyahu stated that the agreement represents “a major blow” to Iran and Hezbollah and argued that it enshrines the consensus of the United States and Lebanon that Israel should maintain a security zone in Lebanon for as long as necessary to ensure Israeli security.

“We will continue to maintain it until Hezbollah and the other terrorist groups have been disarmed,” he said, referring to the current security zone, “until there is no longer any threat to Israel from Lebanon”. He added that Iran wanted to force Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon, but that he had opposed this demand, highlighting the harsh criticism levelled at the agreement by Tehran and Hezbollah. According to Netanyahu, with this agreement, Israel, Lebanon and the United States “are essentially telling Iran: ‘This is none of your business. You have no status, no involvement and no role. Neither you, nor Hezbollah, nor any terrorist group’”. He finally acknowledged that Israel will withdraw from two small areas currently under its control, as part of a pilot scheme, but, pointing to the areas on a map, he clarified that one lies outside the security zone, whilst the other is situated on the edge of it, in an area which, in his view, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) no longer need to patrol.

“The agreement with Lebanon is a huge mistake: this evening I have already asked the Prime Minister to call a vote in the Council of Ministers, and I have been opposing this agreement for weeks.” Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, wrote this on X. “It is true that, for now, we remain in most of the territory, but the Lebanese state will not disarm Hezbollah; Lebanese government ministers are members of Hezbollah, and we cannot rely on Lebanon to take weapons away from Hezbollah: I will call for a vote to be held in the Council of Ministers,” he added. “Only IDF soldiers will destroy Hezbollah: no other entity will do it for us!”, he concluded.

“Israel and Lebanon have agreed on two areas near the Yellow Line, where the pilot zone for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the redeployment of the Lebanese army will begin,” Netanyahu said at a press conference, pointing out the locations in question on a map.

“If we reach a final agreement, then that’s great; if we don’t, their nuclear programme remains in tatters and they remain a much weaker country, so my view is that America wins either way.” This is how JD Vance, in an interview with Bill Maher, defended the deal reached by Donald Trump with Iran, emphasising that the increase in oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz is “a sign that something concrete is happening”. The vice-president’s interview – in which he nevertheless admitted that the ceasefire agreement would “always be a bit chaotic given that we’re dealing with the Iranians” – was broadcast just a few hours before Iran and the US exchanged attacks in the most serious escalation since the memorandum of understanding was signed, which launched the 60-day period of negotiations, with a new round due to take place in early July.

Il vicepresidente degli Stati Uniti JD Vance ascolta mentre il presidente degli Stati Uniti Donald Trump incontra Mark Rutte, segretario generale dell’Organizzazione del Trattato del Nord Atlantico (NATO), nello Studio Ovale della Casa Bianca a Washington, DC, Stati Uniti, il 24 giugno 2026. EPA/YURI GRIPAS / POOL

Cooperation between the Israeli and Lebanese armies on the ‘pilot zones’ in southern Lebanon is set to begin as early as tomorrow, under the supervision of the Commander of Centcom, Admiral Brad Cooper, who is currently in Israel and will travel to the northern border tomorrow for this purpose. This was reported by Channel 11, citing military sources. According to the broadcaster, the pilot project will begin in the villages of Froun and Zawtar al-Gharbiyah in southern Lebanon.

In recent hours, tensions have escalated between Iran and the United States – the first such escalation since the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the two sides in Switzerland on 17 June. Washington has accused Tehran of attacking a merchant ship in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting a US response in the form of strikes against various targets. This was followed by an Iranian response: Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, reported that “numerous Iranian drones” had targeted the country. Iran today condemned Friday’s US attacks on its territory, describing them as a “flagrant violation” of the memorandum of understanding.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has stated that he will use “force” against Iran if it attacks Israel in an attempt to prevent the implementation of an agreement with Lebanon aimed at securing peace between the two countries. “If Iran attempts to attack Israel to prevent the implementation of the agreement, we will act against it with great force,” Israel Katz said in a video statement, adding that the agreement with Lebanon had dealt a “strategic blow to the Iranian axis”.

A new round of US-Iran talks is expected to begin in July and take place in Doha, Qatar, to address the issue of frozen Iranian assets. This was reported by the broadcaster Al Arabiya, citing its own sources, on its Arabic-language channel. The same broadcaster reports that, following this, “Pakistan will host a round of negotiations between the United States and Iran on the nuclear issue”. The TV channel also mentions an official visit to Iran by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 2 July.

Trade between Iran and the United Arab Emirates has resumed. This was announced by Mohammad Sadegh Ghanadzadeh, deputy head of commercial services at the Iranian Trade Promotion Organisation.

“Now that relative calm has returned to the region, we are seeing shipments of goods and containers from the port of Jebel Ali to Iran. Trade is gradually picking up. We hope it will gradually return to the normal conditions that prevailed before the war,” said Ghanadzadeh, according to the IRNA news agency.

In June, inflation in Iran rose further to 88.6 per cent year-on-year due to the conflict with the United States and Israel, which lasted over three months. These are the official figures released by the Iranian Statistical Centre. Food prices between 22 May and 21 June, the month of Khordad in the Persian calendar, more than doubled, with bread and cereals recording a 138.8 per cent annual increase and red meat and poultry prices rising by 178.2 per cent year-on-year. In the month of Bahman, 21 January–19 February, prior to the attack on Tehran, prices were 68 per cent higher than in the same period of 2025 due to the hyperinflation that has been affecting the country for years as a result of international sanctions imposed on Iran and the depreciation of the national currency. In December, prices were rising by over 50 per cent year-on-year and street protests had broken out against the high cost of living.

An Israeli drone strike has killed two Palestinian siblings, including a 15-year-old girl, in southern Gaza and injured at least seven other people. According to the Times of Israel, this was reported by Nasser Hospital, where the injured were taken. The attack targeted the tents housing displaced Palestinians in the vast Muwasi camp, reportedly killing 15-year-old Islam Moussa and his 30-year-old brother Abdullah Moussa. The Israeli army admitted to striking the Muwasi area, claiming it had targeted a Hamas terrorist, but did not immediately provide further details. Palestinians also reported hearing a loud explosion in Gaza City. According to Shifa Hospital, the Israeli army struck a tent housing displaced Palestinians in the western part of Gaza City, injuring at least 12 people. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service says that two people are seriously injured and that most of the injured are women.

Two drones were used in the Iranian attack reported by Bahrain this morning. This was stated by a US official quoted by the New York Times. One drone, the source explained, was intercepted and shot down. The other landed, without causing any damage, in a remote area of an airbase, he added. This morning, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry had reported a “dawn” attack by “several Iranian drones” after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian Pasdaran, had announced that they had attacked US targets in the region following American operations against the territory of the Islamic Republic.

The Lebanese Foreign Minister, Youssef Raggi, said he had received a phone call from his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, who congratulated him on Lebanon’s signing of the US-brokered framework agreement with Israel. Safadi “expressed the hope that the agreement would serve Lebanon’s interests”, including the strengthening of its sovereignty and the restoration of stability, Raggi wrote on X. “For my part, I thanked him for Jordan’s continued support for Lebanon and reiterated that this agreement represents a victory for diplomacy and, above all, for the authority of the state and its institutions”, he concluded.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has welcomed the agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, describing it as a “crucial” step towards de-escalation in the Middle East.

“There can be no peace in the Middle East whilst Lebanon is in the grip of conflict,” the President of the European Commission emphasised on social media. “The next crucial steps are the disarmament of non-state groups and the safeguarding of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she added in the post, assuring that the European Union is ready to “support” this path towards “lasting regional stability”.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has described the framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, brokered by the United States, as “humiliating and shameful” and said it amounts to “a surrender of sovereignty”. This was reported by the Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen. According to Qassem, the agreement is “null and void”, whilst “the provisions of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States” must be implemented. “We have not abandoned the struggle even in the most difficult circumstances, and we will not abandon it,” Qassem added. “It is time for the Lebanese authorities to repent for their sin, which is destroying Lebanon.”

Iranian negotiators are considering cancelling the technical talks scheduled to take place in Switzerland following yesterday’s US attack on Sirik, in southern Iran. This is reported by the Iran Nuances website, which states that, according to the negotiators, “this blatant violation of Article 1 of the Memorandum of Understanding must be met with the suspension of negotiations”. In recent days, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced that technical talks between the United States and Iran would take place in Switzerland on 29 and 30 June.

The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, said in a statement on X that he “condemns in the strongest possible terms the treacherous Iranian attacks” against Bahrain, following reports of drones allegedly targeting its territory. Albudaiwi stated that the raids had targeted “civilian infrastructure and property”.

‘It is clear that Hezbollah is not happy that its power might be curtailed, or that there might even be a move to disarm it. That goes without saying. We need to see whether Iran will at least support the agreement. That is the issue. However, the agreement reached in Novosibirsk is certainly not a victory for Hezbollah. They held a demonstration yesterday, so we’ll have to see how to proceed, but Hezbollah cannot continue to play a military role outside the institutional legal framework.” This was stated by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, at a press briefing during the Dubrovnik Forum.

An Israeli drone struck the Nabatiyeh area in southern Lebanon today, according to the Lebanese state news agency, as reported by Al Arabiya. The attack took place the day after Israel and Lebanon signed a US-brokered security agreement aimed at reducing tensions along the border following months of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah.

Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and former commander of the Pasdaran, has accused the United States of breaching the memorandum of understanding, stating that Tehran’s response to any breach will be “swift and decisive”. “The United States has breached Article 1 of the Memorandum of Understanding by supporting the actions of its proxy forces in the region, and Article 5 by continuing to create tension in the Strait of Hormuz,” he wrote on X. “The response to any breach of the agreement will be swift and decisive.”

According to the Lebanese news agency NNA, an Israeli drone is reported to have struck the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon. The attack comes the day after Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement brokered by the United States.

A maritime agency overseen by the US Navy stated on Saturday that a shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz, near the coast of Oman, is being widened to allow traffic in both directions. The announcement by the Joint Maritime Information Centre serves as a further warning to Iran that the United States is pushing for the strait to be reopened.

Bahrain has announced that it has been targeted by several Iranian drones, accusing Tehran of “sabotaging peace efforts”, following the first exchange of attacks between the United States and Iran since the conclusion of the memorandum of understanding in mid-June. In a statement, Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “the attack on its territory at dawn on Saturday by several Iranian drones, in flagrant violation of its sovereignty”, and “holds Tehran fully responsible for sabotaging peace efforts”.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned the US attacks on certain areas of the country’s southern coast, stating that such actions violate the United Nations Charter and the recent memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States aimed at ending the conflict. According to the statement, reported by state television, the attacks targeted coastal surveillance facilities; the statement also emphasised that the armed forces had launched retaliatory strikes against US-linked targets, exercising their right to self-defence.

The Iranian news agency Mehr – citing the head of the ports in Hormozgan, in the eastern part of the country – reported that the port of Sirik, which was targeted in a US air strike, had not sustained any damage. The agency added that the port was operating normally and that no damage had been caused to its equipment, despite the explosions previously reported within the facility.

A “multilateral agreement” is needed for the new mission that is set to succeed UNIFIL in Lebanon; otherwise, “there is a risk of undoing all the work”. This was stated by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, at a press briefing in Dubrovnik, on the sidelines of the Dubrovnik Forum, commenting on the possibility that the Gulf monarchies might also be part of any new mission. “We’ll have to see what the composition will be. It will certainly have to be an international agreement under the United Nations or the European Union; we’ll see how it pans out, but it will certainly have to be the result of a multilateral agreement,” explained Tajani, who added that “it will not be a unilateral initiative. “We have the bilateral agreement on the training of the (Lebanese) armed forces,” he added, “but for the post-UNIFIL period, ‘we need to reach an agreement that will then allow the mission to be 100 per cent operational; otherwise, we risk undoing all the work’.”

The Lebanese National News Agency, as reported by Al Jazeera, states that Israeli forces bombed the area around the town of Markaba overnight; the town is situated 1.5 km (1 mile) from the border between Israel and Lebanon. The news comes after Israel and Lebanon signed a ‘framework agreement’ in Washington, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as a ‘first step’ in the negotiations.

Iran has launched attacks on US military sites in the region in response to the air strikes carried out by Washington on the Iranian coast. This was announced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a statement reported by local media.

Yesterday, the US Central Command (Centcom) reported attacks on Iranian missile and drone depots and coastal radar stations, in response to the attack two days ago on a merchant ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel and Lebanon have taken a “bold” step in agreeing on a “framework of understanding that sets out a realistic path to ending a never-ending conflict”. This was stated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement in which he commented on the “trilateral agreement” signed in Washington, which establishes a “clear and structured” process to “restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, whilst also allowing Israel to return to its borders once the threat to its citizens has been eliminated”. The agreement, Rubio continues, “also provides for the creation of a trilateral Military Coordination Group for Lebanon (MCG4L), facilitated by the United States, which will enable the two parties to implement the aforementioned framework of understanding”. For Lebanon, Rubio emphasises, “this agreement offers a genuine way out of a protracted crisis”, whilst for Israel, “it creates a verifiable path to eliminating the persistent threat on its northern border”.

According to Rubio, the framework agreement “sets out a clear and structured process to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, and enable Israel to return to its borders once the threat to its citizens has been eliminated”

Supporters of the pro-Iranian Shia movement Hezbollah protested overnight on the streets of Beirut against the framework agreement reached between Lebanon, Israel and the United States, according to reports by the Lebanese news agency NNA and AFP journalists. According to NNA, “they rode motorbikes through the streets of Beirut”, particularly in the neighbourhoods near Parliament and along a road leading to the airport, blocking at least one road with burning tyres. AFP observed people on motorbikes travelling along a road, as well as temporary checkpoints set up by the Lebanese army on several streets.

The framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon, brokered by the Trump administration, is a ‘trilateral agreement’ comprising 14 points, reached between the governments of Israel and Lebanon, with the full support of the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump. The text, signed in Washington, states that the ‘common objective’ is to ‘achieve lasting peace and security’. As set out in this trilateral framework agreement, and through future agreements, ‘the two countries declare their ambition to end the conflict between them, guarantee the sovereignty and security of both countries, and establish peaceful, good-neighbourly relations between the two countries’.

Here are the 14 points of the agreement, signed in triplicate and written in English:

Hassan Fadlallah, a Lebanese MP from Hezbollah, has issued a statement on the signing of the framework agreement in Washington, writing: “We reaffirm Hezbollah’s position rejecting direct negotiations with the Israeli enemy. We warn against the political and security drift of the negotiations, which undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty and causes dangerous internal divisions.”

On Friday 26 June, Lebanon, Israel and the United States signed the framework agreement that paves the way for peace. The signing took place at the US State Department. “This represents a first step towards restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty, ensuring a permanent and definitive ceasefire that will enable our citizens to return to their lands and allow all Lebanese to live in peace, security and prosperity.” This was stated by Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington, Nada Maawad Hamad, during the signing ceremony for the framework agreement with Israel. “It was a long and difficult meeting. We thank our hosts and the delegations from both sides for their cooperation throughout the talks,” she added.