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US Denies Reports It Carried Out Dawn Strikes in Syria 

This picture taken on March 26, 2024 shows a view of a damaged building following an air strike in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 26, 2024 shows a view of a damaged building following an air strike in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. (AFP)
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US Denies Reports It Carried Out Dawn Strikes in Syria 

This picture taken on March 26, 2024 shows a view of a damaged building following an air strike in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. (AFP)
This picture taken on March 26, 2024 shows a view of a damaged building following an air strike in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. (AFP)

The US on Tuesday denied that it had carried out dawn air strikes in Syria after Syrian and Iranian state media said US forces had bombed an eastern region and killed at least seven soldiers, including a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Syrian state media said a civilian was also killed and at least 19 other soldiers and 13 civilians were wounded in strikes on residential areas and military sites in Deir Ezzor province, with significant damage to public and private properties.

Iranian state media said a Revolutionary Guards adviser was killed in the air strikes, without giving his rank.

"We did not carry out air strikes in Syria last night," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters in Washington.

Iranian-backed forces in eastern Syria have previously attacked some of the 900 US troops based in the remote region. The United States has occasionally responded by carrying out strikes there against targets linked to Iran. Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian targets in Syria.

Iran says its officers serve in an advisory role in Syria at the invitation of Damascus to support President Bashar al-Assad against internal and external foes including during a decade-long civil war with opposition forces who failed to topple him.

Two regional intelligence sources said Israeli jets conducted several strikes on two locations within Deir Ezzor city and Al Bukamal where Iran's Revolutionary Guards have outposts.

Iranian militias have a strong presence in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border where Tehran has expanded its military presence, Western intelligence sources say.

The sources said another strike hit the town of Mayadeen along the Euphrates River which has become a major base for several Shiite militias, mostly from Iraq.

Israel, alarmed by Iran's growing regional influence and military presence in Syria, says it has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria to slow down Iranian entrenchment. It has not commented on Tuesday's strikes.

Over the past year, strikes by unmanned Israeli aircraft have concentrated on the border town of Albu Kamal, southeast of Mayadeen, that lies on a strategic supply route for Iranian-backed militias who regularly send reinforcements from Iraq into Syria. The Iranian-backed militias are also in control of large stretches of the frontier on the Iraqi side.

Syria's Foreign Ministry condemned Tuesday's air strikes and said Washington was exchanging roles with Israel, adding that they sought to stir instability in the region.

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Arab World

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Palestinian Factions Link Gaza Talks Progress to Halt in Assassinations

A Palestinian woman stands at the site of an Israeli strike after residents were warned to evacuate their home in al-Zawaida, central Gaza Strip. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman stands at the site of an Israeli strike after residents were warned to evacuate their home in al-Zawaida, central Gaza Strip. (AFP)
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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Palestinian Factions Link Gaza Talks Progress to Halt in Assassinations

A Palestinian woman stands at the site of an Israeli strike after residents were warned to evacuate their home in al-Zawaida, central Gaza Strip. (AFP)
A Palestinian woman stands at the site of an Israeli strike after residents were warned to evacuate their home in al-Zawaida, central Gaza Strip. (AFP)

Israel is stepping up assassinations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members even as attention turns to Cairo on Saturday for the first meetings on proposals aimed at breaking the deadlock over the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

Asharq Al-Awsat learned from two Hamas sources and a third source from a Palestinian faction that the groups will meet among themselves on Saturday, before the Hamas delegation meets the mediators, to discuss the demands they see as essential to any progress in the talks.

The three sources said the factions will clearly demand an end to the assassinations, which have escalated since Israel killed Ezzeddine al-Haddad, commander of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, on May 15.

His killing was followed by a series of assassinations targeting prominent figures. Similar operations had preceded it, targeting operatives who took part in a series of attacks, including the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

“The assassinations and daily violations, in all their details, must stop to show goodwill by Israel and achieve real progress that reflects a positive Israeli acceptance of the mediators’ efforts,” the source said.

The two Hamas sources said halting the assassinations and violations would be a clear condition, and a demand backed unanimously by the factions, to ensure the negotiations succeed.

They said the Palestinian side would show significant flexibility in the current round of talks in a way that serves Palestinian demands.

Those demands will also include requiring Israel to implement its commitments under the first phase, including completing the withdrawal, expanding the operation of crossings, allowing aid into the enclave, and enabling the Gaza administrative committee to assume its duties in Gaza.

A factional source expected the current round to be difficult, citing Israel’s threats to escalate assassinations and carry out larger operations inside Gaza in the coming period if no agreement is reached.

The source said the factions would show flexibility, but not at the expense of their legitimate demands.

All the sources acknowledged that the assassinations had affected internal consultations and decision-making and had also had an operational impact inside the enclave.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 119 Palestinians were killed in May, the highest monthly toll recorded since the start of the year. Women, children, and the elderly made up 30% of the victims. The dead included 19 children, or 16%, and 10 women, or 8.5%.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat’s monitoring, Israel has assassinated more than 17 operatives since targeting Haddad, most of them from Hamas.

On Thursday and Friday, Israel assassinated four commanders and activists from the General Security apparatus and attempted to assassinate two others.

Arab World

Lebanon Sentences Activists in Absentia for inciting Israeli Attacks

A UN convoy in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
A UN convoy in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
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Lebanon Sentences Activists in Absentia for inciting Israeli Attacks

A UN convoy in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
A UN convoy in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, June 2, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem

Lebanon's judiciary has charged two anti-Hezbollah activists in absentia with inciting Israeli attacks against the Iran-backed group and sentenced them to 15 years in prison, a judicial official told AFP on Friday.

It is the harshest sentence yet against activists expressing support for Israel, which has officially been at war with Lebanon for decades.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the two individuals, Ahmed Yassine and Joumana Gebara, both living outside Lebanon, were charged with "collaborating with Israel and inciting it to continue its military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon" by the military tribunal in a trial that began in November 2024.

Yassine, a Paris-based university professor, is accused of "inciting the Israeli army to bomb the historic Baalbek Citadel by disseminating information claiming that the citadel housed Hezbollah weapons depots".

Yassine also has a YouTube channel where he shares political commentary to more than 140,000 subscribers.

Gebara is accused of "praising Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee and thanking him for the bombings of Lebanon, as well as calling for normalization with Israel" during the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024, the official said.

Lebanon has no formal ties with Israel, and any contact is punishable by imprisonment.

It has previously arrested people accused of spying for Israel.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran's supreme leader.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since then, according to Lebanese authorities.

Arab World

Lebanese Leaders Rebuke Iran as Israel, Hezbollah Trade Attacks

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon close to the Beaufort Castle as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon close to the Beaufort Castle as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
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Lebanese Leaders Rebuke Iran as Israel, Hezbollah Trade Attacks

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon close to the Beaufort Castle as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon close to the Beaufort Castle as seen from a position across the border in the Upper Galilee, in northern Israel on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Lebanon's leaders issued pointed calls for Iran to stop interfering in their country's affairs on Friday, as Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah traded attacks after a new truce deal collapsed before it even began. 

Lebanese state media reported fresh Israeli strikes on around 40 locations in southern Lebanon on Friday, with some causing casualties, while Hezbollah claimed new attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded the south, including with drones and rockets. 

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran's supreme leader. 

Iran, in its peace negotiations with Washington, has repeatedly insisted that the fighting in Lebanon and the war in the Gulf are inextricably linked. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam addressed Iran's leaders in frank terms during a press conference on Friday, telling them: "Have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations." 

"We are the people of a sovereign nation that refuses to serve as a mailbox for the messages of others or as an open battlefield for their wars," he added. "The south is not anyone's reserve front." 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, echoing Salam's "bargaining chip" remark, offered a similar message for Iran in an interview with CNN. 

"It's not your country, it's our country," he said. "It's not your job to interfere into our country." 

Lebanese and Israeli envoys in Washington agreed to a truce this week that according to a statement is conditional on a "complete cessation" of Hezbollah fire, without mentioning a halt to Israeli attacks. 

Hezbollah flatly rejected the deal on Thursday, demanding instead a comprehensive ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. 

Lebanese parliament speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said Friday that the group would withdraw from the area south of Lebanon's Litani River if these conditions were met. 

Hezbollah had vehemently opposed the government's direct engagement with Israel, with its leader Naim Qassem describing the talks as a "farce and humiliation" -- a stance Aoun took issue with on Friday. 

"Hezbollah must understand that (there is) no other way but to sit and talk, no other way to solve this problem and to save what's left except through negotiation and diplomacy," he told CNN. 

- 'How long will this go on?' - 

Israel has staged its deepest incursion in two decades into Lebanon, and on Friday it warned residents of nine towns and villages, including Sarafand on the coastal road between Tyre and Sidon, to immediately evacuate. 

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported mass displacement from some of the villages, and subsequently reported strikes there. 

An overnight Israeli strike near the city of Tyre's Jabal Amel hospital killed four people, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children, according to a civil defence source. 

An AFP correspondent saw a heavily damaged bank near the hopsital, one of only three in the city. 

"I was in my mother's hospital room when a powerful strike hit near the hospital," Marwan Ghorayeb told AFP, adding that his mother had also survived a Monday strike near the facility that killed four people and wounded 127, including 39 hospital personnel. 

"My house in my hometown was destroyed, and my house in Tyre was destroyed. How long will this go on?" 

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,558 people since March 2. 

- 'Not a life' - 

In rejecting the new truce deal on Thursday, Hezbollah chief Qassem demanded that any "ceasefire must be comprehensive... without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill". 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had said after the deal's announcement that the army would "at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations", while retaining the "freedom" to strike Beirut if Hezbollah attacked Israeli communities. 

Hezbollah is Lebanon's only armed group that refused to hand over its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel's occupation of south Lebanon. 

After Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, calls on Hezbollah to disarm multiplied, with the leadership under Aoun taking the firmest stance yet. 

The Lebanese government has declared Hezbollah's military activities illegal, and the army was working to disarm the group in areas near the border before the latest war erupted. 

The war launched by the US and Israel on Iran saw Hezbollah return to the battlefield, launching attacks into Israel while fighting Israeli troops inside Lebanon. 

As the exchanges of fire continued, Israelis in northern villages expressed fatigue at the situation. 

"We can't keep doing this," 60-year-old Sigalit Levin told AFP on Thursday from her home in Shlomi, a small town in Israel's far north.