Israel Strikes Tyre in South Lebanon After Evacuation Warnings

Damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, 04 April 2026. (EPA)
Damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, 04 April 2026. (EPA)
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Israel Strikes Tyre in South Lebanon After Evacuation Warnings

Damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, 04 April 2026. (EPA)
Damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, 04 April 2026. (EPA)

Israel's military renewed its strikes on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Saturday after issuing evacuation warnings, following attacks on nearby buildings that damaged a hospital in the city. 

Israel has carried out strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south since March 2, when Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran. 

The Israeli army struck three buildings it had warned people to evacuate, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA). 

An AFP correspondent said a missile hit an 11-storey building northeast of Tyre, completely destroying it and reducing it to a pile of rubble that covered a nearby gas station. 

A second raid on a five-storey building near the city levelled half of it, leaving the other half standing. 

The third strike was on the Burj al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp, southeast of the city. 

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages, despite Israeli evacuation warnings covering most of the city and a broad swathe of the south. 

Saturday's Israeli warning followed strikes that wounded at least 11 people, including three civil defense members, and damaged a major hospital, the health ministry in Beirut said. 

The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the NNA that it would "remain open to provide the necessary medical care" despite the damage. 

Overnight strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and also causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, management said. 

A wave of attacks hit the Tyre area on Saturday, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, the correspondent said. 

Another Israeli airstrike targeted and completely destroyed a mosque in the town of Baraashit in the Bint Jbeil district, the NNA reported. 

- 'Unacceptable' attacks - 

Dawn strikes also targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, a largely evacuated Hezbollah stronghold that has been attacked repeatedly during more than a month of war. 

In a statement on Saturday, Israel's military said it had "completed an additional wave of strikes targeting command centers belonging to the Quds Force Lebanon corps in Beirut", referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm, and "two headquarters of the (Palestinian Islamic Jihad)". 

After attacking a bridge in the West Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon on Friday "to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment", Israel hit it again on Saturday, destroying it completely, the NNA said. 

West Bekaa is right above Lebanon's south, where Israeli troops have been advancing on the ground. 

The NNA also reported that, in Shebaa near the eastern side of the Israeli border, Israeli forces abducted a man at around 3:00 am on Saturday. 

It was at least the third time Israeli forces have seized someone from south Lebanon after infiltrating their home since the war with Hezbollah began. 

The Iran-backed group claimed responsibility Saturday for a series of attacks on northern Israeli towns and Israeli troops in Lebanese border towns, particularly Mar0un al-Ras, H0ula and Ainata. 

The war has displaced upwards of a million people in Lebanon and killed more than 1,400 people in the country, including 54 medics and three Indonesian UN peacekeepers in the south. 

On Saturday, a strike on al-Hawsh near Tyre wounded 18 people, and a strike on Habboush in the Nabatiyeh district killed at least two children and wounded 22 people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. 

The United Nations force said on Friday that three peacekeepers were wounded in a blast inside a UN facility near Odaisseh, and were rushed to hospital. 

Jakarta slammed the incident as "unacceptable" after the UN office there confirmed the wounded were Indonesian. 

Indonesia's government said "these events underscore the urgent need to strengthen protection for UN peacekeeping forces amid an increasingly dangerous conflict situation". 

On Saturday, a UN security official told AFP that Israeli forces destroyed 17 surveillance cameras linked to UNIFIL's main headquarters in Naqoura. 

The UN peacekeeping force has been caught in the crossfire in southern Lebanon since the start of the war, with Hezbollah launching attacks on Israel and its troops, and Israeli forces pushing into border towns. 



UN Expert Condemns ‘Torture’ of Palestinian Prisoners in Israel

 Israeli soldiers stand guard during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 16, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Expert Condemns ‘Torture’ of Palestinian Prisoners in Israel

 Israeli soldiers stand guard during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during a weekly settlers' tour in Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 16, 2026. (Reuters)

A United Nations expert on Tuesday raised alarm over the alleged "torture" of Palestinian prisoners and "potentially unlawful deaths" in Israeli prisons since October 2023.

The comments come as Israel faces growing scrutiny over detention conditions following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas inside Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

"Emergency measures introduced after 7 October 2023 exposed Palestinian detainees to torture, potentially unlawful deaths, incommunicado detention, and degrading conditions," said Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture.

Quoted in a UN statement seen by AFP, she argued the "number and cruelty of allegations" point to a "gross disregard by Israel of its duty to treat all detainees humanely".

Edwards said she had gathered information on 52 cases involving various forms of torture or ill-treatment, as well as 33 cases of sexual torture and other forms of sexual abuse.

Reported abuses include "severe beatings, stress positions, excessive restraints, electrocution, sleep deprivation, malnutrition and starvation" among many others.

She also expressed concern over reports of at least 94 deaths in custody since October 2023 that had not been investigated.

Autopsies in several cases revealed multiple rib fractures, skin hemorrhages and injuries to internal organs, including abdominal tears, she said.

"Behind every allegation is a human being who was wholly dependent on those exercising power over them," Edwards said, calling for "full, independent and transparent" investigations and accountability.

In a communication to Israeli authorities, she noted that none of the 1,680 complainants filed against Israeli intelligence services had led to indictments.

She urged Israel to review and revise its detention laws, policies and practices.

More than 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, including 2,200 serving sentences.


Board of Peace Will Ask the UN Security Council to Press Hamas to Disarm

A Palestinian boy stands next to plastic containers on a trolley, as he and others collect portable drinking water for their displaced family living in shelters after homes were destroyed in Israeli bombardment, in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy stands next to plastic containers on a trolley, as he and others collect portable drinking water for their displaced family living in shelters after homes were destroyed in Israeli bombardment, in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
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Board of Peace Will Ask the UN Security Council to Press Hamas to Disarm

A Palestinian boy stands next to plastic containers on a trolley, as he and others collect portable drinking water for their displaced family living in shelters after homes were destroyed in Israeli bombardment, in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on May 18, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy stands next to plastic containers on a trolley, as he and others collect portable drinking water for their displaced family living in shelters after homes were destroyed in Israeli bombardment, in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip on May 18, 2026. (AFP)

The body overseeing the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza will ask the United Nations Security Council to press the Hamas group to disarm, according to a report seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The report by the Board of Peace, an international body set up by US President Donald Trump and tasked with overseeing the fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, is expected to be discussed by the Security Council on Thursday when it meets on the situation in the Middle East.

“At this stage, the principal obstacle to full implementation (of the ceasefire) remains Hamas’ refusal to accept verified decommissioning, relinquish coercive control, and permit a genuine civilian transition in Gaza,” the report said.

Hamas in a statement rejected the report and said it contains “fallacies.”

A diplomat familiar with the report confirmed its authenticity, speaking on condition of anonymity because it has not been made public.

Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan calls on Hamas to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, deployment of an international security force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave after more than two years of war.

Board of Peace head has said the ceasefire has stalled

Last week, the head of the Board of Peace, former UN Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov, acknowledged that the truce had stalled since taking effect in October, saying the deadlock over disarming Hamas had paralyzed progress.

“Reconstruction cannot commence where weapons have not been laid down,” the board’s report to the Security Council says. “The critical variable — the single factor that unlocks every other element of the plan — is the conclusion of an agreement on the Roadmap for the full implementation of the plan that includes full decommissioning by Hamas and all armed groups in Gaza.”

The Palestinian group, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, has accused Israel of failing to meet its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire and has sought to link any demilitarization to Israeli troop pullbacks. Israel’s military has expanded its control of Gaza since the truce took effect and now controls some 60% of the territory.

The new report calls on the Security Council to “reiterate publicly, clearly and consistently that the decommissioning of weapons in Gaza is not merely a requirement (of the UN’s resolution to end the war) but critical for reconstruction to begin, for a timebound Israeli forces withdrawal, and for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood to be pursued.”

The Security Council endorsed the Board of Peace in a resolution in November.

Hamas says the report tries to derail the ceasefire

Hamas said the report “contains a number of fallacies that absolve the occupying government of its responsibilities for the daily violations of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.”

The group said the report ignored Israel’s “failure to uphold the majority of its commitments” in the ceasefire deal, including the continued restrictions on crossings into the Palestinian territory and preventing the entry of material and equipment needed to repair basic infrastructure and shelter for the largely displaced population.

“The report’s adoption of the occupation’s conditions regarding disarmament is a dubious attempt to muddy the waters and derail the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas said in a statement.

It called on the Security Council and Mladenov to compel Israel to fulfill its commitments under the ceasefire' deal's first phase, "foremost among them the cessation of the daily aggression against our Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The ceasefire has seen numerous violations The report noted near-daily ceasefire violations, “some of which are serious, and their human consequences — civilians killed, families living in fear, and continued impediments to humanitarian access — cannot be minimized.”

Israel’s military still carries out airstrikes in Gaza despite the ceasefire and has pushed deeper into the territory, where it now controls more than it was granted under the ceasefire agreement. Living conditions are dire, with most of the territory’s 2 million people living in tent camps lacking basic services.

Mladenov last week said his office is addressing violations by both sides on a daily basis. But he repeatedly cited the disarmament issue as a central sticking point, saying Hamas’ obligation to give up its arsenal is “not negotiable" and that progress on all other issues was being held up.


Israel Military Issues Fresh Evacuation Warnings for South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Burj el-Shmali on on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Burj el-Shmali on on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Military Issues Fresh Evacuation Warnings for South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Burj el-Shmali on on May 19, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Burj el-Shmali on on May 19, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military on Tuesday warned residents of 12 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate ahead of expected attacks against Hezbollah, the latest despite a ceasefire.

"Hezbollah's continued violations of the ceasefire compel the army to operate against it. The army does not intend to harm you. For your safety, we urge you to distance yourself from the area and immediately move at least 1,000 meters away," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a new series of Israeli strikes targeting several locations in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it had targeted a gathering of soldiers and vehicles in northern Israel with "a swarm of attack drones."

The Iran-backed group also claimed responsibility for new attacks against Israeli forces operating inside Lebanese territory.

The Israeli military said that following sirens in several areas of northern Israel, a drone "that crossed from Lebanon to Israeli territory was intercepted".

Since the start of the ceasefire on April 17, Israel has continued to launch strikes, carry out demolitions and issue evacuation orders in south Lebanon, saying it is targeting the group.

Hezbollah has also continued operations against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

On Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said the death toll from Israeli strikes since the start of the war on March 2 had reached 3,020.

The Israeli military says it has lost 20 soldiers and one civilian contractor in southern Lebanon since the war began.