Israel Strikes Lebanon as Hezbollah Calls Talks 'Dead End'

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine on May 17, 2026. Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine on May 17, 2026. Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP
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Israel Strikes Lebanon as Hezbollah Calls Talks 'Dead End'

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine on May 17, 2026. Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Choukine on May 17, 2026. Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP

Israel struck eastern and southern Lebanon on Sunday, state media reported, despite a fragile ceasefire as Hezbollah called US-brokered talks between the two countries a "dead end".

Two Israeli strikes hit the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa valley, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said, adding that others took place across southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army later issued an evacuation warning to four villages near the southern coastal city of Sidon, dozens of kilometres from the border area, which were also subject to an evacuation warning on Saturday, AFP reported.

Israeli airstrikes hit three of the four villages following the warning, the NNA said.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strike widely in southern Lebanon and issues frequent evacuation warnings to towns and villages across the south.

Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was "holding territory, clearing territory, protecting Israel's communities, but also fighting an enemy that is trying to outsmart us".

"We are facing the challenge of neutralizing FPV (First-Person view) drones," he said, as Hezbollah has increasingly made use of the drones to strike Israeli forces.

The latest exchanges of fire came after envoys from Israel and Lebanon held a third round of negotiations in Washington and agreed to extend the ceasefire, talks that Iran-backed Hezbollah has repeatedly denounced.

"The direct negotiations that the authorities in Lebanon have conducted with the Israeli enemy have... led them down a dead-end path that will result in nothing but one concession after another," Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Hajj Hassan said on Sunday.

"Neither they nor anyone else will be able to carry out what the enemy wants, especially when it comes to the issue of disarming the resistance," he said, adding that authorities were creating "very big predicaments" for the country.

In a statement on Saturday, the group called the proposed establishment of a US-facilitated security track a fresh addition "to the series of free concessions" the Lebanese government "offers the enemy".

On Saturday the group also said it had struck a military target in northern Israel, having earlier announced several operations against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Israel sent ground forces into southern Lebanon during the latest war and they continue to occupy territory near the border between the two countries.

Israeli attacks since the start of the war have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce began on April 17, according to Lebanese authorities.



At Chad-Sudan Border, Aid Funding Crisis Leaves Displaced in Limbo

TOPSHOT - A general view of carts heading towards Chad at the Adré border post on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A general view of carts heading towards Chad at the Adré border post on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
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At Chad-Sudan Border, Aid Funding Crisis Leaves Displaced in Limbo

TOPSHOT - A general view of carts heading towards Chad at the Adré border post on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)
TOPSHOT - A general view of carts heading towards Chad at the Adré border post on June 8, 2026. (Photo by Joris Bolomey / AFP)

Rising numbers of Chadians fleeing the Sudan war are arriving at the Adre border post in Chad, but funding shortages could force UN agencies on the ground to stop operating.

The civil conflict in Sudan has already cost tens of thousands of lives and forced more than 12 million people to flee their homes, more than a million of them Chadian, according to UN figures.

Government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting since April 2023.

A steady stream of horse-carts arrived at the Adre border post, under the region's scorching desert sun, during a recent visit by AFP.

In the swirling dust and the crack of whips, some of the makeshift wagons toppled under the weight of their loads, dragging the horses onto their backs, hooves in the air.

They leave loaded with cans of petrol and food for Sudan, and return to Chad, in some cases carrying people fleeing the war.

- Lack of resources -

Last week SungAh Lee, deputy director general of the UN's International Organization for Migration, visited Adre as part of a three-day visit to the Assoungha region.

She met Chadians who had been in Sudan and had fled the war to return home.

"When I go there and meet the beneficiaries and hear from them, then go back and meet ambassadors and the donor community, it is important for them to hear what I have seen in person," she told AFP.

In May, the number of Chadians returning from Sudan passed the 400,000 mark.

They had initially expected to reach that level by the end of June, Lee said, but the flow of returnees has accelerated.

Mahamat Issa Abakar, general secretary of the Assoungha region, confirmed the surge in returnees.

"There are more than 5,000 Chadians getting ready to return to Chad from Sudan in the coming days," said Abakar, himself a former aid worker.

"Their representatives came to ask me how they will be taken in here, but I don't know what to tell them," he added. "On our side, we lack the resources."

"The Chadians from Sudan returning to Chad have exactly the same needs as the refugees," he added.

And yet, he said, looking over at the IOM delegation, they were not as well cared for.

- No food, no work -

According to figures from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 900,000 people have sought refuge in Chad since the start of the war in Sudan. They make up one in three people in the eastern provinces of Chad.

In Tongori camp, where the IOM says 13,000 people are packed in, Chadians who have fled Sudan speak of a sense of abandonment.

"We don't have food!" said 59-year-old Ahmat Mahamat Hassan. "It hasn't been handed out for six months."

"It's the IOM who led us here and it's for you to take responsibility for us," he added, addressing the UN delegation set up under sheets of metal in the middle of some 300 Chadian returnees.

Others among the returnees complained of a lack of work and being stuck in the camp with nothing to do.

"We have a lot of skills here among the women, but we can't put them into practice," said Saide Yaya Abderamanou.

"Most of us have a job in Sudan. Some of us make jewels, perfumes, shoes," she added.

Lee, for the IOM, acknowledged the problem.

"Continuously providing humanitarian aid is not a sustainable model," she told AFP.

"They all want to work, they all have skills. So it's about creating opportunities for them, and I think this is really the most difficult part."

But she also recognized the growing difficulties in helping the Chadians returning from Sudan.

The $21-million IOM response plan for eastern Chad in 2026 was only 19-percent financed, Lee said.

"After October 2026, we won't be able to provide humanitarian assistance if the finance doesn't arrive," she warned.


Trump Warns Israel and Iran Not to 'Blow It' after New Strikes Threaten Emerging Ceasefire Deal

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight back to Washington March 15, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight back to Washington March 15, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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Trump Warns Israel and Iran Not to 'Blow It' after New Strikes Threaten Emerging Ceasefire Deal

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight back to Washington March 15, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight back to Washington March 15, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged no further attacks by anyone after Israel's military said it launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut's southern suburbs, potentially complicating efforts to finalize a deal to end the US-Iran war.

The Public Health Emergency Operations Center said three people, including two women, were killed, and 16 were wounded.

Trump reacted on social media and said Israeli strikes on Beirut "should not have happened" as he vowed a regional peace deal was at hand, though he did not confirm reports it would be signed during the day.

"We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down," Trump said on social media.

"This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace -- Let's not blow it!"

The deal in its current form is a deep disappointment to Israel's government, which has been sidelined in negotiations led by Pakistan and others. The last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, it set off the most serious escalation of fighting between Iran and Israel since the tenuous ceasefire took hold April 7.

Trump, who had said the deal could be signed Sunday, has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop hitting Lebanon hard while a deal is near, but the prime minister has defied him.

Netanyahu's office said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel. Israel’s military said Hezbollah launched three projectiles, releasing footage where an audible boom was followed by rising smoke. There was no immediate comment from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

 


Trump to Meet Sisi at G7 Summit in France

US President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (AFP)
US President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump to Meet Sisi at G7 Summit in France

US President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (AFP)
US President Donald Trump holds a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a summit on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump is set to hold talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France this month, the Egyptian presidency said on Sunday.

In a statement, the presidency said Sisi is expected to hold a series of meetings with world leaders during the summit, "including a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump".

It added that Sisi's meetings would focus on "discussing ways to resolve international geopolitical crises and address their repercussions on trade, energy and supply chains".

The G7 summit will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran in late February, upending the Middle East and widening transatlantic tensions.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is hosting the summit in the city of Evian on June 15-17, said that leaders from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had been invited to discuss the Middle East war, according to the French presidency.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he would not attend the summit due to "prior commitments", the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Thursday.

The G7 brings together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, along with invited leaders from several other countries, including Brazil and India.

Macron is due to arrive in Evian on Sunday evening, with other leaders, including Trump, expected on Monday.

Leaders are set to have a packed agenda of potentially explosive issues, including efforts to end the war in Iran and re-open the key Strait of Hormuz shipping bottleneck.