Lebanon Says Israeli Strikes Kill 7 Including an ‘Islamic Jihad’ Commander

17 May 2026, Lebanon, Tyre: Smoke from an Israeli air raid billows from the village of Zibqin. (dpa)
17 May 2026, Lebanon, Tyre: Smoke from an Israeli air raid billows from the village of Zibqin. (dpa)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strikes Kill 7 Including an ‘Islamic Jihad’ Commander

17 May 2026, Lebanon, Tyre: Smoke from an Israeli air raid billows from the village of Zibqin. (dpa)
17 May 2026, Lebanon, Tyre: Smoke from an Israeli air raid billows from the village of Zibqin. (dpa)

Israeli strikes killed seven people in Lebanon on Sunday, including an "Islamic Jihad commander", Lebanese authorities and state media said, despite a fragile ceasefire as Hezbollah called US-brokered talks between the two countries a "dead end".

The health ministry published a "preliminary toll" for Israel's strikes on Sunday, with three people killed in the town of Tayr Felsay, including a child, and two killed in the town of Tayr Debba, including another child.

It said 11 people were wounded in those strikes and four more were wounded in strikes in two other southern towns.

Later Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli missile strike around midnight on an apartment on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek in the country's east had killed Islamic Jihad commander Wael Abdel Halim and his 17-year-old daughter.

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

Two Israeli strikes also hit the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa valley on Sunday, the state-run NNA said.

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

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

- Washington talks -

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.



Deadly Algeria Orphanage Fire Caused by Air Conditioner, Police Say

Rescuers and police officers work at the site of a fire at an orphanage near Algiers, Algeria, July 16, 2026. Algerian Civil Protection/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers and police officers work at the site of a fire at an orphanage near Algiers, Algeria, July 16, 2026. Algerian Civil Protection/Handout via REUTERS
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Deadly Algeria Orphanage Fire Caused by Air Conditioner, Police Say

Rescuers and police officers work at the site of a fire at an orphanage near Algiers, Algeria, July 16, 2026. Algerian Civil Protection/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers and police officers work at the site of a fire at an orphanage near Algiers, Algeria, July 16, 2026. Algerian Civil Protection/Handout via REUTERS

Algerian police on Friday said a fire that killed 11 people at an orphanage in the capital was caused by an electrical spark from an air conditioning unit.

The blaze broke out before dawn on Thursday at the childcare facility in the Mohammadia suburb of Algiers.

A 52-year-old caregiver was among the dead, police said Friday, but it remains unclear how many children were killed.

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune posted online Thursday that "several children" had died.

Nineteen others were injured during the fire, according to Algeria's civil defense.

Forensic experts determined that the blaze originated from an air conditioner that had been running continuously as Algeria endures a heatwave.

The civil defense has said nearly a thousand fires have broken out across the country's north during the past week, with the majority contained.

A municipal worker earlier died battling a fire in the northern province of Setif, according to a local mayor.

Every summer, northern Algeria is struck by forest fires, a phenomenon exacerbated by drought and climate change.

The fires have killed dozens of people in recent years and destroyed thousands of hectares of forest or farmland, along with numerous homes.


Germany Proposes EU Force to Replace UN Mission in Lebanon

15 July 2026, Finland, Helsinki: Johann Wadephul, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaks during a press conference following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart in the Finnish capital. (dpa)
15 July 2026, Finland, Helsinki: Johann Wadephul, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaks during a press conference following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart in the Finnish capital. (dpa)
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Germany Proposes EU Force to Replace UN Mission in Lebanon

15 July 2026, Finland, Helsinki: Johann Wadephul, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaks during a press conference following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart in the Finnish capital. (dpa)
15 July 2026, Finland, Helsinki: Johann Wadephul, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaks during a press conference following a meeting with his Finnish counterpart in the Finnish capital. (dpa)

German ‌Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has proposed replacing the expiring United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon with an EU-mandated force to prevent a security vacuum, he told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.

"We should examine in the EU whether we can ensure that no security vacuum arises with ‌a European ‌mandate following the UNIFIL ‌mission," ⁠Wadephul said in ⁠an interview published on Friday.

The UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission expires on December 31, 2026. Germany's parliament extended the country's participation in the mission for the final time just weeks ⁠ago.

Wadephul said Lebanon, with ‌a stabilizing ‌government, represented "one of the most hopeful developments ‌in the region at the moment."

Lebanon ‌and Israel held ambassador-level talks at the US embassy in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday — their sixth ‌round of face-to-face negotiations since a new war erupted on ⁠March ⁠2 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict.

An EU-mandated force could "create the conditions for the Israeli army to withdraw without Hezbollah returning with its terror," the minister added.

The proposal comes as European nations seek to maintain regional stability while balancing relations with Israel and Lebanon.


Syria Military Source Denies Iran Bombed Al-Tanf Base

The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. (AP)
The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. (AP)
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Syria Military Source Denies Iran Bombed Al-Tanf Base

The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. (AP)
The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria is seen on Oct. 22, 2018. (AP)

A Syrian military source denied to AFP on Friday that Iran had bombed the al-Tanf base near Syria's southeastern borders with Jordan and Iraq, after Tehran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted the facility in response to US strikes. 

"We deny any Iranian bombardment targeting the al-Tanf area," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.  

US forces said they withdrew from the base earlier this year after troops were stationed there as part of a US-led anti-ISIS coalition. 

Earlier on Friday, Iran's ‌Revolutionary Guards claimed they had attacked a US special operations command center at al-Tanf in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr, state media reported. 

Reuters could not independently verify the claim.

The US ‌military said in February ‌it ⁠completed a withdrawal from ⁠the al-Tanf base positioned at the tri-border confluence of Syria, Jordan and Iraq. 

Syria has sought to avoid being drawn into the regional conflict that has engulfed neighboring countries, including Lebanon, ⁠where Hezbollah has fought Israeli ‌forces, and ‌Iraq, where Iran-backed armed groups have launched drone ‌and rocket attacks. 

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa ‌said in March that his country would stay out of any conflict unless it came under attack. 

"Unless Syria is targeted by ‌any party, Syria will remain outside any conflict," Sharaa said at ⁠an ⁠event hosted by the Chatham House think tank in London. 

The Guards also said Iran retained full control of the Strait of Hormuz and that no oil or gas would be exported through the waterway for as long as US attacks continued, according to the state media report.