This liveblog is now closed.

Israel hammers Lebanon with strikes, killing 22

Lebanon’s health ministry said 22 people including eight children were killed on Wednesday as Israel intensified strikes on the country, with several deadly raids hitting south of Beirut.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli airstrikes had pounded around 40 locations in Lebanon’s south and east.

The fresh raids came on the eve of a new round of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel in Washington brokered by the United States, as Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah remains strongly opposed to the move.

The health ministry said late Wednesday that 10 people including six children had been killed in strikes on three south Lebanon villages.

Earlier, it reported that three strikes on cars along or near the coastal highway around 20 to 30 kilometres (12 to 19 miles) from Beirut had “resulted in eight martyrs, including two children”.

Lebanon says 10 more killed in Israeli strikes on south

Lebanon said 10 more people were killed in Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Wednesday, bringing the day’s toll to at least 22 dead.

The health ministry said six people “including three children and two women” were killed in the town of Arab Salim, while another child was killed in a strike on Harouf and three more people “including two children” were killed in Roumin, all in south Lebanon.

UAE denies reports of Netanyahu’s ‘secret’ visit to the country, foreign ministry says

⁠The ⁠United ​Arab Emirates’ ​foreign ministry denied on Wednesday the ​reports ‌of ⁠Israeli Prime Minister ‌Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit ⁠to the country, adding ​that any claims ‌regarding an unannounced visits ‌are ‘baseless’.

The Israeli ​PM office said earlier on Wednesday ​that Netanyahu visited ​the UAE ​and met ​the Emirati president during the war with ⁠Iran.

Trump says no need for Xi’s help on Iran war

US President Donald Trump ​headed to China on Wednesday for a high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping, saying he does not expect to need Beijing’s help to end the war with Iran and ease Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

FRANCE 24’s Washington correspondent Fraser Jackson has this analysis.



Drone strike hits Iranian opposition camp north of Erbil in Iraq, security sources report

A ⁠drone ​strike ​hit an Iranian opposition ​camp ‌north ⁠of ‌Iraq’s Erbil, ⁠security sources ​said on Wednesday ‌adding that ‌an ​arms and ammunition depot ​inside ​the camp ​was targeted.

Israel ruling coalition proposes dissolving parliament for early elections

Israel’s ruling coalition has submitted a proposal to dissolve the country’s parliament, paving the way for early elections, the party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

“The 25th Knesset shall be dissolved before the end of its term. Elections (to form the next parliament) will be held on a date determined by the Knesset Committee, which may not be set earlier than 90 days after the passage of this law,” the draft legislation released by Likud said.

According to Israeli media reports, the dissolution bill could be put to a vote on May 20.

Vance says US making progress in Iran talks

US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday he ​believes ‌progress is ⁠being made in negotiations with Iran ‌to end hostilities, after ⁠President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s latest proposal as unacceptable.

“I ​think that we ‌are making progress. The fundamental question is do we ‌make enough progress that we ​satisfy the President’s red line?” Vance told reporters at the ​White House. “And the red ​line is very ​simple. He needs to feel ​confident that we put a number of protections in place such that Iran ⁠will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Vice President JD Vance speaks to the media from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Should politics and culture mix? Eurovision 2026: inside the controversy

Eurovision has hit a “bum note” over the participation of Israel in this year’s song contest. Demonstrations are planned in Vienna against the presence of Noam Bettan and his song “Michelle.” He succeeded in getting through the semi final 24 hours ago, but his appearance was greeted by chants of “Stop the Genocide.” Five nations who usually take part have pulled out in protest, including serial Eurovision winners Ireland. The Netherlands, Spain and Iceland are the others.The question is should politics and culture be kept separate? Is that even possible? Beyond that comes the question of whether or not one can criticise Israel or Zionism without then facing accusations of being an Anti-Semite. Anti-Jewish. It is clear that many view Israel’s military operation in Gaza and the West Bank as a genocide. But should this mean a singer can’t take part in the Eurovision showcase event? We point out that Israel’s war on Gaza is the reaction to the Hamas attack that killed at least 1,500 people, with 250 taken hostage. That clearly was an atrocity. Isn’t Eurovision an escape from reality? Or are there some realities we cannot escape from? Watch The Debate below.

Netanyahu held ‘secret’ meeting in UAE with president, Israeli PM’s office says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a “secret” meeting with the president of the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, his office said Wednesday.

“During Operation ‘Lion’s Roar’, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,” his office said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference on March 19, 2026.

Lebanon says over 10,000 homes destroyed or damaged since Israel ceasefire

Saudi warplanes struck militias in Iraq during war, sources say

Saudi fighter jets bombed targets linked to powerful Tehran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq during the Iran war, while retaliatory strikes were also launched ​from Kuwait into Iraq, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.

The strikes are part of a broader pattern of military responses around the Gulf that remained largely hidden since the start of the Israeli-US strikes on Iran on February 28.

Those attacks triggered Iranian strikes on Gulf states and Israel that have rattled the global economy and shut the Strait of Hormuz.

The sources for the strikes from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait include three Iraqi security and military officials, a Western official, and ⁠two people briefed on the matter, one of them in the US.

Iran’s foreign minister demands immediate release of four Iranians detained in Kuwait

Iran’s ⁠Foreign ​Minister Abbas ​Araqchi said on Wednesday that Kuwait had ‘unlawfully’ ​attacked ‌an Iranian ⁠boat and ‌detained four Iranian citizens ⁠in the Gulf, adding that Tehran ​demands their ‌release and reserves the ‌right to respond.

On Tuesday, ​Kuwait said it had arrested four people affiliated ​with ​Iran’s Revolutionary ​Guards who attempted ​to infiltrate the Gulf state by sea.

Tentative Gaza truce hinges on Hamas’ disarmament, peace envoy says

Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday the truce hinged on Hamas’ disarmament, a sticking point that has stalled progress on other fronts, including rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave.

The high representative for U.S. President Donald Trump’s International Board of Peace in Gaza, Mladenov, said months without progress implementing the deal benefited neither Israel nor Palestinians. He said the phased deal was paralyzed over Hamas not yet disarming, calling it “not negotiable.”

International mediators have long said disarmament is core to the ceasefire, to which Hamas has agreed, but no significant progress has been made toward it. The Palestinian militant group has sought to link any demilitarization to Israeli troop pullbacks. Israel’s military remains in control of more than half Gaza.

“The only way that we believe that we can ensure that Israeli withdrawal takes place to the perimeter is if we have the full element of the plan unfolding in Gaza,” Mladenov said at a rare press conference in Jerusalem.

EU commissioner warns of potential jet fuel shortage in the long term

The European Union’s energy commissioner said Wednesday that while there is no immediate threat to jet fuel supplies, the possibility of a longer-term shortage cannot be ruled out.

Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told reporters that any shortage will depend on how the Iran war and the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will unfold, as well as how airlines will react after some companies — including the German owners of the airline Lufthansa — cancelled a significant number of flights.

While Jørgensen said “we’re not there yet” in terms of a jet fuel shortage, he said the bloc’s executive arm will start talks with member states “on how best to address the situation,” without offering any specifics.

The Iran war has caused the price of jet fuel to more than double in some markets since late February.

“Really, this is not an energy crisis. This is a fossil fuel crisis,” Jørgensen said.

UN rights chief calls on Israel to abolish Oct 7 military tribunal

The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday called on Israel to repeal a newly established special military tribunal to try Palestinian militants accused of taking part in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Israel’s parliament passed a law establishing the tribunal, with the authority to hand down the death penalty, late on Monday.

The special court is set to try attackers captured during or after the Hamas-led onslaught. It will also try those suspected of holding or abusing hostages in Gaza. According to Israeli media, around 400 suspects are expected to stand trial before the court.

“There must be full accountability for these horrific attacks, but this cannot be achieved through trials that fall short of international standards,” Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Europe falling short on replacing Middle East jet fuel imports, IEA says

Europe’s ⁠supply of jet ​fuel from the Middle East plummeted in April and ​the region is falling short on replacing those flows, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

Middle East jet fuel ​arrivals ‌into Europe dropped from 330,000 bpd ⁠in March to just 60,000 bpd in April, the IEA said in ‌a monthly report, as the Iran war and ⁠effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut supplies from the Gulf.

The IEA says importing ​regions, such as Europe, ideally need to ‌replace a minimum of 80%, and preferably 90%, of the lost Middle East import volumes to avoid summer ‌shortages.

Jet fuel is transported by tank trucks to aircrafts at the airport in Duesseldorf, Germany, when airlines fear a kerosene shortage due to the war in Iran, Monday, April 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Gaza Board of Peace envoy says clearing rubble will be ‘a generation of work’

The high representative for Gaza in US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on Wednesday said it would take a generation to reconstruct the Palestinian territory and clear it from war rubble.

“If we look at the tens of millions of tons of rubble that needs to be removed, at the number of people, over a million people, who need some sort of permanent shelter and basic water and sanitation — this is, by any scale, a generation of work for Gaza,” said Nickolay Mladenov during a press conference in Jerusalem.

Donald Trump arrives in China, with the war in Iran a key topic on the agenda

Donald Trump has arrived in China for a summit with his counterpart Xi Jinping, where the stakes are high on the global stage, and where the war in Iran will be a key topic of discussion.

According to the US administration, Donald Trump intends to press Beijing – Iran’s key strategic and economic partner and the main importer of its oil – to use its influence to resolve the crisis in the Gulf.

The US president has sought to halt China’s purchases of Iranian oil by imposing various sanctions, which have been condemned by Beijing. However, this has not yet escalated into an open diplomatic crisis.

The virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the Iranian and US blockades is having a direct impact on Chinese supplies. The war is beginning to take its toll on China.

On the eve of Donald Trump’s arrival, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Pakistan to “step up” its mediation efforts between Tehran and Washington, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE set to receive NATO summit invites

Gulf states Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE set to receive NATO summit invites with Iran war on agenda, Bloomberg news reported.