Lebanon, Israel hold new U.S.-mediated talks as strikes continue

With the latest Lebanon-Israel ceasefire nearing its expiry, officials from both countries returned to Washington today for fresh peace talks, even as Israeli strikes that have killed hundreds during the truce underscored how fragile the calm remains.

Israel’s military said it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after ordering residents in several towns and villages there, as well as in the country’s east, to evacuate.

It also said a Hezbollah drone crashed inside Israeli territory, injuring several civilians.

Hezbollah said it had “targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers at the Rosh HaNikra site” near the Lebanese border using a drone.

According to a diplomat familiar with the two-day negotiations, the delegations began meeting shortly after 9am local time (1300 Irish time) at the State Department.

The two countries last met on 23 April at the White House, where US President Donald Trump announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire and expressed confidence that a landmark deal could be within reach.

At the time, Mr Trump predicted that before the latest ceasefire period ended, he would host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington for what would be the first summit between the two nations.

That meeting never materialised, with Mr Aoun saying a security agreement had to be secured and Israeli attacks had to stop before any such historic encounter could take place.

Iran insists on a durable ceasefire in Lebanon before any broader war-ending deal

The ceasefire took effect on 17 April and had been extended through Sunday.

Even so, more than 400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes during the truce, according to an AFP tally based on figures provided by Lebanese authorities.

Israel has said it will continue striking Hezbollah, the armed group and political movement backed by Iran’s ruling clerics, despite the ceasefire.

Hezbollah launched its campaign of fire into Israel in response to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the outset of the US-Israeli war on 28 February.

“Anyone who threatens the state of Israel will die because of his actions,” Mr Netanyahu said last week after an Israeli strike in central Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

A Lebanese official told AFP that Beirut would use the Washington talks to press for “the consolidation of the ceasefire”.

“The first thing is to put an end to the death and destruction,” the official told AFP on custom of anonymity.

Iran has demanded a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon before any agreement is reached to end the wider war, frustrating Trump as Tehran has rebuffed his calls for a deal on his terms.

The conflict has rippled across the Middle East, shaking the global economy and affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

The UAE rejected reports that Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the country

Mr Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli prime minister “paid a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates” during the conflict and met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The UAE, which Iran has repeatedly targeted during the war, later said it “denies reports circulating regarding an alleged visit” by Mr Netanyahu.

It also denied “receiving any Israeli military delegation in the country”.

Lebanese authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel began the strikes in early March, among them at least 200 children.

Hezbollah said that figure includes its fighters.

Israel has struck Lebanese areas with large Shia populations, including Beirut’s southern suburbs, and has pushed into the border region, taking control of territory it had occupied from the 1982 Lebanon war until its withdrawal in 2000.

The United States has supported Lebanon’s demand to retain sovereignty over all of its territory, while repeatedly urging Beirut to move against Hezbollah.

The United States “recognizes that comprehensive peace is contingent on the full restoration of Lebanese state authority and the complete disarmament of Hezbollah,” a State Department statement said.

“These talks aim to break decisively from the failed approach of the past two decades, which allowed terrorist groups to entrench and enrich themselves, undermine the authority of the Lebanese state, and endanger Israel’s northern border,” it said.

This is the third round of talks between the two countries, which do not have diplomatic relations.

Unlike the previous round, which Mr Trump hosted at the White House, and the first round, neither Secretary of State Marco Rubio nor Mr Trump is taking part, with the president currently on a state visit to China.

US mediators at the two-day State Department meeting include the ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon – respectively Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor and staunch backer of Israel’s regional ambitions, and Michel Issa, a Lebanese-born businessman and golf partner of Mr Trump – as well as Mike Needham, a close aide to Mr Rubio.

Lebanon’s delegation will be led by special envoy Simon Karam, a veteran lawyer and diplomat who has strongly defended Lebanese sovereignty, along with the country’s ambassador in Washington.

Israel’s team includes its ambassador in Washington, Yechiel Leiter, a Netanyahu ally with close ties to the Israeli settler movement in the occupied West Bank.

Israelis chant threats, anti-Palestinian slogans at Jerusalem Day march

Israeli settlers join the Jerusalem Day parade at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City

Elsewhere, Israeli nationalists surged through the tight lanes of Jerusalem’s Old City today, shouting “Death to Arabs” and “May your villages burn” during the annual Jerusalem Day march, while many Palestinian residents stayed behind locked doors.

Each year, tens of thousands of Israelis – many of them teenagers and young adults – take part in the parade to mark what Israeli authorities describe as the ‘reunification’ of Jerusalem after Israel captured and annexed east Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The annexation of east Jerusalem, where the population is predominantly Palestinian, is not recognised by the United Nations, which regards it as illegal under international law.

Over time, the annual procession has repeatedly erupted into violence, with groups of mostly young ultranationalists directing racist chants, intimidation and assaults at Palestinians.

This year’s march unfolded against the backdrop of the Iran war and a ceasefire in Gaza that continues to see near-daily violations.

Palestinian president Abbas promises elections, reforms at Fatah conference

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) attends the Fatah Congress in Ramallah, West Bank

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pledged today to continue reforms within the Palestinian Authority, telling a gathering of his Fatah party that he was also ready to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

Fatah opened a three-day conference to choose a new central committee, its top leadership body, for the first time in a decade, as the movement confronts existential pressure in the aftermath of the Gaza war.

“We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged,” Mr Abbas said in an address, while also promising new elections without setting out a timetable.

Referring to Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories, the 90-year-old veteran leader said staging the conference “on our homeland’s soil confirms our determination to continue on the democratic path”.

Mr Abbas was unanimously re-elected leader of the Fatah movement, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

His re-election also means he will remain head of the party’s central committee.

Mr Abbas and the Palestinian Authority face growing pressure from the United States, the European Union and Arab states to enact reforms and hold elections, amid widespread allegations of corruption and political stagnation and a steady erosion of the body’s legitimacy among Palestinians.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sent a video message to the conference on behalf of the international Socialist movement, renewing its support for a two-state solution at a moment of “profound difficulty” for the Palestinian people.

The Socialist premier has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause and a critic of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, and Spain was among several European countries that formally recognised a Palestinian state in 2024.

“As the Socialist International, we reaffirm our commitment to a just and lasting political solution based on international law and peaceful coexistence,” Mr Sanchez said in a prerecorded message played at the conference.

“The two-state solution remains the necessary framework to move forward towards that goal.”