Children among 11 people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, say security sources
Six children are reported to be among at least 11 people killed in a wave of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
A woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of al-Sawana, two security sources said.
Four more children, three women and a man were killed by a strike on Nabatieh, the director of the town’s hospital, Dr Hassan Wazni, and three security sources told Reuters news agency.
Dr Wazni said the bodies of two of the women arrived at the hospital so badly damaged from the strike that they were hard to identify.
He said seven others were wounded.
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Media reports in Lebanon said buildings were on fire after the attacks by Israel.
Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, said four of its fighters were killed in separate strikes.
A spokesperson for the Israeli government said the strikes were launched after a woman died and eight other people were injured in a rocket attack fired from Lebanon on the Safed area in northern Israel, in which a military base was also hit.
Hezbollah is thought to be behind the initial rocket attack, but has not claimed responsibility.
It did not announce any operations on Wednesday – but the head of its executive council warned the Israeli attacks “cannot pass without a response”.
Latest exchange between Israel and Lebanon is unlikely to change status quo
The exchange of fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet – but the situation remains fundamentally the same.
Hezbollah’s Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war.
And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger war but has not decided to do so yet.
Ever since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Hezbollah and Israel have been duelling over the border.
Hezbollah feels it must show solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza but not become drawn into a repeat of the devastating conflict of 2006.
It knows the people of Lebanon will not forgive them for any escalation that could wreck the country’s already decimated economy.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in the areas of Jabal el Braij, Houneh, Dunin, Aadchit and Souaneh.
“Among the targets struck were military compounds, operational control rooms, and terror infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists.
“Several targets belonged to the Redwan Forces.”
Israeli jets struck several targets in Lebanon after a suspected Hezbollah rocket attack on Safed
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Cross-border shelling has already killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and some Israeli civilians.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months.
Officials said the northern Israeli city of Safed was targeted by rocket fire from inside Lebanon. Pic: Reuters
It came after the armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a deadly assault on Israel last October.
The exchange in fire has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the border areas of each country.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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