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Middle East crisis live: Trump tells Israel and Iran to stop ‘shooting’ after countries launch first strikes since April ceasefire | US-Israel war on Iran
Trump demands that Israel and Iran ‘immediately stop shooting’
In an extremely short post on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump demanded Israel and Iran to “immediately stop shooting”.
Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran. However, Israel launched strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday, apparently ignoring the US president’s warning not to.
Netanyahu, who is facing domestic political pressure to continue his war on Lebanon, particularly from far-right elements of his fragile coalition, is therefore derailing peace talks but escaping any serious reprimand for doing so from Washington.
Key events
Over in the UK, British prime minister Keir Starmer has said it was “really important that all parties get back to a ceasefire” in the Middle East after Israel and Iran attacked each other’s territory for the first time since the April ceasefire came into effect.
The prime minister said:
I am deeply concerned about the resumption of violence. It is really important that all parties get back to a ceasefire.
There are serious negotiations going on, towards a lasting peace. It’s really important that we give them ever chance of success because this conflict is already having a huge impact across the world, including here in the United Kingdom.
So I say to all parties, we all have a responsibility to get back to that ceasefire and it’s really important we’re very clear about that.
Iranian media is reporting that the country’s air defences shot down a drone over Tehran earlier today. It followed reports of several explosions being heard in the capital.
Mohammad Esmaeil Tavakoli, head of emergency services in Tehran province, was quoted by the Mehr news agency as having said that there were no casualties so far, and that authorities were investigating “two explosions”.
An Israeli military official said Iran has fired nearly 30 missiles towards Israel since Sunday night, adding that Yemen’s Houthi rebels separately fired two missiles at the country.
Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that at least 9 people were killed and 43 others injured in Israeli attacks across the territory over the past day.
The health ministry says 970 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the supposed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect in October 2025.
It says that 72,980 people, many of whom were women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since October 2023, when Israel launched its assault on the territory following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
The Lebanese presidency has a statement from the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, after his meeting with Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, last night.
It said they discussed the US mediated negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, with Issa praising the “effectiveness” and “high professionalism” of the Lebanese negotiating team.
He said Donald Trump follows developments in Lebanon extremely closely but acknowledged that negotiations may “take time” as all “issues” will probably not be resolved in a single meeting.
“What happened yesterday is a political message, and we in the United States have decided not to allow the confrontation to expand further,” Issa said, confirming that further negotiations are due to take place in Washington despite the fresh strikes.
“We have reached a point of no return; the ice has been broken, and we are continuing to help Lebanon emerge from its crisis.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (L) pictured with the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michael Issa, at Baabda Palace, Lebanon, on 1 May 2026. Photograph: Lebanese Presidency Office/APAImages/Shutterstock
Hezbollah is not a party to the negotiations between Israel and the government of Lebanon. Despite being engaged in diplomacy with Lebanon, Israel is striking southern Lebanon and ordering mass evacuation orders on a near-daily basis.
Both Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly violated the US-brokered April ceasefire, which is a ceasefire in name only, much like the ceasefire in Gaza and increasingly the ceasefire with Iran.
Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones into northern Israel and against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon as it rejects pushes for its disarmament and Israeli occupation of large areas of southern Lebanon.
Trump demands that Israel and Iran ‘immediately stop shooting’
In an extremely short post on his Truth Social platform, Donald Trump demanded Israel and Iran to “immediately stop shooting”.
Trump has leaned on Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon to allow room for a deal to end the wider war with Iran. However, Israel launched strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday, apparently ignoring the US president’s warning not to.
Netanyahu, who is facing domestic political pressure to continue his war on Lebanon, particularly from far-right elements of his fragile coalition, is therefore derailing peace talks but escaping any serious reprimand for doing so from Washington.
IDF says it expects several days of ‘fighting’ with Iran
The Israeli army said it is preparing for at least several days of “fighting” with Iran, or a prolonged “campaign”, according to a military statement being carried by the Israeli newspaper Hareetz.
It said the strikes are only being carried out by Israel, but noted there is “full coordination” with US Central Command, as the US military has helped in the interception of missiles fired by Iran at Israel.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah has not joined the fighting with strikes against Israel, but stressed it is ready for the possibility it may do so.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires:
Fresh explosions reportedly heard in Tehran
We are seeing reports of explosions being heard in the Iranian capital of Tehran. We don’t have many details yet but will provide updates as soon as more information comes in.
The IDF said in a post on X that dozens of air force fighter jets have “completed an extensive strike” on “strategic defence systems” in Iran. There has been no official comment from Iran on this claim.
Diplomatic activity is continuing as regional concerns about the further unravelling of the US-Iran ceasefire intensify. The Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, spoke with the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, earlier today, the Qatari foreign ministry said. During the call, they discussed US-Iran mediation efforts and the latest “developments” in Lebanon.
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''Scary' clash in Channel' and 'Oh frigate!'
The papers lead on warning shots fired by a Russian warship near a UK-registered yacht in the English Channel.
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Ukraine war briefing: Moped ban in Crimea as official says noise is Kyiv plot using youth | Ukraine
Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, has banned riding moped scooters, quad bikes and motorcycles at night-time, saying they sound like drone attacks and suggesting children are doing it deliberately at Kyiv’s behest. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of the illegally occupied peninsula, said the ban would be in place between 8pm and 6am from Wednesday onwards.
Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov’s adviser, claimed separately on Telegram: “The enemy is recruiting your children for night-time rides … The moped noise hampers the work of defence systems. Their engines sound similar [to drones].” Ukraine has recently intensified drone attacks on Crimea, nominally the home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – targeting the peninsula’s supply routes and triggering a fuel crisis. A limit of 20 litres (5.3 gallons) of fuel per car at petrol stations would continue, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Crimea’s biggest city, Sevastopol, posted on Tuesday. Long lines of motorists queueing in Russian-controlled Crimea, southern Krasnodar region in Russia proper, and elsewhere underscore the sensitive domestic fallout from Ukraine’s strikes.
A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at the refinery that is the largest fuel supplier to the Moscow region, and two industry sources told Reuters that it had halted operations. The strike on Gazprom Neft’s refinery in south-east Moscow on Tuesday damaged a primary refining facility that accounts for 53% of the plant’s capacity. Emergency services said the fire was put out and did not affected operations – information that was contradicted by Reuters sources. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said the Moscow refinery was hit from a distance of 500km (310 miles). “This is a just response to Russian strikes – and to the dragging out of a war that must be ended.” Gazprom Neft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US could soon reinstate sanctions on Russian oil shipments, Donald Trump indicated, as leaders at the G7 summit moved on Tuesday to put the war in Ukraine back on top of their agenda. Trump said the sanctions on Russia – partly waived by the US due to the Iran war, ostensibly to help lower oil prices – can go back in place as more oil moves through the strait of Hormuz. “Soon we’ll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing. We’re in a position to do that soon.”
Russia should make peace with Ukraine, the US president said after a “very good” meeting with Zelenskyy. “Look, Russia should make a deal,” Trump told reporters, adding that too many young men were dying on the battlefield on both sides. “I’m gonna do whatever I can.” The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said of Trump’s statement: “I found him to be very cooperative, and I also saw him listening very attentively. And in that respect, once again, it gives me a certain degree of optimism that we here, as Europeans and as Americans, are now doing everything we can, together, to end the war.”
A Ukrainian Su-24M bomber aircraft crashed on a mission in the Khmelnitskyi region in western Ukraine on Tuesday and its two-member crew was killed, the Ukrainian air force said. Ukraine is estimated to have about a dozen of the ageing SU-24 family of warplanes. They are used to launch the Scalp/Storm Shadow cruise missiles supplied by Britain and France.
Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least eight people on Tuesday, officials said. A drone strike in Nikopol, central Dnipropetrovsk region, killed “a mother and son – a woman of 87 and a 51-year-old man” as well as a third person not immediately identified, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Hanzha. “The enemy targeted people walking along the road with an FPV drone,” Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram. He posted a blurred photo of a wheelchair on a road and what appeared to be a body underneath.
Russian shelling of the Donetsk region city of Sloviansk killed three people, while drone strikes on the southern Kherson region killed two people and wounded 16, according to officials. Five Russian attacks on the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia left one person dead, three injured and set ablaze a home and a shopping centre, said Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor.
Repairs to the nearly 1,000-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv could take around two years, an official said on Tuesday. A Russian attack on the complex set fire to the roof of the Dormition Cathedral within the vast Unesco world heritage site. More than 80% of the 11th-century cathedral’s roof had been damaged, but firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading inside the cathedral, Maksym Ostapenko, director general of the complex, was cited as saying by Interfax Ukraine news agency.
A Russian artist critical of Vladimir Putin and the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has been shot and killed in the eastern Polish town of Biała Podlaska, a prosecutor has said. Local media identified the victim as Robert Kuzovkov, who was also known by his artistic pseudonym, Semyon Skrepetsky. Pjotr Sauer writes that five shots were fired at the victim, including one to the head, in the attack on Monday, according to Marcin Kozak, a spokesperson for the district prosecutor in Lublin. Two Belarusians had been detained but no one had yet been charged. Other Russian exiles suspected Kadyrov was responsible.
The Chinese embassy in London said it had complained to British authorities about sanctions on several entities, including four from China, for allegedly supplying key military equipment to Russia. “China has consistently promoted peace talks and strictly controlled exports of dual-use goods,” an embassy spokesperson said. “Normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Russia should not be disrupted or affected.” Britain’s latest sanctions package, announced on Tuesday, includes cracking down on third-country suppliers of critical military equipment to Russia in China, Thailand and Turkey.
The US extended by 15 days until 1 July a sanctions waiver on Serbia’s Russian-controlled oil company NIS, allowing it to continue importing and processing crude, the firm said. Washington has demanded since early 2025 that Russia’s sanctioned Gazprom Neft sell it stake in NIS, which has been threatened by US financial sanctions that have been repeatedly postponed. Talks on the sale of the Russian-held stake in NIS to Hungary’s MOL energy company have gone on for months, with the US Treasury’s foreign assets control office extending the deadline for their completion until 16 June.
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Streeting would 'be prepared' to trigger leadership contest as early as next week
But the former health secretary told BBC Newsnight he would prefer for the prime minister “to take a decision on his own terms”.
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