Israel and Hezbollah clash in southern Lebanon, strikes kill 19

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Top US diplomat Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Mideast ally Qatar, the State Department said, highlighting the Gulf state's role as a key intermediary for Washington as it awaited Tehran's response on a peace proposal.

"The Secretary expressed appreciation for Qatar's partnership on a range of issues," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on the meeting between Rubio and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also Qatar's foreign minister.

"The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed US support for Qatar's defence, and the importance of continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East."

Israel carried out strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least nine people in the south according to authorities, with raids also targeting a highway not far from Beirut outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

The fresh attacks were some of the most intense since the start of a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has done little to halt daily exchanges of fire, mostly in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah said Saturday that it had targeted troops in northern Israel with drones on at least two occasions in response to the continued strikes.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA), meanwhile, reported a series of Israeli strikes across the south, including one on the town of Saksakiyeh.

The health ministry said that the raid "resulted in an initial toll of seven martyrs, including a girl, and 15 wounded, including three children".

Israel set up a clandestine military outpost in the Iraqi desert to support its air campaign against Iran and launched airstrikes against Iraqi troops who nearly discovered it, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter, including US officials.

Israel built the installation, which housed special forces and served as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force, with the knowledge of the US just before the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran, the newspaper said. It also included search-and-rescue teams positioned to assist any downed Israeli pilots, the Journal said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister's office to a Reuters request for comment.

The base was almost discovered in early March after Iraqi state media said a local shepherd reported unusual military activity, including helicopter movements in the area.

Iraqi troops were dispatched to investigate, but Israeli forces used airstrikes to keep them at a distance and prevent the site from being discovered, the paper said, citing one of the sources.

The Journal cited a complaint filed with the United Nations later in March in which Iraq said the attack involved foreign forces and airstrikes and attributed it to the US. The WSJ cited a person familiar with the matter as saying the United States was not involved in the attack. 

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard on Saturday threatened to target US sites in the region and "enemy ships" if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported.

"Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships," it said, a day after US attacks against two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Iran's soccer federation said on Saturday the country "definitely" will participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup and insisted that tournament hosts, the United States, Canada and Mexico, consider Tehran's concerns around the team's travel and how it will be treated.

"All players and technical staff, especially those who served their military service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, should be granted visas without problems," Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran president Mehdi Taj said, according to Iranian media.

In the statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, Taj said Friday that Iran had presented conditions tied to participation, including guarantees over visas, security and treatment of Iranian players and officials, and added that the Islamic Republic would take part "without retreating from our beliefs, culture and convictions".

Israeli strikes on Saturday evening killed four Lebanese in Southern Lebanon. 

One person was killed after an Israeli drone strike targeted a vehicle in Nabatieh, while three more were killed after Israeli jets targeted a building, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.

Hezbollah said it targeted troops in northern Israel with drones on Saturday in response to repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite an ongoing truce between the two sides.

In a statement, the group said that it "targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers near Misgav Am", just over the border, in retaliation for "the Israeli enemy's violation of the ceasefire".

Hours later, it said it had launched another drone at "a gathering of Israeli enemy soldiers at a helicopter landing pad" in Shlomi, also along the countries' shared frontier.

The group also announced attacks on Israeli military targets inside Lebanon using rockets and drones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he hoped that the Iran conflict would end as soon as possible but that if it did not then everyone would lose out. 

A settler attack in Nablus injured two Palestinian women, including one who is pregnant, in the occupied West Bank.

The settlers attacked homes with stones, with two women, a 35-year-old and a 65-year-old, facing injuries.

Qatari LNG tanker Al Kharaitiyat was sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday after departing Qatar's Ras Laffan en route to Port Qasim in Pakistan, according to LSEG shipping data. A successful passage would mark the first transit by a Qatari LNG tanker through the strait since the start of the war on Iran. There was no immediate comment from QatarEnergy.

The LNG is being sold by Qatar to Pakistan - a mediator in the war - under a government-to-government deal, according to two people familiar with the matter. They said Iran had approved the shipment to help build confidence with Qatar and Pakistan.

Pakistan has been in discussions with Iran to allow a limited number of LNG tankers to pass through the strait, as Islamabad urgently needs to address its gas shortage, a source briefed on the agreement told Reuters.

Iran agreed to assist, and the two sides are coordinating the first vessel's safe passage carrying gas supplied under Pakistan's agreement with Qatar, its main LNG supplier, the source added.

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume the body of their father from his freshly dug village grave, his family said, near a settlement re-established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Hussein Asasa, 80, died on Friday of natural causes and was buried that evening at the cemetery of Asasa village near Jenin, with all the necessary permits from Israel's military, whose forces were at the site, his son Mohammed said.

But shortly after the burial, the family was called back by some of the villagers, who said settlers were at the grave, ordering the grave to be dug up.

"They said the land was for settlement and that burial was not allowed. We told them that this is the village's cemetery, not part of the settlement," said Asasa.

The settlers then threatened to dig the grave up with a bulldozer, Asasa said, so the family decided to exhume their father's body themselves.

"We found that they already dug the grave and reached the body," Asasa said. "We continued digging and got the body and buried him in another cemetery," he said.

A video circulating on social media appeared to show settlers watching as people dig in the ground of a hill slope. They then carry away what looks like a body as Israeli troops walk behind them. Reuters verified the location as Asasa.

The US's Central Command has said that the naval blockade of Iran is continuing, saying "CENTCOM forces have redirected 58 commercial vessels and disabled 4 since April 13 to prevent the ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports."

Qatari LNG tanker Al Kharaitiyat was sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday after departing Ras Laffan en route to Port Qasim in Pakistan, according to LSEG shipping data.

A successful passage would mark the first transit by a Qatari LNG tanker through the strait since the start of the war on Iran. There was no immediate comment from QatarEnergy.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on the southern town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people, including a girl, in the latest attack during a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that "the Israeli enemy raid on the town of Saksakiyeh, in the Sidon district, resulted in an initial toll of seven martyrs, including a girl, and 15 wounded, including three children".

Lebanon's National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike struck the town of Marwaniyeh, causing injuries. It added that the planes also struck Zrarieh and Arzi.

Hezbollah on Saturday said it targeted northern Israel with a drone in response to repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon despite an ongoing truce between the two sides.

In a statement, the group said that it "targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy army soldiers near Misgav Am" with a drone in response to "the Israeli enemy's violation of the ceasefire".

The UK will send a destroyer to the Middle East ahead of any international mission to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, its defence ministry said Saturday.

"The pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow," a ministry spokesperson told AFP.

Israeli aircraft struck several parts of south Lebanon, according to Lebanon's National News Agency, which reported strikes on the Sharafiyat area east of Abbasiya, as well as the town of Ain Ba'al. Air strikes also targeted the outskirts of hte town of Tayr Dibba.

A girl has succumbed to her wounds inflicted in an Israeli strike on the city of Nabatiyeh in south Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera, citing the country's National News Agency.

Israel will release two foreign activists taken off a Gaza-bound flotilla from detention on Saturday before handing them to immigration authorities ahead of their deportation, the rights group representing them said.

"Today, the Shabak Israeli intelligence agency informed Adalah's legal team that Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) activists and leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek would be released from Israeli detention today, Saturday 9 May 2026," Adalah said in a statement, adding the pair "will be handed to Israel's immigration authorities later today and kept in custody pending their deportation".

Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were brought to Israel for questioning last week after their flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off Greece.

Five people have been killed, and a further 15 have been injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to Gaza's health authorities.

This means that some 72,736 Palestinians have been killed and 172,535 more have been wounded by Israeli attacks on the enclave.

An Israeli drone strike killed a Lebanese man and wounded his daughter, according to Al Jazeera, citing Lebanon's National News Agency. The strike occurred while they were rifing a motorcycle near Al-Sabah High School in Nabatiyeh.

Bahrain's interior ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 41 people it said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the state news agency reported.

The ministry said security authorities uncovered a group linked to Iran's IRGC, adding that investigations by the public prosecutor had also involved cases related to sympathy with Iranian attacks.

Iran fired ⁠at targets in Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states where the US has military bases after the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on 28 February. 

Israeli airstrikes have hit the outskirts of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, with other strikes reported in Aroun and Kafr Tibnit, according to Al Jazeera.

The President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, and the UAE's President, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, held a call to discuss the ongoing war in south Lebanon as well as wider regional developments, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.

The NNA said that Aoun "expressed solidarity with the UAE and its people," while his counterpart reaffirmed the UAE's "consistent support for Lebanon and its people."

Russia and the UAE have held a phone call to discuss the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the Russian side emphasises the need to concentrate on supporting the ongoing negotiation efforts between Iran and the US."

"The foreign ministers agreed to remain in contact and work towards aligning the approaches of all parties involved in the search for a long-term, sustainable settlement," the statement added.

The Israeli military called on residents of more than half a dozen villages in southern Lebanon to immediately leave on Saturday ahead of expected attacks, despite a truce with Lebanon intended to halt the fighting.

"In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement, the [military] is compelled to act against it forcefully," the military's head of the Arab media division, Avichay Adraee, posted on X, listing nine villages.

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and stay away from the villages and towns by a distance of no less than 1,000 metres to open areas," he added.