Israeli strike kills two in Lebanon as Rubio begins Gulf tour

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US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls' school in Iran on 28 February, the first day of the Iran war, that killed scores of children.

Reuters first ‌reported in March that an initial internal US military investigation showed US forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab in southern Iran. The Pentagon has ​since elevated the probe but it has not acknowledged any ​preliminary findings.

"I don't know that they are ever going to solve that problem," Trump told reporters.

"I don't know that they are ever going to solve that problem in terms of whose fault was it because there were missiles flying all over the place, and it's horrible what happened but there were missiles flying all over the place," he said.

"Somebody said it was our missile, maybe it wasn't our missile but I have seen nothing to lead me to believe it was," Trump remarked, adding: "I don't think it was us."

US President Donald Trump asked Congress on Wednesday for nearly $88 billion in extra spending, most of it to cover the cost of the Iran war, at a moment of growing unease in both parties over the conflict and its political price.

The White House request for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding includes tens of billions of dollars for the Pentagon, as well as money for US farmers, Ebola response efforts in central Africa and domestic infrastructure projects.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a deal with Iran that included fees in the Strait of Hormuz would be "unacceptable."

Hezbollah accused Israel of a new ceasefire "violation" on Wednesday after an Israeli drone killed two people in southern Lebanon a day after two people died in Israeli gunfire.

"For the second time in less than 48 hours, the Israeli enemy army deliberately targeted Lebanese citizens who were inspecting their homes" near the town of Kfar Rumman, the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

Hezbollah said it "reiterates that the enemy's actions constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire to which it has adhered thus far, and that it is monitoring and documenting these violations".

Israeli settlers have stormed the Arab al-Ara'ara Bdouin community, northeast of Jerusalem, according to Wafa, which reported that settlers attempted to steal the community's livestock.

Israel's military said a contractor was killed in an "operational accident" in Gaza on Wednesday, the sixth Israeli death in the Palestinian territory since a ceasefire was reached with Hamas in October.

"Earlier today, during IDF and security forces' activity in the Gaza Strip, an employee working for a contractor company carrying out engineering projects on behalf of the Ministry of Defence was killed as a result of an operational accident," the military said in a statement.

Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, has said that UNIFIL has observed Israeli ground activity and "ongoing Israeli airspace violations, mostly by drones," in Lebanon, though there was relative calm due to the ceasefire.

He said that last night, UNIFIL "observed two missile trajectories launched from south of the Blue Line that landed north of the Litani River," according to Al Jazeera.

Four Israeli patrol boats were also within Lebanese territorial waters.

Some 20 million barrels of crude oil have exited the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, as tankers continue to transit the key waterway for Middle East supply, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday.

"I could say roughly 72 ships in the last 24 hours, and 20 million barrels of oil," Wright told the Reuters Global Energy Forum in New York when asked how much oil had exited the strait, following an initial US-Iran agreement to end the war.

"Iran will not have the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz going forward. That's a critical thing, that's their key leverage, and we're taking that leverage away from them," he added.

Benchmark oil prices fell more than $3 on Wednesday to ​their lowest level since before the start of the Iran war in February as supply concerns eased with more stranded oil tankers exiting the strait.

Shipments through the narrow waterway bordering Iran have been curtailed for months by the conflict, interrupting the flow of about one-fifth of the world's crude oil.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran is making very big concessions.

"We're winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions. We'll see what happens," Trump told reporters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he believed technical talks between the United States and Iran would resume on June 29 or 30 in Switzerland.

"The technical group will be back, I believe, on the 29th or the 30th... I believe they're going back to Switzerland, if I'm not mistaken," Rubio said.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued to improve compared to pre-US and Iran agreement levels on Tuesday, with some ships crossing through a new IMO evacuation route, tracking data showed.

As of 1500 GMT on Wednesday, maritime tracking firm Kpler recorded 25 transits by commodity ships on Tuesday, and 17 so far on Wednesday.

Total figures are likely to rise further, as crossings are identified retrospectively, notably through satellite imagery.

Tuesday's crossings fall short of the 38 commodities transits detected on Monday, the highest amount since the Strait of Hormuz was closed down by Iran on 1 March at the start of the Middle East war.

However, Tuesday's crossings continue to suggest an improvement in traffic compared with figures before the US and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding on 14 June.

Since June 15, on average 22 ships have crossed every day according to Kpler, compared with less than 10 daily transits between March 1 and June 14.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the United States will not do anything that would undermine the security of US allies in the Gulf region when it comes to dealings with Iran.

Italy on Wednesday criticised comments by NATO chief Mark Rutte on the politically sensitive issue of US forces using bases in Italy during the Iran war.

Responding to President Donald Trump's criticism of NATO allies for not supporting the US, Rutte told Fox News that Europe was in fact a "platform of power projection for the United States".

"Five hundred US planes took off from US bases in Italy to support (Operation) Epic Fury. So this is massive," Rutte told the network ahead of an expected meeting with Trump.

He said there were 4,000 to 5,000 sorties by US planes from European bases during the conflict.

Italy's defence ministry in a statement said Rutte's words gave "a completely misleading message by confusing the type of flights that were authorised".

It said Italy had allowed only "technical and logistical" US flights during Epic Fury under existing agreements with the United States.

"On the occasions when a request was put forward that fell outside this scope, as is well known, Italy did not grant authorisation," the statement said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the United States has not demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, a condition reportedly set by Tehran in ceasefire negotiations.

"We have announced that in any case we are not withdrawing and, as of this moment - and this is a diplomatic achievement - there is no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon," Katz said in an interview at a convention of local leaders in Tel Aviv.

When asked if the army would adhere to such a US request if it arrived, Katz said he told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump that "we are there to protect the residents of the north".

Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian man after besieging his house in the occupied West Bank town of al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which reported that undercover Israeli forces injured the man after surrounding the house, later preventing ambulance crews from reaching him.

Representatives of bodies tasked with Gaza's post-war governance and reconstruction will gather in Cyprus next week, Nicosia and an official with the US-backed Board of Peace said Wednesday, with Israeli media describing the meeting as a chance for a "reset".

The committee of Palestinian technocrats who are meant to assume day-to-day governance of the territory will also attend, a committee member told AFP.

Cypriot government spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis said the meeting would take place next Tuesday and Wednesday.

A Board of Peace official told AFP that it "regularly holds internal meetings of its component elements" and the "meeting planned for Cyprus is no different".

The board, he added, "is actively preparing measures to advance reconstruction and governance for the people of Gaza".

The US Embassy in Kuwait has resumed operations that were suspended following attacks in March by Iran, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The embassy will immediately resume emergency services for American citizens while other services will be phased in, the spokesperson said.

The State Department shut down embassy operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in March after Iranian drones fired at the missions following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.