Netanyahu to discuss Iran with Trump as Israeli strikes kill four in Gaza

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the Middle East concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow.
 

Here are today's main events covered by The New Arab before the blog concludes:

• Netanyahu expected to hold discussions with Trump focused on Iran and regional escalation
• Fresh Israeli military operations reported across Gaza, Lebanon, and surrounding fronts
• Casualties reported in multiple Gaza locations as drone and air strikes continue
• US-Israel-Iran tensions remain central to wider regional conflict developments
• Hezbollah and Israeli forces continue exchanges despite ongoing diplomatic efforts
• Israeli leadership reiterates security aims amid ongoing operations in Gaza
• Regional diplomacy stalls as military activity intensifies across multiple theatres

An Israeli missile strike on an apartment in eastern Lebanon killed an Islamic Jihad commander and his 17-year-old daughter, Lebanese state media said Sunday.

Emergency workers were searching the rubble for survivors of the blast on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek, the National News Agency reported.

The Group of Seven countries is the right forum for discussing how to bring a lasting end to the war in Iran, which along with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz poses a serious threat to the global economy, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Monday.

Klingbeil will travel to Paris to join a meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bankers on Monday and Tuesday.

"Our path as Europeans remains clear: We rely on cooperation rather than confrontation," Klingbeil said. "We rely on partnerships, reliability, open trade, and the strength of the rule of law."

The minister said recent crises had underlined the need for Germany and Europe to become more independent and resilient, particularly in raw materials, energy and supply chains.

He said there would also be talks in Paris with finance ministers from Brazil, India, South Korea and Kenya in a push to broaden international partnerships.

The minister also said Germany would not allow the Middle East crisis to distract from Russia's war with Ukraine. Klingbeil is scheduled to sign a double taxation agreement in Paris with his Ukrainian counterpart, Sergii Marchenko.

"This strengthens economic exchange and creates legal certainty," he said.

Israeli strikes killed seven people in Lebanon on Sunday, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Lebanese authorities and state media said, despite a fragile ceasefire as Hezbollah called US-brokered talks between the two countries a "dead end".

The health ministry published a "preliminary toll" for Israel's strikes on Sunday, with three people killed in the town of Tayr Felsay, including a child, and two killed in the town of Tayr Debba, including another child.

It said 11 people were wounded in those strikes and four more were wounded in strikes in two other southern towns.

Later Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli missile strike around midnight on an apartment on the outskirts of the city of Baalbek in the country's east had killed Islamic Jihad commander Wael Abdel Halim and his 17-year-old daughter.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strike widely in southern Lebanon and issues frequent evacuation warnings to towns and villages across the south.

Two Israeli strikes also hit the town of Sohmor in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa valley on Sunday, the state-run NNA said.

The Israeli army later issued an evacuation warning to four villages near the southern coastal city of Sidon, dozens of kilometres from the border area, which were also subject to an evacuation warning on Saturday.

Israeli airstrikes hit three of the four villages following the warning, the NNA said.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it intercepted three drones after they entered its territory from Iraqi airspace.

The kingdom's defense ministry said it would take the necessary operational measures to respond to any attempt to violate its sovereignty and security.

While hostilities during the Iran conflict have largely been scaled down since a ceasefire came into effect in April, drones have been launched from Iraq towards Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. 

Our colleague Nezar Kandil reports that six Palestinians were injured on Sunday evening after an Israeli reconnaissance drone targeted a group of people on Al-Baraka Street in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Sources said that the drone fired at least one missile towards the gathering. Several of those injured were reported to be in critical condition.

Medical workers and residents transported the wounded to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza for treatment. Several patients were admitted to intensive care, with injuries ranging from moderate to severe.

Since Sunday morning, five separate strikes have been reported across Gaza.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the drone strike that triggered a fire near a nuclear power plant in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.

The ministry said in a statement that the attack was "a threat to the security and stability of the region" and expressed its solidarity with the UAE, saying it would "support all measures taken to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity" of the country.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened consequences for Iran if its leaders do not act quickly.

"For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!," he wrote in a Truth Social post.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel had almost completed a key goal of the war in Gaza -- eliminating all those responsible for orchestrating the October 7 attack.

His remarks followed the Israeli military's announcement that Ezzedine Al-Haddad, commander of Hamas's armed wing, had been killed in an airstrike in Gaza on Friday.

"I promised that every single architect of the massacre and the hostage-taking would be eliminated down to the last one, and we are very close to completing this mission," Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting, describing Haddad as a "despicable terrorist".

United States President Donald Trump is expected to hold a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday with his top national security advisers to discuss the options for military action regarding Iran, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two US officials.

The New Arab has not been able to independently confirm the claims.

Lebanon's health ministry said Sunday that new Israeli strikes on the country's south killed five people including two children, despite an ongoing ceasefire.

The ministry published a "preliminary toll" for strikes on Sunday, with three killed in the town of Tayr Felsay, including a child, and two more were killed in the town of Tayr Debba, including another child.

It said 11 people were wounded in those strikes.

The millionaire businessman son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has won a steering role in his father's political party Fatah, a party official said on Sunday, as a succession fight looms for control of the embattled Palestinian Authority (PA).

Yasser Abbas won a seat in elections for the Fatah Central Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, at its first general conference in almost a decade. Mahmoud Abbas, 90, will remain chairman, it decided.

The PA was set up as an interim administration under the 1990s Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group still internationally recognised as the representative of the Palestinian people. The powerful Fatah party dominates both the PA and the PLO.

Abbas' son's foray into politics has fuelled speculation that the president may be seeking to position Yasser, 64, to succeed him as head of Fatah.

That has drawn criticism from some Fatah officials, who say Yasser would be unable to unify Palestinians or help them chart a new political future after years without national elections or tangible steps toward statehood.

In the more than two decades since Mahmoud Abbas was elected to succeed Fatah founder Yasser Arafat, Palestinians have come to view the PA as ineffective and corrupt, something denied by Abbas, who has ruled by decree since his mandate expired in 2009.

Hezbollah said it detonated an explosive device against Israeli forces attempting to advance on the town of Yohmor al-Shqif, killing and wounding soldiers, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Hezbollah fired artillery and drones against two gatherings of Israeli soldiers in Khallet Raj in the town of Deir Siryan, and the port in the town of Naqoura, NNA added.

The United Arab Emirates condemned a drone attack that caused a fire near its nuclear plant on Sunday, calling it a "dangerous escalation".

"The UAE emphasised that it will not tolerate any threat to its security and sovereignty under any circumstances," a foreign ministry statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with US President Donald Trump, according to the Times of Israel, citing Netanyahu's office.

The two spoke about the war in Iran, with the meeting coming amid reports that the two might launch another round of strikes on Iran.

You can read more about those reports below: 

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti topped preliminary elections for the Central Committee of Fatah by a wide margin, according to unofficial early results released following the movement’s eighth conference.

The results reinforce the jailed leader's enduring popularity among Fatah amid ongoing succession questions surrounding longtime Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Barghouti, one of Fatah's most prominent figures and a widely popular Palestinian political leader imprisoned by Israel since the Second Intifada, secured the highest number of votes in the preliminary count.

Many Palestinian analysts consider Barghouti the only major Palestinian political figure capable of forging genuine unity between Fatah and Hamas and rebuilding broader Palestinian national consensus.

The early results also revealed the rising influence of Majed Faraj, head of Palestinian General Intelligence and a close Abbas ally, who came second in the vote ahead of veteran Fatah figure Jibril Rajoub.

The UAE's defence ministry said on Sunday that investigations were underway to determine the source of a drone attack that hit a generator outside the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi.

The defence ministry said it dealt "successfully" with two drones, while a third one hit a generator near the plant. It said the drones were launched from the "western border", without providing further details. 

Meanwhile, the UN's atomic watchdog, the IAEA, expressed "grave concern" over the strike, though it said that radiation levels remained normal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency on X said its head, Rafael Grossi, voiced the concern and added: "Military activity that threatens nuclear safety is unacceptable."

"The IAEA has been informed by the UAE that radiation levels at the Barakah NPP (nuclear power plant) remain normal and no injuries were reported," the agency said.

The fall of Bashar Al-Assad's government in Syria in December 2024, coupled with successive Israeli military campaigns against Iran since October 2024 and the setbacks endured by Hezbollah during the 2023–24 conflict, have fostered a prevailing sense in Tel Aviv that Iran and its 'Axis of Resistance' have entered a period of unprecedented vulnerability.

Although Israeli leaders have seemingly persuaded Trump that Tehran's weakness is even greater than reality indicates, there has been a broader consensus in Israel since 2024 that a rare window is currently open to solidify Israeli dominance while the Islamic Republic remains relatively weak.

Against this backdrop, Turkey has increasingly asserted itself as a pivotal regional counterweight to Israel and its ambitions in the Middle East.

All indications suggest that Israel's drive to exploit Iran's perceived vulnerability is likely to bring it into direct contention with Ankara. These evolving dynamics promise to play a decisive role in shaping the region's geopolitical balance.

You can read more about the increasing competition between Turkey and Israel in the region from Giorgio Cafiero below:

Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to build a defence compound on the site of the recently demolished premises of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem.

Israel in January demolished structures inside the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency's East Jerusalem compound after seizing the site last year, in an act condemned by the agency as a violation of international law.

In a joint statement, the Defence Ministry and Jerusalem Municipality said the new compound would include the establishment of a military museum, a recruitment office, and a defence minister's office.

Defence Minister Israel Katz called the decision one of "sovereignty, Zionism, and security."

Spanish superstar Javier Bardem, who is winning rave reviews for his latest film role, slammed the "toxic masculinity" of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, which he said was responsible for their wars.

Bardem plays an overbearing film director with an explosive temper in "The Beloved" by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to widespread praise from critics.

In an expletive-laden outburst at a press conference on Sunday, Bardem said part of his character's flaws were due to "toxic masculinity" which led to men killing their ex-wives and girlfriends - and starting wars.

Javier Bardem speaks out in #Cannes on toxic masculinity:

"That problem also goes to Trump, Putin and Netanyahu... the big balls man saying 'my cock is bigger than yours and I'm going to bomb the shit out of you' is a f*cking male toxic behavior that is creating thousands of… pic.twitter.com/A9Q30HzNJt

— Variety (@Variety) May 17, 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was scheduled to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday.

Netanyahu said that in he expected to hear about Trump's trip to China, while suggesting they would also discuss Iran.

Iranian media said Sunday that the United States had failed to make any concrete concessions in its latest response to Iran's proposed agenda for negotiations to end the war.

The Fars news agency said Washington had presented a five-point list which included a demand for Iran to keep only one nuclear site in operation and transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the United States.

The US also refused to release "even 25 percent" of Iran's frozen assets abroad or pay any reparations for the damage inflicted on Iran during the war which broke out on 28 February, according to Fars. The report added that the US had conditioned the cessation of hostilities on all fronts on the start of negotiations.

"The United States, offering no tangible concessions, wants to obtain concessions that it failed to obtain during the war, which will lead to an impasse in the negotiations," the Iranian Mehr news agency also reported

• Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed four people: Strikes killed one person in Khan Younis and three more in Deir al-Balah in the latest Israeli violation of the ceasefire in Gaza.
• Israeli settler attacks in the occupied West Bank continue: Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank have continued, with settler assaults being carried out in the towns of Sa'ir near Hebron, Umm al-Daraj, Beit Ummar, Mraah Rabah, Ya'bad, and Beit Awwa.
• The UAE says that a drone caused a fire at a nuclear power plant: The Abu Dhabi Media Office said that a drone strike on an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant caused a fire.
• Israeli media reports of new ICC warrants against Israeli officials: The International Criminal Court has, however, denied a report in Haaretz that it was issuing new arrest warrants against five Israeli officials. An ICC spokesperson said that the report was not accurate.

Jerusalem's Palestinian governorate Saturday warned of a "new colonial" Israeli plan to seize dozens of properties near Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, threatening Palestinian inhabitants.

In a statement, the governorate said Israeli authorities are preparing to approve a plan on Sunday aimed at confiscating Palestinian properties in the Bab el-Silsileh neighbourhood adjacent to the mosque complex, forcefully displacing residents and  Palestinian businesses.

The plan includes seizing 15 to 20 Palestinian-owned properties, the governorate said, including buildings and Islamic endowments dating back to the Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras.

Bab el-Silsileh neighbourhood is considered one of the main gateways leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and targeting the area is part of broader efforts to impose "Judaisation measures" within the Old City, and empty Al-Aqsa’s environs of its Palestinian residents, the governorate said.

It added that the plan is based on a previous recommendation by Israel’s former Minister of Jerusalem and Heritage, Meir Porush, as well as a government decision dating back to 1968 under the pretext of "strengthening Jewish control and security."

You can read more about the potential seizure of Palestinian property in East Jerusalem below:

Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on an area near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which added that others were also wounded in the strike.

The attack comes after one person was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis earlier on Sunday.

The International Criminal Court has denied a report that says new arrest warrants have been issued against Israeli officials, calling the report "inaccurate."

Israeli publication Haaretz had reported earlier on Sunday that secret arrest warrants had been issued against three Israeli politicians and two military personnel, though it is unknown what specifically for.

Two Israeli officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were issued warrants in 2024 over war crimes charges relating to Israel's war on Gaza.

Authorities in Abu Dhabi responded to a fire caused by a drone strike on an electrical generator outside the inner perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the Al Dhafra Region, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said on Sunday.

No injuries were reported, radiological safety levels were unaffected and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation confirmed the plant's essential systems are operating normally.

South Korean foreign minister Cho Hyun has asked for Iran's position on a recent attack on a South Korean cargo vessel near the Strait of Hormuz, in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

A South Korean official has previously said the possibility that an entity other than Iran was responsible for the attack is low.

There have been further Israeli raids and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Below is a list of some of the latest attacks:

• Five Palestinians have been injured in a settler attack on the village of Mraah Rabah, near Bethlehem. Settlers stormed the village, attacked homes, and beat and pepper-sprayed residents.
• Israeli settlers attacked a vehicle in the town of Ya'bad, south of Jenin, throwing a bottle at the vehicle and smashing the windshield.
• Israeli soldiers wounded a Palestinian with live fire in Beit Awwa, north of Hebron.
• Israeli settlers attacked sheep herders in Khirbet al-Tawil in Nablus, assaulting farmers and running over livestock grazing in the area.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel appear to have emerged from the Iran war with a stronger relationship than ever.

The UAE sustained the most Iranians attacks throughout that conflict and felt let down by the lack of support from many of its more immediate neighbours and traditional allies. Conversely, it publicly acknowledged and welcomed Israel's support during that war.

With Tehran continuing its bellicose rhetoric and threats against Abu Dhabi, it's possible that UAE-Israel relations and cooperation across multiple fronts will continue to strengthen.

In a controversial September 2025 speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised eyebrows when he declared Israel needs to become a "super Sparta" of the Middle East.

More than a decade before that remark rattled the Tel Aviv stock market, retired US Marine General and former Defence Secretary James Mattis affectionally dubbed the UAE "Little Sparta".

Today, these two Spartas are closer than ever. 

Read more of Paul Iddon's analysis on the UAE's deepening relationship with Israel below.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who recently emerged as a chief negotiator in talks with the United States, has been appointed to oversee relations with China, Iranian media reported on Sunday.

"Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has recently been appointed as a special representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran for China affairs," Tasnim news agency reported, citing "informed sources", with other media carrying similar reports.

It was not immediately clear who appointed Ghalibaf to the role, but Tasnim said he would "coordinate various sectors of relations between Iran and China".

Israeli settlers raided homes in the town of Sa'ir near Hebron, vandalising Palestinian homes and beating residents, according to Haaretz, citing Palestinian reports.

The Red Crescent also said that four Palestinians were injured in the attack on Umm al-Daraj, while settlers also carried out attacks in Beit Ummar.

Israel's attacks on Lebanon have cost the country up to $2bn, according to the Economy Minister Amer Bisat, speaking with Al Jazeera.

He told the outlet that "the impact has been fairly major," adding that it impacted a wide range of sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism."

"That impact is very large. We are estimating during the war we lost probably $2bn. That's roughly seven percent of GDP".

At least one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a police point in the Karah Rafah area of Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera.

The Israeli army has increasingly been targeting police and security points in Gaza in recent weeks. 

The killing comes despite a ceasefire in place since October, with many rights groups calling on Israel to abide by the truce.