US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the ceasefire with Iran was "over" after the two sides traded fire, but added that negotiators could keep talking to Tehran.
Trump blasted Iran as "scum" and "cuckoo" after Washington launched strikes on the Islamic Republic overnight and Iran's Guards said they had targeted US bases in the Gulf.
"I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them any more, they're scum," Trump said at a NATO summit in the Turkish capital Ankara when asked if the truce with Iran was now finished.
"They're scum, they're sick people, they're led by sick people, and they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's over."
The new secretary general of the Arab League, Nabil Fahmy, said Wednesday Israel had blocked him from visiting Ramallah, in what would have been his first foreign visit since taking office this month.
The regional bloc's secretariat was informed by Palestinian authorities "of the Israeli occupation authorities' rejection of a visit... to the occupied Palestinian territories" to visit Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Fahmy's office said in a statement.
A Qatari LNG tanker was still stuck off Oman on Wednesday awaiting salvage operations, shipping data showed, a day after it was hit by a projectile, while the US military said two other tankers had been targeted by Iran in recent days.
The attacks on the tankers prompted Washington to revoke a licence allowing Iran to sell oil and US forces to strike Iranian targets overnight.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday an interim agreement to end the war with Iran was "over", comments that triggered a 5 percent jump in global oil prices.
The head of the UN shipping agency condemned the attacks over the past 48 hours and urged parties to allow the evacuation of stranded ships.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, health officials there said.
Medics said an Israeli missile hit a tent for displaced people in the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, killing at least four people including a 10-year-old child, while another attack killed one person near a school in Gaza City. Twelve people were wounded in the two incidents.
The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on either incident.
A Palestinian journalist said Israeli prisons have become a "graveyard" for the living, following a dramatic decline in his health after being released earlier this year.
Mujahed Bani Mufleh, 37, spent six months in jail after being accused of inciting violence against Israel through his journalistic work.
Two days after his release in January, he suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and was admitted to hospital in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group.
Now frail and barely recognisable, Bani Mufleh is recovering at a hospital in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, after undergoing a series of surgeries during which doctors removed part of his skull.
"The prison was like a graveyard," Bani Mufleh told AFP, as he undergoes rehabilitation to regain his ability to talk and move.
"I was assaulted inside my home in front of my children," he said of his 2025 arrest during a raid on his home.
"I was beaten inside the military jeep in the first minutes after my arrest, and on the first day I was taken to hospital because I could no longer breathe as a result of the beating."
Lebanon demands Israel's withdrawal from two "pilot zones" in the south before participating in the next round of direct talks in Rome next week, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday.
The source, requesting anonymity, said "Lebanon is stipulating Israel's withdrawal from two pilot zones in order to participate in the round of negotiations" that Italy and Israel said would take place in Rome on 15 and 16 July, following a framework agreement signed last month.
US President Donald Trump told reporters at a NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday that he thought Israel would withdraw troops from southern Lebanon, adding that he felt Israel wanted to take that step.
Oil prices soared anew, and stock markets slid Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire with Iran was over, following renewed strikes in the Middle East.
The latest bout of fighting was sparked by Iranian attacks on ships in the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Trump said at a NATO summit in Turkey the ceasefire was "over", although he left the door open to more talks.
The markets responded, with oil shooting back up again, having in recent days come back down towards pre-war levels.
![Gaza [Getty]](/sites/default/files/styles/image_684x385/public/2271074507.jpeg?h=a5f2f23a&itok=pCP9UxF4)
