Live: Trump says US launching 'economic warfare' against Iran, warns countries not to back Tehran

Israeli forces detained three Palestinians from Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, on Wednesday, including two who were tending farmland near the Karmei Tzur settlement, according to the Wafa news agency.

The three men, aged 37, 19 and 18, were detained in Khallet al-Kataleh, south of Beit Ummar, the report said.

Israeli forces earlier detained at least seven other Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, including in areas near Jenin, Ramallah and Tulkarm.

The detainees included journalist Mohammad Awad from Beitunia, a former prisoner from Silat ad-Dhahr and residents of al-Yamun, Silat al-Harithiya, al-Bireh and Shweikeh.

Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree on a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a timeframe to implement it.

The comments came as US President Donald Trump issued yet another broadside against Iran's leaders, following new attacks on shipping in the region on Tuesday.

The deal agreed in June declared an "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", but quickly unravelled, with Trump saying it was "over" on 7 July and Iran's foreign ministry declaring it "suspended" a week later.

"One of the issues that is being discussed via mediators is the US returning to the interim agreement and defining a timeframe for implementing the commitments. There has been absolutely no progress on this issue," the Iranian source said.

A group of current and former Palestinianstudents and staff have sued Columbia University, accusing the Ivy League school of discriminating against Palestinians and targeting pro-Palestinian activism on campus.

The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court this week, alleges that Columbia subjected Palestinian students, faculty and staff to unequal treatment following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza perpetrated by Israel.

According to the complaint, Columbia "actively participated in and amplified" what the plaintiffs describe as racially, ethnically and politically motivated targeting of Palestinians.

Read more: Palestinian students and staff sue Columbia University over discrimination

The Israeli military “under no circumstances” will withdraw from land it occupies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, Israel’s i24 news reported; the defence minister said.

The report said Israel Katz made the statement during a visit today to army positions on the front line in southern Lebanon.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi said that the country will be free of any foreign military presence on its soil and that weapons will be solely under state control by 1 October.

During a meeting with US Central Command Commander Charles Brad Cooper, Zaidi “affirmed the commitment to the agreed-upon timelines”, under which the international coalition’s military mission in Iraq and the withdrawal of its forces will be completed by 30 September, according to a statement published by his office.

1 October will therefore “mark a new day in the history of the Iraqi state”, as the country will be “free of any foreign military presence” and responsible for ensuring its own security and stability, the statement continued.

Zaidi added that weapons will henceforth be held only by state institutions, which will strengthen “the state’s authority and sovereignty, and guarantee security and stability”.

Israel and Lebanon have agreed on Britain, Italy, Switzerland, and Indonesia as potential contributors to a proposed mechanism that could see foreign troops deployed to Lebanon to verify Hezbollah's disarmament, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The shortlist emerged from US-mediated talks in Rome last week, the latest round of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon on implementing a June agreement that ties Israel's phased withdrawal from Lebanon to the disarmament of Hezbollah.

The countries could help define the mechanism's scope, provide personnel to oversee its implementation or contribute troops to observe or take part in inspections verifying disarmament, three sources said.

Since Andy Burnham became prime minister, there has been a serious shift in approach to British foreign policy.

But so far none of it has been made public, beyond a change in the rhetoric of government ministers.

This is set to change after parliament's summer recess.

The government is poised to announce a raft of new policies in September, multiple Whitehall and civil society sources told Middle East Eye.

Read more: Exclusive: UK to announce raft of new policies on Israel including settlement goods ban

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday condemned Israel's "systematic destruction" in the country's south as a violation of international law, as Israel's defence minister said its military was "destroying all the houses" there.

Salam said Israeli "attacks, incursions, demolitions and the systematic destruction of homes", infrastructure, government buildings and places of worship "represent a serious violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law".

He also added that villages and towns "are entirely 'military facilities' does not stand up to any logic and cannot be used as an excuse for destroying them, displacing their inhabitants and preventing them from returning".

The EU and 26 countries condemned Iran's executions of protesters in a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.

The countries called on Iran to listen to its people, take meaningful steps towards ensuring respect for human rights, immediately end the use of the death penalty and release those detained.

An Israeli air strike targeting a three-wheeled vehicle in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya killed one Palestinian and wounded several others, Anadolu reported, citing a medical source.

The wounded were taken to a hospital in Gaza City.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government of seeking to "remove Palestine" from the world's agenda. 

"The aim of the Netanyahu government is to remove Palestine from the common agenda of humanity by profiting from chaos and new conflicts in the region," Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara. 

"No matter what they do, they will not succeed. The Palestinian cause will continue to grow in people's hearts as they try to destroy it," he said, vowing Turkey would fight for the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

Soon after Iranian negotiators reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States in late June to end months of hostilities, Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) issued a statement endorsing the agreement.

The statement was signed by Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general who had replaced the slain Ali Larijani, a prominent moderate figure who had supported a deal with Washington and was killed in a US-Israeli strike on 17 March.

In Iran, the SNSC secretary, who is appointed by the president, does not have a vote on the council. However, Zolghadr was also appointed simultaneously as the supreme leader’s representative on the council, a position that gives him voting authority.

Zolghadr’s endorsement caught ultraconservative principlists off guard. Apparently unprepared for his support of the agreement, they subsequently launched repeated verbal attacks against him, including spreading claims that his son lives in Austria.

Read more: Iran's new Security Council shake-up reveals growing divisions over US deal

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States is in control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and will "keep it."

"The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, 'A WALL OF STEEL,' and there is nothing Iran can do about it."

Twenty-six nations, including France, the UK and Canada, have condemned the use of capital punishment by Iranian authorities, saying in a joint statement the Islamic republic was executing protesters to "silence dissent".

The countries, joined by the European Union's top diplomat, "condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing executions of protesters and use of the death penalty" by Iran. "The use of capital punishment to silence dissent, intimidate communities, and punish individuals exercising their human rights can never be justified".

Marji Mansfield, a 70-year-old grandmother of seven, has been waiting for British counterterrorism police to show up at her door.

The anxiety sharpens between five and seven in the morning, when police usually conduct dawn raids, particularly if she has her grandchildren stay overnight. 

“It’s been really, really quite scary not knowing when there's going to be the knock at the door,” Mansfield told Middle East Eye.

“This isn't the Britain that I thought I grew up in at all. We've been scared enough to go and sleep elsewhere.”

Mansfield is among scores of activists, many of them elderly, who are awaiting dawn raids from counterterrorism police after publishing videos of themselves inviting support for the banned direct action group Palestine Action.

Since the government proscribed the organisation in July 2025, over 3,000 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for participating in silent vigils in support of Palestine Action.

But in June, after the Court of Appeal quashed a High Court ruling and found the ban to be lawful, Defend Our Juries (DOJ) - the group helming the campaign to reverse the ban - called for an "escalation" in activism.

This involved activists inviting support for the group rather than simply expressing support, an offence that can carry a 14-year sentence under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act. So far, most activists have been arrested under the lesser charge of Section 13.

Read more: The activists raided by police over Palestine Action videos