Live: Israel strikes south Lebanon day after security deal

Israeli attacks on south Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, Lebanese state media reported, hours after the US and Iran signed an agreement to end the war.

"An enemy drone targeted a car" in the Kfar Tebnit area, killing two people, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

In the neighbouring village of Zebdine, another drone killed one more person, NNA said.

Israel's military announced the death of one of its soldiers the night before in an incident in south Lebanon that also left seven others wounded.

The US-Iran framework agreement to end the war proves that nuclear weapons provide no strategic advantage, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) said on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a deal on Wednesday which lays the groundwork for detailed negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions relief for Tehran.

Ican, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in drafting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), insisted the deal revealed how little advantage US and Israeli nuclear arsenals provided.

"The lesson of this war is the opposite of what the nuclear-armed states would have us believe," ICAN chief Melissa Parke said in a statement.

"Two nuclear powers attacked a country with no nuclear weapons, and it is the nuclear powers who have been forced to stop."

It was clear, she said, that "nuclear weapons bought no security and no leverage; they only brought the US to the brink of ending a civilisation".

Included in the text is a commitment from Iran that it will "not procure or develop nuclear weapons".

But that declaration merely "reaffirms what international inspectors had established long before the war that produced it: Iran is a non-nuclear-weapon state", Ican said.

It pointed out that Iran had been a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) since 1970 and "is legally bound, as a non-nuclear-weapon state, not to acquire nuclear weapons, while also being subject to the safeguards mechanisms of the International Atomic Energy Agency".

At the same time, Ican highlighted that "Israel remains the only state in the Middle East with nuclear weapons".

Israel, it said, was known to have around 90 nuclear weapons and remains outside both the NPT and the TPNW.

"A durable peace requires confronting the arsenal that actually exists, rather than concentrating enforcement on the state that has none," it said.

Ican voiced hope that governments would "draw the right conclusion from a war in which nuclear weapons proved both dangerous and strategically irrelevant".

US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to end a war that has devastated the Middle East since late February.

The White House has confirmed the digital signing, noting that an initial phase of the agreement was signed on Sunday by US Vice President JD Vance and Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, with President Trump witnessing.

Trump had previously announced that both sides had agreed on the deal on 14 June.

Trump told reporters that he had signed the memorandum at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, where he was attending the G7 Summit ahead of a dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Macron shared a video on social media showing the moment Trump signed the document, in which Trump said: "This was not easy."

Both sides have 60 days, extendable by mutual consent, to negotiate a final comprehensive treaty. 

Trump was blunt about the consequences of a breakdown in talks. "If it doesn't get done in 60 days, that's all right. We go back to bombing," he said. "I don't want to do that, because it's so good, but we might have to, because we're never going to let them have a nuclear weapon."

Read more: Trump and Iran sign interim ceasefire deal in France

The transit of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz still needs to be done in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy, Iranian state television said on Thursday. 

Vessels have begun moving through the strait following the signing of a deal to bring the US war on Iran to a close.

Israel's foreign minister has launched an extraordinary attack on the European Union's top diplomat, accusing her of "acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel" and severing all ties with her.

Gideon Saar said on Thursday that Kaja Kallas had "compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa", a comparison he referred to as a "blood libel".

"I am grateful to the many European elected representatives who condemned this grave statement," Saar posted on social media.

"However, to date, no denial, clarification or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement.

"Therefore, as the Foreign Minister of the State of Israel, I have no choice but to sever all contact with Ms. Kallas until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East."

The United States will restart military action and reimpose a blockade if Iran does not fulfill its commitments under its agreement with the US, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Thursday.

“The president has pointed out that we will be prepared to recommence if underneath the timeline of these talks, Iran does not do what it says it's going to do,” Hegseth said in Brussels after meeting Nato defence ministers.

Hegseth said the deal came from a position of US strength.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that its forces were operating in what it described as a security zone extending about 10 km into southern Lebanon, despite a provision in the interim US-Iran agreement calling for an immediate halt to military operations in Lebanon.

The military said the deployment was dictated by operational needs and that troops remained stationed in their designated area of operations, Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump has branded critics who think he's been too soft on Iran "fools".

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday morning, Trump wrote: "These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are 'tumbling' down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid." 

Pete Hegseth has announced a review into US troop deployments in Europe and once again warned "free riding" Nato allies to meet their defence spending commitments.

Addressing counterparts at Nato's headquarters in Brussels, the US defence secretary said the review would last for up to six months and include consultations with Congress, which has legislate a minimum number of US forces in Europe.

“Make no mistake about it, this will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth also slammed allies that did not support the United States during its war on Iran, after some denied the US basing and overflight rights for war-related activities, Reuters reported.

Three supertankers sailing under the flag of Saudi Arabia and carrying six million barrels of crude oil onboard sailed through the Strait of Hormuz hours after the US and Iran signed their ceasefire deal, according to ship tracking data.

The sailings from Saudi Arabian ports were the biggest departures through the strait in weeks, according to Reuters analysis of shipping movements. 

The Russian foreign ministry said on Thursday that it welcomed the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran.

US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war on Iran on Wednesday.

Initial discussions between the US and Iran are planned at the Buergenstock mountaintop resort in Switzerland on Friday, the Swiss government said on Thursday.

"As things stand, the plan is still for the U.S. and Iran, along with mediators Pakistan and Qatar and other involved countries, to meet tomorrow at Buergenstock for initial negotiations about implementing the agreement,"  the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement.

"No further information is currently available regarding the schedule and details of this meeting."

Germany is deploying two ships to the Red Sea to arrange for a possible military mission in the Strait of Hormuz, the country's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.

"As we speak, our minesweeper Fulda and the supply ship Mosel are sailing through the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea," he told reporters.

Pistorius noted that approval would be needed from Iran and Oman before any participation in a minesweeping operation, with the mission depending on further developments between Tehran and Washington. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday urged Israel to be a "positive player" for peace in the Middle East, following a deal between Iran and the US.

"Israel's role will of course be crucial.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday urged Israel to be a "positive player" for peace in the Middle East, following a deal between Iran and the US pic.twitter.com/Ui0wT0Yr9b

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 18, 2026

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

The text of the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran has been signed digitally by the presidents of the two countries. 

While an official meeting was expected on Friday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said that talks between Tehran and Washington on Friday in Switzerland are not confirmed yet.

Here are some of the other latest developments: 

• Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding will "enter into force with immediate effect". As a first step, he indicated that Tehran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington immediately lifts its naval blockade on the waterway. 

• US President Donald Trump told his advisors that no one can handle Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to The Wall Street Journal citing a source familiar with the comments. The president added that the US president indicated that Netanyahu wants to "bomb everyone".

• US senators are threatening to withhold 75 percent of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget amid increasing frustration with the Pentagon's refusal to comply with congressional requests - including information updates on an investigation into the US targeting of a girls school in Iran.

• Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Wednesday hailed an understanding reached between Tehran and Washington as a "great victory", calling it a "pivotal point" for Lebanon.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for violations against children as he voiced alarm at a "staggering" rise in violations against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.