Iran war live: Trump says Tehran wants end to blockade; Israel kills medics

It hasn’t really felt like a ceasefire here in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military has carried out dozens of air strikes, some of them well north of what it calls the “Yellow Line” or the forward defense line, which is the part of southern Lebanon that its troops are occupying or seeking to control from the air.

In one of those strikes, the Ministry of Health has confirmed that five people were killed, among them, three workers from the Civil Defense who were trying to rescue survivors from an earlier strike.

So once again, a double tap attack on rescue workers here in Lebanon and there were two soldiers from the Lebanese army also injured in that attack.

The Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned the strike and has called it a new war crime here in Lebanon and said that they will be taking what steps they can to compel the Israeli military to abide by the ceasefire.

The Israeli military has also continued artillery shelling and demolitions. Massive explosions seen in the town of al-Qantara, where the Israeli military said that it was detonating a Hezbollah tunnel network.

They have also continued demolishing houses, notably in the town of Bint Jbeil, where for the second day in a row, Hezbollah says that they targeted an Israeli bulldozer with an explosive drone.

This is a pattern we’ve seen over the last couple of days, with Hezbollah increasingly using drones to target Israeli equipment and troops. This doesn’t mean it has stopped firing rockets. There has been launches from the Lebanese city of Tyre which set off sirens in northern Israel earlier on Tuesday.

Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani has called on the Security Council to “act decisively to compel Israel to fully uphold the ceasefire in Lebanon”.

The council should also ensure that Israel “immediately halt all attacks against civilian and civilian infrastructure and withdraws all its occupying forces” from Lebanon, Iravani said.

He also decried US and Israeli attacks on Iran, as well as Israel’s actions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

There has been no further clarification from Trump on those comments from a short Truth Social post earlier in the day. He’s insinuating that there is division in the Iranian leadership, saying that they do not know who’s actually in control.

This is part of perhaps a campaign to unsettle the Iranian leadership and cast division among them as he attempts to get them back to the negotiating table on his terms.

He mentioned there that Iran wants the Strait of Hormuz opened. Well, that has not been a secret for a long period of time. But he also insisted the red flag remains for his administration, and that is the question of nuclear capability.

Now it is believed that the message that Iran sent – which was discussed by President Trump’s national security team some 24 hours ago – suggested opening the Strait of Hormuz and then pushing nuclear negotiations to a later time.

Most of the indications are that the president does not agree with this, but everything still remains in limbo.

It would appear that the ceasefire, though, stays in place. But that itself is at the will of the US president.

Video captured massive explosions in southern Lebanon in what the Israeli military called strikes on a Hezbollah tunnel.

Other attacks happened nearby, as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that southern Lebanon’s fate would be like Gaza’s.

Watch below:

• US President Donald Trump says Iran is in a “state of collapse” and has reached out and asked Washington to lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.
• The United Arab Emirates has announced it’s leaving OPEC on Friday, ending nearly 60 years of membership of the oil producing cartel.
• Gulf leaders have held their first face-to-face meeting in Saudi Arabia since the war on Iran and condemned recent Iranian attacks on the region.
• Israel continues bombarding south Lebanon, killing at least 11 people, including three emergency workers who were targeted while responding to attacks in the town of Majdal Zoun.
• Trump, whose approval has sunk to a new second-term low, has slammed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after he said the Iranians were “humiliating” the Americans in negotiations.
• The World Bank says energy prices are projected to surge 24 percent this year, to their highest in four years, with Brent crude expected to average $86 per barrel, up from $69 in 2025.

Hello, and welcome to our coverage of the ceasefire in the war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

Stay with us for the latest developments, reactions and analyses from across the Middle East and beyond.

You can find our updates from Tuesday, April 28, here.