08/05/2026

FRIDAY | MAY 8, 2026

9

First strike on Beirut since ceasefire

RIGA: Two drones entered Nato member Latvia from Russian territory and crashed, the Latvian army said yesterday. Latvian Defence Minister Andris Spruds said the drones were probably launched by Ukraine against targets in Russia. He added that military jets of the multinational Nato Baltic air police mission have been summoned to the site. Police and firefighters said four empty oil tanks were damaged yesterday at a storage facility in Rezekne, about 40km from the Russian border, and possible debris of a crashed drone was found at the site. Latvian authorities had issued drone alerts to residents along the Russian border at 4.09am local time (0109 GMT) yesterday, asking them to stay indoors. Several stray Ukrainian drones hit Latvia and its Nato neighbours Estonia and Lithuania in March. One slammed into a chimney at a local power station while another crash landed in a frozen lake and exploded. The Ukrainian drones are believed to have been launched to strike military targets in Russia. – Reuters Two drones crash in Latvia Russia threatens to strike Kyiv UKRAINE: Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said it had warned diplomatic missions to evacuate staff promptly from Kyiv in the event of a mass strike by Moscow in response to any attempt by Ukraine to disrupt Russia’s May 9 Victory Day commemorations. Spokesperson Maria Zakharova urged diplomats to heed a warning of a strike issued on Monday by the Defence Ministry in the event of any Ukrainian attack connected to commemorations and a military parade in the Red Square. “The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly urges the authorities of your country to treat this statement with the utmost responsibility and ensure the timely evacuation from the city of Kyiv of the personnel of diplomatic and other representations in connection with the inevitability of a retaliatory strike on Kyiv by Russia’s Armed Forces.“ She added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had made “aggressive and threatening statements” about disrupting the commemorations during remarks he made on Monday at a meeting in Armenia of the European Political Community. “Several EU countries were present. None of them reprimanded the ringleader of the Kyiv regime.” – Reuters

ISLAMABAD: United States President Donald Trump predicted a swift end to the war with Iran as Tehran considered a US peace proposal that sources said would formally end the conflict while leaving unresolved key US demands that Iran suspend its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson cited by Iran’s ISNA news agency said Tehran would convey its response, while Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for parliament’s powerful foreign policy and national BEIRUT: Israel struck Beirut on Wednesday for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, with Israel saying it targeted a commander of the militant group’s elite Radwan force in the city’s southern suburbs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced the action in a joint statement. Israeli media reported that the commander was killed in the strike, but there was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military or Hezbollah. The Lebanon ceasefire has underpinned a broader US-Iran truce, with a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon being a key Iranian demand. As Iran and the US say they are drawing closer to a deal to halt their conflict, the strikes threaten the ceasefire that halted Israeli attacks on Beirut. Israeli troops have remained in areas south of the Litani River and strikes continued in southern Lebanon. Iran ally Hezbollah has responded by firing and launching armed drones towards Israeli soldiers. Israel on Wednesday called for residents to evacuate several villages north of the Litani River, which could represent an expansion of Israel’s zone of action. Talks between Israel and Lebanon have continued, but have largely been at the ambassador level. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday said it was premature to talk of any high-level meeting between Lebanon and Israel. He added that shoring up a ceasefire would be the basis for any new negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli government envoys in Washington. Two meetings were hosted by Washington last month between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. Hezbollah strongly objects to the contacts. Since Hezbollah triggered the war by opening fire in support of Iran on March 2, the Lebanese administration led by Salam and President Joseph Aoun has initiated Beirut’s highest-level contacts with Israel in decades, reflecting deep

divisions between the Shi’ite Muslim group and its Lebanese opponents. Announcing a three-week extension of the ceasefire on April 23, US President Donald Trump said he looked forward to hosting Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future, and that he saw “a great chance” the countries would reach a peace deal this year. Salam said Lebanon was not seeking “normalisation with Israel, but rather achieving peace”. “Our minimum demand is a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal,” he said, adding that the government would develop its plan to restrict weapons to state control, an effort aimed at securing Hezbollah’s disarmament. Aoun this week said the timing was not right for a meeting with Netanyahu. He added that Lebanon “must first reach a security agreement and a halt to the Israeli attacks, before we raise the issue of a meeting between us”. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including two women and an elderly man in the town of Zelaya in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched explosive drones and rockets towards Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, injuring two Israeli soldiers. It also said the Israeli air force intercepted a hostile aircraft before it crossed into Israel, and announced strikes on Hezbollah o Israel claims militant group commander targeted

Residents gather as rescuers work at the site of an Israeli strike that took place yesterday in the southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon. – REUTERSPIC

infrastructure in several areas in Lebanon. More than 2,700 individuals have been killed in the war in Lebanon since March 2, said the Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since March 2. Israel has announced 17 soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon. – Reuters

Trump predicts swift end to Iran war security committee, described the proposal as “more of an American wish-list than a reality”.

were being led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. If both sides agreed on the preliminary deal, that would start the clock on detailed negotiations. While the sources said the memorandum would not initially require concessions from either side, they did not mention several key demands Washington has made in the past, which Iran has rejected, such as the restrictions on Iran’s missile programme and an end to its support for proxy militias in the Middle East. The sources also made no mention of Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons grade uranium. – Reuters

handled one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply. A Pakistani source and another source briefed on the mediation said an agreement was close on a one page memorandum that would formally end the conflict. That would kick off discussions to unblock shipping through the strait, lift US sanctions on Iran and set curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme, the sources said. Qalibaf said such reports amounted to US spin following its failure to open the Strait of Hormuz. The source briefed on the mediation said the US negotiations

“They want to make a deal. We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,“ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, saying later “it’ll be over quickly.” He has repeatedly played up the prospect of an agreement to end the war that started on Feb 28, so far without success. The two sides remain at odds over a variety of difficult issues, such as Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its control of the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war

Son of Hamas chief injured in attack, five others killed

CAIRO: Israel struck and critically wounded the son of the Hamas militant group’s top negotiator on Wednesday in air strikes that also killed at least five individuals across the Gaza Strip, according to medics and Hamas sources.

rights, and in their free will.“ The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident. Health officials said earlier in the day two other Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinians. – Reuters

with shelling represents a peak of moral and ethical degradation,“ said Taher Al-Nono, a Hamas official and an aide to Hayya, in a Facebook post. “Shelling and killing only make the negotiator more steadfast in his positions, in defending his people’s

Hayya had already lost three sons in previous Israeli attempts on his life – two in Gaza in the 2008 and 2014 rounds of fighting, while the third was killed in an Israeli attempt to kill Hamas leadership in Doha last year. “Targeting Azzam Khalil Al-Hayya

The sources said Azzam Al-Hayya, son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief who had been leading indirect talks with Israel over the Palestinian enclave’s future, was wounded in a strike that also killed another individual in Gaza City.