Israel vows to continue Hezbollah fight as mediators push ceasefire

China

Israel vows to continue Hezbollah fight as mediators push ceasefire

2026-06-09 15:12 Last Updated At：17:07

Israel will continue military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday, as ceasefire mediators pressed for a peaceful diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict.

Katz said Israel rejects threats from Iran and refuses to link Lebanon to a ceasefire with Tehran. He added that any Hezbollah attacks on northern Israeli communities would trigger strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs.

The Israeli military launched strikes on Tyre and other towns in southern Lebanon after issuing evacuation orders, and intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon that triggered air raid sirens but caused no casualties.

The Lebanese Red Cross said four paramedics were injured when a strike hit near its center in Tyre.

Hezbollah issued multiple statements the same day, claiming its fighters had struck various Israeli military targets.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged restraint in a post on X, urging all sides "to exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance." He stressed that only peace and diplomacy will bring prospects of success instead of violence.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority reopened the country’s airspace Monday after a 72-hour closure imposed following Iran’s missile strikes on northern Israel the previous evening. The authority had suspended all inbound, outbound and transit flights during the period to avert security risks.

China's consumer market expands in May

China's consumer market continued to expand in May, with increasing consumption growth in both goods and services, the latest official data released on Tuesday by the State Information Center under the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, showed.

The data showed that in May, the total amount of offline consumer payments were up 2.4 percent year over year, with the growth rate 0.7 percentage point higher than that of April.

The year-on-year growth rates in goods consumption and service consumption reached 3.3 percent and 1.2 percent respectively, up 0.6 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point compared with the previous month, according to the data.

Electronic goods, catering services and transportation services all saw relatively rapid consumption growth in May.

Meanwhile, the index reflecting merchant business vitality improved for three consecutive months, according to the data.

"Fueled by a series of incentive policies such as trade-in subsidies and service consumption initiatives, coupled with the consumer spending boost from the May Day holiday season, the momentum for domestic demand expansion has been steadily building up. Goods consumption and service consumption have continued to recover in tandem, supporting a steady improvement in the domestic consumer market," said Xing Yuguan, an associate research fellow with the Department of Big Data Development of the State Information Center.