TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed at least seven people, including two children, hours after reports emerged of a ceasefire agreement. The persistent fighting threatened an interim agreement between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the strikes hit the southern town of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages. At least seven people remained trapped under the rubble, it said.
Mediators were scrambling to halt the fighting between Israel and the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group, after a heavy exchange on Friday killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli military official said Hezbollah had fired more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon overnight, prompting the military to start targeting the militant group there. The official spoke anonymously in line with regulations.
On Friday, Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said on X that Israel “remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire” if Hezbollah honors the agreement and ceases hostilities.
In public statements, Hezbollah has said it will abide by a ceasefire if Israel does, but has not said a ceasefire was actually in place.
A Hezbollah official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said Friday after reports of a ceasefire deal emerged that efforts were underway by Qatar, the U.S. and Iran to broker an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire but stopped short of confirming a deal had been reached.
Hezbollah and Israel went to war just days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.
The interim U.S.-Iran agreement signed this week has already reopened the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran had closed as the war unfolded — cutting off the global economy from significant supplies of oil and natural gas. The deal also envisages the relaunch of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, a core issue in the war.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the deal, which calls for a halt to military operations in Lebanon and for the country's sovereignty to be respected. With the fighting continuing, the accord is under threat and U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland, planned to start Friday, have been delayed, with no new date announced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon, which Iran says is also a condition of the deal.
A strike on the village of Barish killed four members of a family, parents and two children. In Arab Salim village, a body was pulled from a destroyed house, and in the villages of Doueir and Kfar Rumman, drone strikes killed a person on a motorcycle and a Lebanese soldier.
Plumes of smoke rose into the sky over southern Lebanon Saturday and Israeli jets flew low over the coastal city of Tyre.
The city's residents told The Associated Press they were relieved that Tyre had been spared in recent days but the sounds of Israeli planes reminded them the war is not over. Many doubted a ceasefire — even if agreed on — would hold.
“Our entire lives would change if there’s a ceasefire,” said Hussein Khoshman, a Tyre resident.
Netanyahu's office did not immediately comment on the ceasefire efforts. On Friday, Netanyahu posted on X that, on his orders, the Israeli army had “struck powerfully” 150 Hezbollah targets, killing dozens of militants.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Israeli forces were operating in a “forward defense zone” and would continue doing so.
Iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that the fighting in Lebanon must stop before the talks can take place. U.S. Vice President JD Vance also postponed his trip.
On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told the semi-official ISNA news agency that Pakistan's interior minister will arrive in Iran as part of continued negotiation efforts. Baghaei had said earlier that consultations through mediators were ongoing regarding the next phase of negotiations to draft a final U.S.-Iran agreement.
Because the initial deal was signed digitally earlier this week, the talks in Switzerland were not urgent, and plans were underway to hold a meeting in the coming days, he said.
The talks in Switzerland were expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran maintains it's for peaceful purposes only, though it has a large stockpile of uranium enriched to higher levels that are a step short of weapons' grade. That uranium could be used to build multiple atomic bombs, should Tehran choose to do so, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Those talks are expected to be difficult. The 2015 nuclear deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term, took more than 18 months to negotiate.
The interim deal gives negotiators 60 days to come up with a nuclear agreement, but that can be extended. It outlines lucrative incentives if Iran does reach a new agreement, including the eventual lifting of all international sanctions and a $300 billion fund for postwar reconstruction.
Iran has already won some concessions. Following the signing of the interim deal, the U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and is allowing it to sell its oil freely. The deal also calls for Iran’s assets to be unfrozen — though it’s not clear how quickly.
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
Buildings damaged by Israeli strikes are seen through shattered glass from the Jabal Amel Hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
ROME (AP) — The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested America’s longtime European ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting and criticism.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy. The Foreign Ministry later announced that the business and scientific forum Tajani was to attend in Miami had also been called off.
Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated" and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally.
“Italy and I do not beg,” she said pointedly.
Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa.
According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster put a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.
Trump's posturing underscored how his alliance with Meloni — long seen as one of his closest friends in Europe — has frayed over his war in Iran, his tariffs against Europe and his complaints when anyone disagrees with him.
He turned on Meloni in April after she refused to support his war in Iran and stood up for Pope Leo XIV when Trump lashed out at the pontiff.
But Meloni's strong response on Friday suggested she no longer fears Trump's verbal attacks — attacks that could actually play in her favor in a country where public opinion of the American president has chilled, said Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Rome's Luiss Guido Carli University.
“In some ways this was a favor to Giorgia Meloni, in the sense that she was accused until a few months ago of being a sort of Trump's vassal in Europe,” he said.
In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response."
“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”
It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni's refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn't respond publicly at the time. By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.
“I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating," Meloni said Friday. "But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”
The White House did not return an immediate request for comment on Meloni’s remarks.
Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a “bridge” between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.
But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump’s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump's tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.
By Friday afternoon, solidarity for Meloni had poured in from across the government and political spectrum, and included a call from President Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s respected head of state.
“Whoever attacks @GiorgiaMeloni attacks all of us,” posted Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio referenced the sacrifice of American troops in World War II in underlining the harm to U.S.-Italy relations caused by Trump.
“The thousands of crosses marking the graves of American soldiers who died to free us from Nazi-Fascist dictatorship did not deserve such a painful blow to our fraternal ties,” Nordio said on X.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he didn't believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, “not even under threat.”
Meloni and Trump had gotten off to a strong start, and the two leaders are ideologically aligned on many issues. As the head of a far-right party, Meloni backs curbing migration and promoting traditional values.
Weeks before Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Meloni met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat, a visit that she said went “beyond expectations.” It was, she said at the time, “an opportunity to confirm a relationship that promises to be very solid.’’
In the months after, Trump had praised her repeatedly, as “fantastic,” “incredible,” beautiful and a friend.
But stark differences emerged over Ukraine. More recently, Meloni sharply warned against U.S. threats to take Greenland by force, saying she didn’t believe Washington would go so far and that regardless Italy would never support such a move.
Meloni also received support from an unlikely ally in Europe: Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who was on Friday asked about the back and forth on the sidelines of a European Council meeting.
“About Meloni, first and foremost, all my solidarity," he told reporters. “Secondly, I not only say this publicly in a response to your question, but also in private during the European Council meeting I offered her all my solidarity against this attack that is not political or personal … I really don´t know how to qualify it.”
Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
From left, European Council President Antonio Costa, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, U.S. President Donald Trump, Kenya's President William Ruto, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gather for a group photo at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday June 16, 2026. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)
From right, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a working session at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after a group photo of G7 leaders and invited nations during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, second left, after a group photo of G7 leaders and invited nations during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni looks on ahead of a working session at the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
