Iran "negotiating on fumes," Trump says, as U.S. conducts new strikes

The United States Treasury Department announced sanctions Wednesday on Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the new Tehran agency that collects fees for traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

"The Iranian military's latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

The statement extended the threat of sanctions to anyone paying the fees, because they "may be providing support to and receiving services from" Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and therefore may "be exposed to sanctions risk."

"Treasury has deprived the Iranian regime of revenue for their weapons programs, terrorist proxies, and nuclear ambitions," Bessent said.

The statement said the US has succeeded in disrupting "tens of billions of dollars' worth of revenue from being accessible" to Tehran.

In a social media post on May 20, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority issued a map to define its "regulatory jurisdiction," demarcating red lines on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz that require Iran's authorization for passage.

U.S. and Iranian forces have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while diplomats push for a negotiated settlement, but Iran's controls have tightened on Gulf shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. has launched strikes on Iranian targets in recent days.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that Tehran will continue to manage traffic through the strategic strait and insisted Iran is collecting fees for "navigational services," rather than imposing tolls.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that a soldier was killed the day before by a Hezbollah drone near the Lebanon border, taking to 23 the number of its troops killed in the war with the Iran-backed group.

A military statement named her as 20-year-old Sgt. Rotem Yanai who, it said, "fell during operational activity in northern Israel."

It added that one reservist soldier was severely injured and another moderately hurt in the same incident.

The military told AFP that Yanai was killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone.

A total of 24 Israelis have been killed since hostilities began on March 2, including the 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor.

The Israeli military on Wednesday declared all areas south of Lebanon's Zahrani River -- an area roughly 25 miles from the border -- as "combat zones" and told residents to evacuate ahead of attacks against Hezbollah.

The sweeping warning was the first of its kind since an April 17 ceasefire.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it had begun new strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre after issuing an evacuation warning to its residents.

Israel the previous day had declared all areas south of Lebanon's Zahrani River - an area roughly 25 miles from the border and including Tyre - as "combat zones" and told residents to evacuate ahead of attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The sweeping warning -- the first of its kind since an April 17 ceasefire -- came as many Lebanese tried to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In a fresh evacuation order to residents of parts of Tyre early on Thursday, the Israeli military said it was "compelled to take forceful action" against Hezbollah and announced in a later statement on Telegram that it had begun strikes it said on the group's infrastructure.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported two sets of Israeli strikes had taken place on the city and an area to its east on Thursday morning, hitting a building and sparking a fire in Tyre.

Israel this week vowed to ramp up operations in Lebanon and said it was expanding ground operations there, while Hezbollah said its fighters had clashed with Israel's forces beyond an Israeli-declared "yellow line" in the south.

Iran has been insisting any deal with the U.S. to extend the current ceasefire must include Lebanon.

CBS/AFP

Iran's Revolutionary Guards targeted an American base on Thursday morning local time in retaliation for U.S. strikes on the country's south, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported.

"Following this morning's aggression by the invading U.S. military against a location on the outskirts of Bandar Abbas Airport using aerial projectiles, the American air base that served as the source of the attack was targeted," the Guards said, according to IRIB.

It did not provide details of the location of the base, though Kuwait, a U.S. ally, said it was responding to missile and drone attacks on Thursday morning.

A U.S. official described Wednesday's U.S. strikes as defensive. The official said the U.S. shot down four Iranian drones and hit a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth. 

CBS/AFP

Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran's connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of the capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. 

"It's too early to say the shutdown is over," he wrote on X.

The U.S. military carried out another round of strikes on Iran, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday, another challenge to a shaky ceasefire between the two countries.

The official described the strikes as defensive, targeting a military site that posed a threat to American forces and commercial traffic. The official said the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is still considered to be holding.

Reuters was first to report on the new strikes.

This comes after the Pentagon said that it carried out defensive strikes in southern Iran Monday on missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to place mines.

Read more here. 

The S&P 500 is on a hot streak, notching nine record highs in May alone despite soaring gasoline prices amid the Iran war, sliding consumer confidence and the highest inflation in almost three years.

On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs upped its target for the S&P 500, projecting that the broad-based index could reach 8,000 points by year-end, or about 6% higher than its current level. 

So why is Wall Street increasingly upbeat even as many Americans remain gloomy about the economy?

Three main reasons are surging corporate profits, the spread of AI and hope that the Iran war is drawing to an end, experts told CBS News.

Read more here.

The U.S. missile supply depleted by the war with Iran could take three or more years to replace, according to the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.

While some missiles could take only a year or two to replace, such as precision strike missiles and joint air-to-surface standoff missiles, other more advanced weaponry could take much longer, according to the study released Wednesday.

Patriot missiles, of which an estimated 1,060 to 1,430 were used in the Iran attacks, could take up to mid-2029 to return to pre-war levels, the group said. Terminal high altitude area defense, or THAAD, missiles could take up until mid- to late-2029 to replace as well.

Tomahawk cruise missiles, one of the key long-range weapons used by the U.S. military, will take the longest to replace, the group said. More than 1,000 were used in the war and pre-war stockpiles may not be equaled until early 2031, the group said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said only that it could take "months or years" to replace the stockpiles depleted during the war at a hearing on April 30.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a proponent of resuming military action in Iran, said he believes President Trump can get Saudi Arabia on board with the Abraham Accords, "effectively ending the Arab-Israeli conflict."

"The biggest news out of the cabinet meeting is President Trump's determination to expand the Abraham Accords, to include Saudia (sic) Arabia making peace with Isreal (sic). This would be the biggest change in the Middle East in thousands of years, effectively ending the Arab-Israeli conflict," Graham wrote on X.

The agreement to the Abraham Accords, which were negotiated during Mr. Trump's first term in office, would mean the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Currently, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and Kazakhstan have agreed to the pledge.

"I have been working on normalization for years, including during the Biden administration, because I know this leads to a lasting peace and a new Middle East that could become an economic powerhouse, not a powder keg," Graham wrote.

Mr. Trump said Gulf countries — such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar "and others" — agreeing to the Abraham Accords could be a condition to agreeing to an Iran peace deal.

"It'll be historic if they do it. And I think, I think they owe that to us," he said.

Israel announced on Wednesday it was moving the evacuation line in Lebanon north of the Zahrani River, saying "all areas south of the river are considered combat zones, and the Defense Army does not intend to harm civilians."

Previously, the line of demarcation was about the Litani River, however, Israel launched operations north of that this week. The Litani River is about 18 miles north of the Israeli border, while the Zahrani River is about 25 miles north of the border.

The Israel Defense Forces also said it struck command centers in Tyre, about 12 miles north of the Israeli border, on Wednesday. The IDF had previously called for evacuations in the area.

There were 550 Hezbollah targets struck in Lebanon since the beginning of the week, the IDF said.

In his Cabinet meeting, President Trump said if Gulf countries don't sign onto the Abraham Accords, he may not sign a peace deal with Iran. The president also suggested this week it should be "mandatory" for more countries to sign onto the agreement as a part of any Iran deal. The Abraham Accords, established in 2020 during Trump's first term, entails agreements normalizing individual countries' relations with Israel. 

"We'd like to have the countries we were talking about, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and the others … we'd like to have them join the Abraham Accords," he said. "It'll be historic if they do it. And I think, I think they owe that to us."

The United Arab Emirates is already a part of the Abraham Accords, as Mr. Trump recognized later. 

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said Trump negotiators are "pushing" for those remaining countries to sign onto Abrahama Accords.

"I'm not sure we should make the deal if they don't sign, if you want to know the truth," Mr. Trump added. 

Countries that agreed to normalize relations with Israel as a part of the Abraham Accords include the UAE, Bahrain and Kazakhstan. 

President Trump said "nobody's going to control" the Strait of Hormuz, when asked if he would allow a short-term deal for Iran and Oman to control it. 

"The strait's going to be open to everybody," he told reporters during Wednesday's Cabinet meeting. "It's international waters."

"Nobody's going to control it," he continued. "We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it. But nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it. Nobody's going to control it. It's international waters. And Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine."

Speaking during a Cabinet meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed oil prices will be lower than before the Iran war when the conflict ends. 

"Oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels when this ends," he said. 

The current average for a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.46 nationwide, according to AAA.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeated many of the comments President Trump has reiterated in recent weeks at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, saying Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon and they'd prefer to negotiate a deal. 

"The bottom line is Iran is never going to have a nuclear weapon and if recent events have done anything it's to remind us once again they are the world-leading sponsor of terrorism and they can never have a nuclear weapon," Rubio said. "The president's preference, your preference, is always to negotiate these things and figure out if you can have agreements. Diplomacy is always the first option and we continue to work on that."

Rubio highlighted the work of envoys Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance in working toward a deal, but offered no specifics on the negotiations.

"If there is an agreement to be made, we want that to be made and I think there's been progress and interest and we will see over the next few hours and days," the secretary said. "I want to remind everybody, you (Mr. Trump) have other options available if that doesn't work."

President Trump said Iran is "negotiating on fumes" and needs to make a deal, but he said the U.S. still may need to return to attacks while speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the White House. 

"They want very much to make a deal," he said. "So far, they haven't gotten there, we're not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be. Either that or we'll have to just finish the job. Their navy is gone, as I've said a thousand times, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, everything's gone. And they're negotiating on fumes. But we'll see what happens. Maybe we have to go back and finish it, maybe we don't."

"Right now, I think it looks like they want to just make a deal," he said. "I don't think they have a choice." 

Mr. Trump said Iranian leadership thought they would just wait him out because of political pressure from the midterms. 

"They thought they were going to out wait me, you know," he said. "'We'll out wait him. He's got the midterms.' I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms." 

The White House has rebuffed a report by Iran's IRIB state TV network after the outlet said it had a draft of the "Islamabad Framework" memorandum of understanding, saying what Iranian state media claimed is "not true." 

Iranian state TV claimed a draft of the initial framework claimed all shipping traffic would be managed by Iran, along with other points that appear contrary to the Trump administration's stated positions. The Trump administration has made it clear they won't allow Iran to control the strait or impose tolls. 

"This report from Iranian controlled media is not true and the MOU they 'released' is a complete fabrication," an official White House account wrote on X. "Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out. FACTS MATTER."

The U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has turned around 109 commercial vessels heading into or leaving ports in Iran, according to U.S. Central Command.

That total is an increase by one vessel since Tuesday's update.

Lifting the blockade on the strait has been a key condition of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. 

Iran agreed in principle to a deal over the weekend that will be a two-step process, with the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the U.S. blockade, followed by negotiations on a mechanism for Iran to give up various parts of its nuclear program, the official said. 

Israel is issuing evacuation orders to the ancient city of Tyre in Lebanon, as well as 11 camps in the area.

Among those camps are Shabriha, Hammadiya, Jal al-Bahr, Zoqoq al-Mafdi, Al-Bass, Al-Maashouk, Burj al-Shamali, Nabaa, Al-Housh, Rashidieh and Ain Baal.

"In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement and its targeting of Israeli territory, the IDF is forced to act strongly against it," the Israel Defense Forces said. "The IDF does not intend to harm you.

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately according to the area shown on the map and move north of the Zahrani River."

Residents of the city of Nabatieh were warned to evacuate earlier in the day ahead of a bombing campaign.

Oil prices dropped Wednesday on rekindled hope of the Strait of Hormuz reopening as the U.S. and Iran appeared to be nearing an agreement to deescalate the war launched 89 days ago by the U.S. and Israel. 

Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, fell 5% to $94.61 a barrel briefly, before rebounding slightly to trade around the $95 mark. 

The main U.S. crude contract, WTI, tumbled almost 6% to trade at $89 a barrel early Wednesday.

CBS/AP

Iran's IRIB state TV network reported Wednesday that it had "obtained" a draft of the "Islamabad Framework" - a memorandum of understanding taking shape with the U.S. that would see the countries agree to extend their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while also launching direct negotiations on more contentious matters.

IRIB called the version it obtained an "unofficial preliminary document outlining a 14-point draft of the agreement," which it cast as a potential step toward ending the war that was still being revised and negotiated between the two countries.

The White House later rejected the reporting, writing, "This report from Iranian controlled media is not true and the MOU they 'released' is a complete fabrication. Nobody should believe what Iranian state media is putting out."

IRIB said the draft includes a commitment from the U.S. to lift its blockade of Iranian ports and vessels. In return, Iran would restore the flow of commercial shipping through the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, through the Strait of Hormuz, to pre-war levels within one month.

IRIB said military vessels would be excluded from Iran's lifting of restrictions in the strait and that commercial traffic — including vessel inspections and the imposition of service "fees" — would remain under the authority of Iran in coordination with neighbor Oman. 

"The Strait of Hormuz, between us and Oman as coastal countries, must have a defined mechanism," Esmail Baqaei, spokesman for both Iran's Foreign Ministry and its team negotiating with the U.S., told IRIB.

The IRIB report said the draft agreement included the U.S. accepting "an obligation" to withdraw American forces from the Mideast, but it noted that specifics, including whether the withdrawal would apply only to recently added forces or also long-standing troop deployments, remained subject to negotiation.

The draft envisions, per the report, that if direct talks between Iran and the U.S. yield a final agreement on a wider peace deal within the provisioned 60 days, that deal would be enshrined as a binding United Nations Security Council resolution.

The report concluded by stressing that the Islamabad Framework remained unfinalized - and noting a significant possibility that the two sides could still fail to resolve their differences on terms to even begin direct negotiations on contentious issues such as Iran's nuclear material. 

"Today, 23 vessels that requested permission from the IRGC Navy to pass through the Strait of Hormuz received their permits," declared a reporter on Iran's IRIB state TV network Wednesday.

"The IRGC Navy's conditions remain in place. These conditions were made clear on the first day, and continue to be valid today: no hostile country can pass its vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, but it cooperates with those who wish to respect Iranian order."

It was the latest in a series of similar reports by the same state TV reporter this week. They have all been delivered from near the Iranian coast, and clearly intended to portray a new state of play in the busy shipping lanes of the strait — which, until the U.S. and Israel launched their joint war on Iran, had always been free and open for commercial vessels.

Since the U.S. imposed its own military blockade on Iranian ports and vessels on April 13, Tehran has threatened to attack any ship that tries to transit the Strait of Hormuz without its permission. It says dozens have sought and been granted clearance this week, though the real numbers are impossible to verify as ships can mask their true locations.

Iranian officials say they are implementing a new system, in conjunction with Oman, to control shipping traffic through the strait. They say they are not imposing tolls, which the Trump administration accuses Tehran of attempting to do, but that the new system will carry costs for shippers.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the strait would reopen "one way or the other," calling Iran's actions in relation to commercial traffic unlawful and "unsustainable for the world, it's unacceptable."  

Iran's national telecommunications company TCI said Wednesday that internet access across the country had "almost returned to the level" seen before it was blocked at the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, though an official acknowledged lingering connectivity issues for some people and promised help.

Davoud Zareian, a deputy spokesperson with TCI, said "in case of disruption, users should first turn their modem or router off and on," and if problems continue, he urged clients to contact the company "so that specialists can examine and resolve the issue."

Zareian said internet traffic had "grown significantly and has almost returned to the level before the outage."

In its latest update, international internet monitoring group Netblocks said Wednesday that connectivity in Iran "has now been in a state of restoration for 24 hours."

"Service remains heavily filtered, with new restrictions on messaging and app stores compared to pre-January," the organization said, adding that "calls for a free and open internet transcend political divisions and should be heard."

"Welcome back #Iran!" the group said in an updated Tuesday, confirming that access was being restored in the country.

Iran's Ministry of Intelligence said in a long statement released Wednesday that the country has been facing a long-running "hybrid war" with the West and Israel, and warned that although military conflict may have shifted, the struggle continues through economic pressure, media influence, and internal destabilization efforts.

The statement describes the conflict as a "47-year 'full-scale hybrid war' against the heroic people of Iran," accusing the U.S., Israel and their allies of wielding sanctions, cyberattacks and political interference in a bid to weaken the Islamic Republic regime.

"Not only were the enemy's vile goals not achieved, but the false myth of the invincibility of the Western–Zionist enemy was invalidated," declared the ministry in its statement.

It said Iran's adversaries were currently focused on exerting soft power, listing efforts such as "intensification of economic pressure," "ethnic and religious provocations," and "various cyberattacks."

It concluded by saying any hostile actions would draw a firm response, warning specifically that any attempts to foment domestic unrest or carry out espionage or sabotage would be "pursued with maximum precision and decisiveness by the country's powerful intelligence community."

The Israel Defense Forces claimed in a brief statement Wednesday to have struck "more than 150 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and terrorists" in attacks on the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon over the last day.

The IDF said the strikes were in and around the southern Lebanese cities of Tyre and Nabatieh and in the Beqaa Valley area. 

Lebanese officials say the attacks killed more than 30 people, with children among those pulled from the rubble of buildings in the cities. Lebanon's health ministry says that since Israel and Hezbollah started fighting at the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, more than 3,200 people have been killed and almost 10,000 wounded in the country.

Earlier Wednesday, IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee issued a warning via social media to residents of Nabatieh — a city home to roughly 25,000 people — to flee their homes and evacuate about a mile northward, across the Zahrani River, ahead of planned strikes. 

"In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Israel Defense Forces are forced to act against it with force," Adraee said, repeating language he has used in daily evacuation orders for Lebanese towns and villages. 

"The IDF does not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River," said the IDF spokesman. "We emphasize that anyone who is present near Hezbollah members, its facilities, and its combat means is putting their life in danger!"

Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia's capital, the Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, said indirect negotiations with Washington continued, but he renewed the regime's insistence that the issue of its enriched uranium stockpile wasn't yet on the agenda.

"This issue is not on the agenda of the negotiations," he said when asked about the roughly 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium that international monitors believe is still buried under one of Iran's badly damaged nuclear facilities, according to Russian news agency TASS.

President Trump had previously claimed Iran was ready to hand what he refers to as its "nuclear dust" over to the U.S., but on Monday he said the regime could dispose of its highly-enriched uranium inside the country, or "at another acceptable location."

A senior Trump administration official said over the weekend that Iran had agreed in principle to dispose of its highly-enriched uranium during the negotiations but that officials were still working through details of a mechanism for its disposal.

An official with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that a renewal of the war with the United States was unlikely, but he warned that Iran stood ready to defend itself against any new attack.

"The possibility of war is low because of the enemy's weakness; the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines," Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the deputy political chief of the IRGC's naval force, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is linked with the guard.

"Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors," he said, referring to locations at either end of Iran's lengthy southern coast in the Persian Gulf. 

President Trump will meet with his Cabinet on Wednesday at a precarious moment for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran, just days after insisting his administration and Tehran had "largely negotiated" a settlement but with the negotiations still in a state of flux.

As he prepares to huddle with his top aides, Mr. Trump is projecting confidence that he's closing in on a deal that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide him a credible argument that Iran's nuclear capability has been diminished enough to declare victory, winding down a conflict that's been politically unpopular for Republicans.

But as things stand, he also risks finding closure to his war of choice comes with an unsatisfactory ending.

The emerging deal puts off many critical issues to be resolved later and has already exposed the president to fierce criticism — even from some of his own supporters — that Iran's hardline leaders will emerge from the conflict battered but emboldened. It all comes to a head just as the midterm elections to determine control of Congress come into focus and as Republicans worry that rising costs and fuel prices are darkening the American electorate's mood.

Talks were further complicated after U.S. forces carried out what the Pentagon called "defensive" strikes on missile launch sites and mine-laying boats in southern Iran on Monday. The U.S. said it acted with "restraint" in light of the weekslong ceasefire, while Iran decried the action as a sign of "bad faith and unreliability."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that talks with Iran on reopening the strait and extending the ceasefire — a period that the administration says could be used to hash out the finer details of a nuclear agreement — will take several more days. "He's either going to make a good deal or no deal," Rubio told reporters.

Ten Indian sailors, detained in Iran in July on an oil tanker, have been released after "sustained diplomatic engagement," India's shipping authorities said late Tuesday.

The sailors on the MV Harbour Phoenix were "detained, arrested and imprisoned in Iran following the vessel's interception near Jask Port in July 2025," India's Directorate General of Shipping said in a statement.

"The seafarers have now been released and reunited safely," the shipping authority said. "…Necessary arrangements are being coordinated for the earliest return of the crew members to India."

New Delhi and Tehran have long-standing diplomatic and energy ties, but India also balances that with close links to the United States and Israel.

Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf.

India has pursued a policy of quiet diplomacy and minimal public comment during negotiations for the release of the sailors. It did not give further details on the reason for their arrest or about the vessel, which ship tracking sites list as a Palau-flagged oil products tanker.

India has one of the world's largest merchant navy workforces, with thousands of Indian sailors operating in Gulf shipping lanes.

Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed 31 people on Tuesday, as Israel said it was intensifying attacks despite a fragile truce in its war with the militant group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it faced Israeli troops entering the southern town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, as the Israeli military said it was expanding its ground operations.

In a statement, the Lebanese health ministry said 31 people, including at least four children and three women, were killed in attacks and 40 wounded. 

Fourteen were killed in Burj al-Shamali near Tyre, five in Kawthariyat al-Riz, four in Habbush, six in Maarakeh and two in Salaa, the health ministry said.

An Agence France-Presse correspondent in the southern city of Nabatieh reported airstrikes following an unprecedented warning on the city and saw plumes of smoke rising from various locations within it.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said one of the strikes hit the vicinity of a public hospital, causing "significant damage to the hospital's departments."

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for at least 50 southern and eastern towns and villages on Tuesday, including Nabatieh.

An Israeli military official told AFP that troops had begun operating beyond the Israel-announced "Yellow Line" in south Lebanon, which runs six miles deep inside Lebanese territory.