Here are Wednesday’s latest updates:
■ The Israel Air Force struck two armed Hezbollah operatives who posed a threat to Israeli troops in southern Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher Ridge area, the IDF said in a statement.
■ Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel will not withdraw from southern Lebanon “even if there is an American demand to do so,” leaving 200,000 displaced Lebanese residents “who will not return.”
■ The European Union’s diplomatic service has proposed a three-year military and civilian mission to advise and train Lebanese forces, according to a document seen by Reuters.
■ Gulf states are expected to push for no transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran could propose environmental, navigation and security fees in talks on the reopening and future operation of the Strait, a diplomat briefed on the talks told Reuters.
■ Ships have already sailed through the Strait of Hormuz under the UN shipping agency’s evacuation scheme, a UN spokesperson said. According to ship tracking data, at least two dry bulk ships and one cargo ship sailed through Hormuz under the UN scheme in the past 12 hours.
■ Iran will address matters related to access to nuclear sites that have been attacked and to Iranian nuclear materials only in the framework of a final agreement with the United States and after practical steps are taken to lift U.S. sanctions, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said.
■ Two people were killed, including a child, and 14 people were wounded and taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
■ An unarmed suspect was apprehended by the IDF and taken for questioning following a suspicion of the “presence of a Hamas terrorist” near Gaza’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the military said in a statement.
■ Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared some 115 acres in the central West Bank as state land for the purpose of expanding the Israeli settlement of Givat Haroeh.