Middle East crisis live: Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon takes effect; Hezbollah tells citizens to postpone returning home
Here are some images coming in from Beirut amid Lebanese celebrations over the two-week ceasefire with Israel.
Armed robbers hold 25 people hostage at Naples bank before fleeing through hole in floor
Armed robbers held 25 people hostage at a bank in Naples for two hours on Thursday, before fleeing through a tunnel. The three thieves entered a branch of Crédit Agricole in the southern Italian city at about 11.30am, taking hostage staff and customers, who were freed by police a couple of hours later. “Thanks to the swift response … all the hostages were freed shortly after 1:30pm, without serious injuries,” Michele di Bari, prefect of Naples, said in a statement. Emergency responders smashed windows to enter the bank in piazza Medaglie d’Oro in the city’s Arenella district, by which time the robbers had escaped, reportedly down a hole in the bank’s floor and into the sewers. The company that manages Naples’s water network has been inspecting the sewer system, according to the local news site Fanpage.it. It was unclear whether the robbers managed to flee with any loot. According to Fanpage, the robbers were believed to have targeted safety deposit boxes and there was no cash inside the bank. The Naples prosecutor Nicola Gratteri was also at the scene. One of the people held hostage, a bank customer, told Fanpage they had been locked in a room. “I was in the bank when they entered; there was definitely three of them. They came and locked us – customers, employees and the manager – in a room. They were armed but they didn’t use violence.” A branch of Crédit Agricole in Milan was targeted in a similar robbery in 2020. In that case, two armed robbers walked into the premises through the main entrance and held staff hostage as two accomplices entered via a maintenance hole, having crawled through the sewer network. The gang stole several safe-deposit boxes before all escaping through the drains.
Trump announces 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon after ‘excellent conversations’
Donald Trump has announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon to be followed by a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese leaders next week, in a deal that it is hoped will bring progress toward a parallel peace agreement between the US and Iran. The ceasefire is due to take effect at midnight on Thursday in Lebanon, where Israel has been conducting devastating airstrikes aimed at wiping out the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia. Trump said on social media that the truce was agreed after he held separate “excellent conversations” with Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday. Netanyahu said the ceasefire offered an opportunity for a “historic peace agreement”, but insisted that the disarmament of Hezbollah remained a precondition. “We have an opportunity to make a historic peace agreement with Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech, adding that Israel would maintain a 10km (6.2-mile) “security zone” along the border in southern Lebanon. Trump provided few other details, apart from the start time and length of the agreed truce. He later told reporters that “at the right time I would visit Lebanon”. The Israeli occupation is likely to be the subject of talks that Trump said would take place in Washington next Tuesday between Aoun and Netanyahu – the first Israeli-Lebanese summit in decades. The Lebanese state has not been an active party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, over which the Beirut government has very little control. In what appeared to be initial acquiescence in the agreement however, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament, Hassan Fadlallah, attributed the deal to “Iranian diplomatic efforts” and said Hezbollah would respect the truce as long as Israel remained committed to halting all forms of hostilities. The war in Iran spilled over into Lebanon when Hezbollah launched missile attacks on 2 March against Israel in solidarity with Tehran, triggering a ferocious Israeli response, including a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. It came 15 months after the last major conflict between the two sides. Israel has declared its intentionto occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, about 18 miles from its border, and it has continued to fight Hezbollah there in recent days. Lebanon will probably demand the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, which Israel has said was a non-starter in the past. The ceasefire deal is linked directly to parallel negotiations aimed at a US-Iranian peace agreement. The conflict, begun by a US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February, is subject to a two-week Pakistani-brokered ceasefire that expires on 22 April. A first round of peace talks last weekend broke down after 21 hours of negotiations in Islamabad, and Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, has been in Tehran trying to narrow the gaps between the parties. The continued Israeli campaign against Hezbollah has been a sticking point for Tehran, which insisted, with Pakistani agreement, that the original ceasefire had applied to Lebanon as well as Iran. Pakistani officials have told journalists they are hopeful of arranging a second round of US-Iranian negotiations in the coming days. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, warned Iran on Thursday that US forces were “locked and loaded” and ready to return to combat if Iran’s leaders did not “choose wisely” in negotiations. Hegseth specifically repeated a threat that Trump has made to target Iran’s energy industry, describing it as “dual-use” in an apparent effort to justify it under international law. Oona Hathaway, a Yale law professor, said that “dual-use” was not a legal category when it came to assessing war crimes. “For attacks on energy facilities to be lawful, the targets must meet the definition of a military objective,” Hathaway said. “That means that they must, by their nature, location, purpose or use, make an effective contribution to military action and their destruction must offer a definite military advantage. “Not all parts of the energy industry will meet that test, though some parts might (if, for example, they are used to support the Iranian military). Moreover, the US military still must take precautions to limit harm to civilians and civilian objects regardless.” The paths to an enduring peace in Lebanon and Iran remain fraught and interlinked. Success or failure on one track could derail progress on the other. Israel wants the complete disarmament of Hezbollah – a challenge for the under-equipped Lebanese army, which has avoided confronting the armed group. Lebanon demands the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese soil, which Israel has said it would not do until it felt the safety of residents in northern Israel was guaranteed. Israeli bombing of Lebanon continued throughout Thursday’s talks, striking an ambulance in the city of Tebnine, south Lebanon, critically injuring two paramedics, according to Lebanon’s ministry of health. On the same day, Israel blew up the last remaining bridge into the city of Tyre, in effect cutting off the 30,000 or so residents of one of the largest cities in south Lebanon from the rest of the country. Its forces also blew up a school in the city of Marwahin, south Lebanon, as part of a campaign to raze entire villages across the region. In less than seven weeks, at least 2,196 people have been killed and 7,185 wounded by Israeli strikes in Lebanon. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets at northern Israel as well as target Israeli forces in south Lebanon. A ceasefire in Lebanon is likely to help lead to a resumption of US-Iranian negotiations, but those must address three complex issues: the reopening of the strait of Hormuz (currently mined and under competing blockades from both sides); the allowed extent of Iran’s nuclear programme; and a financial settlement for Iran. The Pentagon said a US naval force in the Gulf of Oman had turned back 13 vessels. Hegseth said the US would maintain the blockade “for as long as it takes”.
Israel escalates attacks on medics in Lebanon with deadly ‘quadruple tap’
When they received the call to respond to an Israeli airstrike in the city of Mayfadoun, in southern Lebanon, most of the paramedics held back, having previously seen colleagues killed by double-tap attacks targeting rescuers. But the medics from the Islamic Health Association (IHA) rushed to the scene. By the time the other emergency workers arrived at the site, they found the IHA medics had indeed been caught in a second strike. They started evacuating their wounded colleagues, only for their ambulances to be hit in two further attacks. One of the paramedics covered his ears and screamed, convulsing in pain as shrapnel shattered the back window of the ambulance. The rescue mission on Wednesday afternoon had turned into a nightmare as Israel carried out three consecutive strikes on three sets of ambulances and medical workers. In total, the attacks killed four medics and wounded six more, from three different ambulance corps, according to medical sources. Three of the medics were from the Hezbollah-affiliated IHA and Amal-affiliated medical corps, while one was from the Nabatieh emergency services organisation. Under international law, all medics are protected and are considered non-combatants, regardless of political affiliation. Rescuers in Lebanon have long been wary of the double-tap attack, when Israeli forces target a location, wait until people gather to help survivors, and then strike again. Wednesday’s three-wave attack after the initial one prompted the coining of a fearsome new term: the quadruple tap. In a video taken by one of the paramedics at the site, rescuers are seen loading two wounded people into their ambulances when a bomb lands next to their vehicle. Paramedics rush to extract the driver, who is motionless and limp as they pull him from the ambulance, which is splashed with blood. “Oh God, oh God,” the man filming can be heard saying. They carry two more blood-covered medics out of their vehicle and on to stretchers. Among the paramedics killed was Fadel Sarhan, 43, who is survived by his eight-year-old daughter. “Fadel was a very loved person. He had a bold personality, but at the same time, he was emotional. He was well liked and responsible,” said Ali Nasr al-Deen, the head of the Mayfadoun civil defence centre who grew up with Sarhan. “He used to feed the cats and dogs. He would bring pet food from Beirut so they wouldn’t go hungry. He was that kind of person, caring and attentive. It’s a huge loss for us,” said Nasr al-Deen. Medics mourned their colleagues on Thursday at funerals in Nabatieh, a city near Mayfadoun. Such events have become increasingly common, with healthcare workers killed by Israeli bombings on a near daily basis. Mohammed Suleiman, whose 16-year-old son, Joud, was killed while on duty as a paramedic by an Israeli strike weeks earlier, joined his peers in burying another of his friends on Thursday. A few hours after the funerals, Israel carried out another wave of airstrikes on Nabatieh. Israel has so far killed 91 healthcare workers and wounded 214 more in Lebanon since the Israel-Hezbollah war started on 2 March. It has given little justification for its repeated attacks on medical infrastructure and workers, apart from accusing Hezbollah of using ambulances and hospitals to transport fighters and weapons, without providing evidence for the claim. The Lebanese ministry of health accused Israel of deliberately targeting ambulance crews. “Paramedics have become direct targets, pursued relentlessly in a blatant violation that confirms a total disregard for all norms and principles established by international humanitarian law,” the ministry said in a statement. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the video taken of the quadruple tap on Wednesday, the frame was frozen on the interior of the ambulances, as the Nabatieh emergency services highlighted that the vehicle clearly contained no weapons. A few hours after Israel hit the ambulances outside Nabatieh, it bombed the vicinity of the governmental hospital in Tebnine, south Lebanon. It was the second time in two days that Israeli bombings damaged the healthcare facility, which is the only remaining public hospital in the area. The strikes injured 11 hospital workers and damaging the emergency department, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A video of Tebnine hospital from 14 April showed workers trying to clear shattered concrete and debris from the emergency department after a strike blew in the windows. Commenting on the strike in Tebnine, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “I reiterate the call for the immediate protection of healthcare facilities, health workers, ambulances and patients. There must be safe, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access across Lebanon.” An ambulance in Tebnine was also struck on Thursday, leading to the critical injury of two medics, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. As healthcare workers watched their colleagues and friends being killed by Israel, the mental toll was becoming almost too much to bear. “We have to go to places to rescue people, but then we get double tapped,” said Abbas Atwi, the head of the IHA’s emergency department in Nabatieh, shortly after a medical centre was targeted in March, killing his friends and colleagues. “But we will stay and keep going, we will not leave.”
Millionaires fund last-ditch attempt to save humpback whale stranded in Germany
A last-ditch effort to rescue a wayward whale that has transfixed Germans for weeks has begun in the Baltic Sea despite criticism it has little chance of success and could further harm the 12-tonne creature. The male humpback whale was first spotted last month near Timmendorfer Strand on the northern coast of Germany, giving rise to its nickname Timmy. It has repeatedly become stranded and then freed itself after human assistance but it is now stranded again, with rescuers saying it is fighting a losing battle for its life. But just as regional officials appeared ready to admit defeat and allow the stricken mammal to die, two multimillionaires came forward with funds to mount an 11th-hour rescue mission for which they won state approval. One of the sponsors, Walter Gunz, the founder of a major electronics retailer chain, said that without the mobilisation, the whale would perish. “At least if you try something you have a chance of saving it,” he told the German news agency dpa. Local media outlets have been running live streams about Timmy, who is 10 metres long, as emotions ran high. On Thursday they provided minute-by-minute coverage of what was being called Operation Cushion. The long-shot scheme started when six helpers waded in hip-deep water to reach the animal. The silt beneath the whale’s flippers is to be flushed clear and the plan is then to slide air cushions under the animal to gently lift it on to a tarpaulin tethered to a pontoon on either side. Should the team pull off this delicate task, Timmy would then be towed by tugboat out into the North Sea and possibly as far as the Atlantic Ocean in a final attempt to release it into more hospitable waters. The mammal swam into the Baltic last month, possibly while chasing shoals of herring, which has far too little salt to sustain it. It reportedly also has wounds on its back and a skin infection. The environmental pressure group Greenpeace, which had been involved in previous rescue attempts, criticised the current operation for the “sick and severely weakened” animal. It cited reports from the German Oceanographic Museum and the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research which suggested that the whale’s chances of survival were vanishingly low, while the mission involved a high risk of injury. “We are now focusing our efforts on promoting the protection of the oceans, including as a habitat for whales,” a Greenpeace spokesperson said. Critics said a closely fought race for an election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the state where the animal is stranded, in September appeared to be driving some of the official posturing. The regional environment ministry said the scheme to save the whale, which is being co-financed by the equestrian event organiser Karin Walter-Mommert, bore full responsibility for the operation’s success or failure. State-sponsored rescue efforts had already been suspended on 1 April. But the whale’s fight to cling to life inspired the public and mobilised a popular movement on its behalf. On Wednesday, Till Backhaus, the environment minister for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, announced a U-turn in support of the “unique” rescue mission, saying he was “quite happy” about having a last chance at success. “It’s not active, and it’s certainly not agile, but it still showing there’s life in it,” Backhaus said of the animal. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s president, who was on a previously planned visit to the Baltic coast city of Stralsund on Thursday, organised a meeting with veterinary experts to discuss the animal’s plight.
Wall Street seems to have decided the recession risk is over. Can the Australian market do the same?
One day the IMF warns of a global recession, the next day stocks on Wall Street hit a record high. From looking at the complete U-turn in fortunes in America, you wouldn’t know the world was in the grips of an unprecedented energy shock. The local sharemarket has also been on the rise in recent weeks, if not as enthusiastically as its counterpart across the Pacific. At their worst, Aussie stocks, as measured by the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, were down 9% from where they were before the bombs began falling on Iran at the end of February. That low point, however, was on 23 March. Over recent weeks, despite all the doom and gloom, they have been tracking pretty steadily higher and have now recouped about 70% of their losses. In other words: we are not back to where we were, but we are well on our way. At their worst, American stocks were about 8% down from immediately before the Iran war shut the strait of Hormuz. The International Energy Agency has called the choking off of a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply as the “greatest global energy security threat in history”. Yet on Wednesday night, Wall Street finished recouping all its earlier losses to reach its previous peak. The contrast is jarring, but may not be as crazy as it sounds. Shane Oliver, the chief economist at AMP, said two or three weeks ago investors were “starting to factor in the risk of a recession”. “Since then we’ve seen a ceasefire, which has been shaky, but the market has taken the view that Trump is looking for an off-ramp and that it’s just a matter of time until the strait of Hormuz is reopened.” Which means despite the IMF’s grim warnings, investors have “already decided that the risk of recession is receding”. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Oliver can see the sense in that reasoning, but thinks the market, especially in the US, “may have run ahead of itself”. “When I saw Wall Street was at a record high, I was surprised.” He said the Australian sharemarket generally tends to “fly around a bit less” than America’s, which could explain our more modest recovery. At the same time “we have reason to be a bit more concerned” about the Middle East war. “We rely more on fuel imports, and that leaves us vulnerable. “We are a net exporter of energy, which boosts our national income and buoys the budget. But [higher fuel prices are] a bigger hit to households and businesses, and partly that could be weighing on our market.” Stephen Miller, the markets strategist at fund manager GSFM, said there were two possible explanations for the complete turnaround on Wall Street. The first is that markets are “incredibly complacent”, and investors are underestimating the impact of the global oil shock on inflation and the potential hit to growth. “The macro [economic] environment is pretty challenging. And even if there is an accommodation of sorts between Iranians and the US, oil prices will stay higher,” Miller said. “It’s not like we are going back to where we were in February. Oil prices might not be as bad as they have been, but they won’t be good.” The other explanation, he said, is that there is a lot happening “under the surface”, particularly in the US, that is unrelated to the broader economic outlook. These are the mega trends that investors are happy – desperate even – to chase in an increasingly “winner takes all” world: the artificial intelligence boom; the explosion in defence spending; the opportunities in energy. And as Wall Street climbs what analysts refer to as the “wall of worry”, Miller said “we get dragged along”. “The ASX is basically a bunch of miners and banks. We are a net energy exporter, and that shields us a bit.” All that said, it’s far from clear that the worst is behind us. Oliver said investors are putting their trust in the “Taco” trade – that is, that “Trump always chickens out”. That was fine when the US president was piling on tariffs and then whipping them away again when the damage to the American stock market or economy looked like it might be too great. This time around and Iran may not be prepared to play ball, especially if it believes it can keep the strait closed for longer than Trump can hold out before giving up ground. “There may not be the ingredients for a Taco this time around,” Oliver said. Miller is similarly unconvinced that investors are properly pricing in the risk of lingering damage to the world economy. “My own opinion is that those ‘macro chickens’ may yet come home to roost.” Patrick Commins is Guardian Australia’s economics editor
Russia ‘does not deserve’ lifting of sanctions, Zelenskyy says, after deadly overnight strikes in Ukraine – as it happened
… and that’s all for today. Russia has carried out its deadliest attack against Ukraine this year, killing at least 17 people, and injuring more than 100, in a wave of drone and missile strikes across the country (10:06, 10:53, 11:08, 11:46, 16:34). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned against any relaxation of sanctions on Russia saying it “does not deserve” any such move given its continuing attacks on Ukraine. The European Commission agreed with his comments, saying that “giving any relief in terms of sanctions … vis a vis Russia is not helpful in maintaining the pressure” on Moscow to end its aggression against Ukraine. In other news, The European Commission has confirmed that it will hold first early talks with the incoming Hungarian government of Péter Magyar on Friday as it hopes for a constructive relationship after years of clashes with Viktor Orbán (14:16). The news comes as it emerged that Orbán will skip his final EU summit as he readies to hand over power after losing power in last Sunday’s parliamentary election (13:30). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.