In its latest warning to Lebanese civilians to flee their homes, Israel’s military told people in 16 towns and villages in the neighboring country to evacuate on Tuesday ahead of military operations.
Most of the locations appeared to be about 10 miles north of the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon, over which Israeli forces have sent a significant ground force to occupy a swath of territory in recent weeks, which Israeli leaders say is necessary to remove the threat posed by the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and Israel have accused each other of violating a tenuous ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration between the Israeli and Lebanese governments since it was first signed several weeks ago.
“In light of Hezbollah’s terrorist organization violating the ceasefire agreement, the Defense Army is forced to act against it with force,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee said in his warning to residents of the Lebanese towns and villages, issued Tuesday via social media.
He said the Israeli army did not intend to harm civilians, and “for your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the specified area” to the north.
Lebanese authorities say Israel’s aerial and ground assault in the country has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than 1 million from their homes.
The Israeli government and military have said forces will remain in a buffer zone that spans the countries’ border and extends at least six miles into Lebanese territory, and that residents will not be allowed to return home, until the Hezbollah threat is removed.
Oil prices jumped and stocks sank Tuesday as the White House cast doubt on President Trump’s willingness to accept an Iranian proposal to mutually lift restrictions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to end the eight-week-old war.
Oil prices rallied more than 2%, with Brent topping to top $111, to extend Tuesday’s gains.
The White House said Mr. Trump and his team met Monday to discuss the offer, but spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president had made his “red lines” clear. Sources told CBS News that Iran’s offer did not include any immediate concessions on its contentious nuclear program, which Mr. Trump has made the cornerstone of his demands for a peace deal.
Hopes for a deal had been rising before last weekend, but Mr. Trump then scrapped plans for his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to travel to Islamabad for talks as it became clear Iran wasn’t willing to engage on Washington’s terms.
Iran’s envoy to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani told a Security Council session the country would first need guarantees Washington and Israel would not attack again if it was to offer security assurances in the Gulf.
Stock prices were more mixed on Tuesday, with European shares opening with gains after a retreat in Asia.
The price of Brent crude before the war was around $70 per barrel, and it briefly shot to nearly $120 earlier in the conflict. Benchmark U.S. crude added $2.18 on Tuesday to trade at $98.55 a barrel.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 rose a modest 0.1% on Monday to another all-time high, while the Dow industrials dipped 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.2%. The outlook for Tuesday was slightly less optimistic, with futures for the S&P 500 slipping 0.1% and the Nasdaq down 0.4%.
CBS/AFP
The head of Israel’s Mossad has praised the spy agency’s “groundbreaking” operations in the war against Iran and Hezbollah, saying it acquired intelligence “from the heart of the enemy’s secrets.”
“In the campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah, we worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the IDF, on both defense and offense,” David Barnea said, referring to the Israeli military.
His remarks were delivered during a commendation ceremony at Mossad headquarters on Monday and published Tuesday.
“We acquired strategic and tactical intelligence from the heart of the enemy’s secrets,” Barnea said, adding that Mossad had “proved new, groundbreaking operational capabilities in target countries.”
A ceasefire in the war with Iran, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, has so far held.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the initial U.S.-Israel strikes.
President Trump announced a ceasefire on the Lebanese front earlier this month, which has since been extended, though Hezbollah and Israel have continued exchanging fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Hezbollah’s rockets and drones remained a key threat that demanded ongoing action by the Israeli military, adding that Israel would continue to carry out strikes.
Hezbollah has said it is responding to what it considers Israeli ceasefire violations.
Barnea said the military and Mossad had changed Israel’s “strategic posture” and “strengthened its might,” but added that the agency would “not rest on our laurels.”
“When we see a threat, we will act with full force,” he said.
CBS/AFP
Iran’s deputy defense minister said Tuesday that his country’s ability to withstand the U.S.-Israel attack reflected “a broader global shift away from a ‘unipolar unjust order’ toward a multipolar world,” according to Iran’s ANA news agency.
ANA said General Reza Talaei-Nik made the remarks during a visit to Kyrgyzstan, where he held meetings with the defense ministers of that country, Russia, Pakistan and Belarus.
“The United States is no longer in a position to impose its policies on independent nations,” the agency quoted him as saying. “Iran’s resistance has made this clear globally.”
It said Talaei-Nik claimed Washington would “eventually be forced to abandon its ‘illegal and irrational demands'” and accept an agreement to end the war.
Iranian state media shared a breakdown on Tuesday of the death toll from an airstrike that hit an elementary school on the first day of the U.S.-Israel war against the Islamic Republic.
Seventy-three boys and 47 girls were killed in the Feb. 28 strike on an elementary school in the southern city of Minab, state broadcaster IRIB and local media reported.
Twenty-six teachers, seven parents, a school bus driver, and a pharmacy technician at the clinic next to the school were also killed, IRIB said in a Telegram post.
That put the death toll at 155 instead of the more than 175 that had been reported earlier by Iranian officials.
An American Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school, and a preliminary U.S. assessment suggested last month that the U.S. was “likely” responsible for the attack but that the school was not intentionally targeted. It may have been hit due to the use of dated intelligence which wrongly identified the area as still part of an Iranian military installation, a person briefed on the preliminary intelligence told CBS News in March.
President Trump initially suggested that Iran itself may have been responsible, despite Iran not having Tomahawk missiles.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described the attack in a video address to the United Nations Human Rights Council as a “calculated, phased assault.”
CBS/AFP
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked in a Fox News interview about Iran’s latest proposal to postpone discussions on its nuclear program but end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and ends the war.
“It’s better than what we thought they were going to submit,” Rubio said of the offer, while questioning whether it was genuine.
“They’re very good negotiators,” he said, “and we have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said. “That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.”
CBS/AP
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump met with his national security team Monday morning after Iran proposed a deal that would see both countries agree to the mutual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but delay the nuclear conversation.
“The proposal was being discussed. I don’t want to get ahead of the president or his national security team,” Leavitt said. “What I will reiterate is that the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear.”
Mr. Trump has been adamant that the objective of the war is now to ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. He’s indicated that any deal to end the conflict must include a handover of the Islamic Republic’s enriched uranium, which is currently thought to be buried under facilities badly damaged by U.S. strikes in June 2025, and an end to Iran’s domestic enrichment program.
Leavitt said she didn’t want to go so far as to say the administration was “considering” the Iranian proposal.
