Al Jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands and Zaid Sabah

    United States President Donald Trump says he has postponed a planned attack on Iran at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and added that “serious negotiations are now taking place”.

    Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said “dialogue does not mean surrender”, and that Tehran had entered the “dialogue with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation’s rights”.

    Israel’s deadly attacks on Lebanon continue, with at least seven people reported killed on Monday despite a US-brokered “ceasefire” extension agreed upon between Lebanese and Israeli officials.

    Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Monday that at least 3,020 people have been killed and 9,273 injured in Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the country since March 2.

    Condemnation is growing after Israeli forces again intercepted boats in the Gaza aid flotilla, with reports of some 47 vessels seized in international waters and hundreds of activists abducted.

Israel sends ‘fully equipped naval fleet’ to intercept Gaza aid boats

    Israeli forces intercepted dozens of boats on Monday trying to deliver aid to Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.

    To stop the humanitarian aid flotilla reaching Gaza, Israel sent “a fully equipped naval fleet” and armed Israel troops used speed boats to intercept, board and abducted hundreds of activists in international waters off Cyprus.

    Two weeks ago, Israeli forces intercepted 22 flotilla vessels off the coast of Greece and detained 181 volunteers participating in the aid mission.

Australia ‘urgently seeking’ information on flotilla participants abducted by Israel

    The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has told Al Jazeera that Australia is “is urgently seeking confirmation of the welfare of Australians we believe have been detained”, referring to the interception of flotilla ships in international waters on Monday and abduction of flotilla participants by Israel forces.

    “We will continue to make clear our expectation that any detainees receive humane treatment in line with international norms,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

    “We understand people want to respond to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but we continue to urge Australians not to join others seeking to break the Israeli naval blockade as they will be putting themselves and others at risk of injury, death, arrest or deportation,” the statement added.

    Eleven Australians are reportedly among hundreds of volunteers participating in the aid flotilla bound for Gaza that have been illegally detained by Israel’s military.

    An Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcomm, was among seven aid workers working for the respected charity World Central Kitchen who were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in April 2024.

India increases domestic fuel prices amid Strait of Hormuz disruptions

    Reuters reports that India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has increased its retail fuel prices for the second time in a week as the shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to pressure global fuel supplies.

    On Tuesday, the Indian government raised petrol and diesel prices by approximately 0.9 rupees ($0.0093) per litre (0.26 gallons) to recover losses stemming from surging global crude oil costs.

    With this latest adjustment, the price of petrol rose to 98.64 rupees ($1.02) per litre from 97.77 ($1.01) rupees, while diesel prices moved to 91.58 rupees ($0.95) per litre from 90.67 rupees ($0.94).

    The price increase follows a larger 3-rupee-per-litre increase implemented on Friday, which marked India’s first domestic fuel price adjustment in four years.

Gulf states don’t want escalation but deal that ends Iran war

    Dania Thafer, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Gulf International Forum, spoke to Al Jazeera earlier and underscored that Gulf states “certainly do not want escalation in the region”.

    “What they want is a solution to the crisis that they are facing,” Thafer said, adding that Tehran’s nuclear programme is “not the priority” for Gulf states as it is for Washington.

    Gulf states are much more concerned about the immediate need to open the Hormuz Strait and the threat posed by Iran’s conventional missiles, she said.

    “I think de-escalation and coming up with a deal that can address all parties’ grievances would be the ideal situation for the Gulf states,” she added.

Trump’s military options in Iran war ‘are all just terrible’

    Henry Ensher, a former US ambassador to Algeria, spoke to Al Jazeera earlier about Trump’s military options when it comes to Iran, and all are “just terrible”, he said.

    “If he does just a small strike, he gets criticism, and it won’t have any effect on the Iranian regime. If he does a very large strike, the risks are very great both in terms of US casualties and because it might not work either,” Ensher said.

    “So his military options are very bad.”

    Ensher also said that Trump was likely hoping that Gulf states would ask him to hold off on attacking Iran again, “because that’s what he wanted to do anyway”.

What is it actually like on board a flotilla to Gaza, knowing you’ll likely be targeted and imprisoned

    Until now, it’s a story that’s been told mostly in fragments, one vertical video at a time.

    This is the inside story of what it is like on the Global Sumud Flotilla: the drone attacks, the safety drills, the calls home, and the Palestinians in Gaza waiting to see if civilians can break a siege backed by a superpower.

Growing bread queues in Gaza as Israeli forces restricts fuel, flour imports

By Mohammed Al Taban

Reporting from Gaza City, Gaza

    Standing in a long queue under the beating sun, 14-year-old Muhammed al-Roubi was waiting to buy bread. But there was a strong chance that, despite his patience, he would not get any.

    A flour and fuel shortage in recent weeks, brought on by Israeli restrictions on imports into Gaza, means that bakeries cannot produce as much bread as Palestinians in Gaza need.

    Palestinians, the vast majority of them displaced from their homes as a result of Israel’s genocidal war on the territory, are forced to wait for hours in queues outside of the few remaining bakeries to get subsidised bread packages.

    “My uncle’s family and ours live in the same house, and we share food, so we need a large amount of bread every day,” said Muhammed, telling how he had come to the bakery with his cousin before they separated and joined different queues.

    “That is why my cousin and I each stand in a separate line,” he explained.

    “Some days, we return empty-handed because the bread runs out and there are too many people.”

    You can read more here.

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New poll confirms falling US support for military aid to Israel, war on Iran

    A new opinion poll from The New York Times and Siena University has provided further evidence of falling US support for the Israeli military and the war on Iran.

    The poll of 1,507 registered voters found that just 30 percent supported the US war on Iran, while 64 percent opposed it.

    Some 57 percent of respondents opposed providing US military aid to Israel, compared with 37 percent who supported it.

    By comparison, in November 2023, one month into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, just more than 51 percent of US voters surveyed by Quinnipiac University supported sending more military aid to Israel.

Australian government secures jet fuel, fertiliser shipments

    Reuters reports that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced the procurement of three shipments of jet fuel, totalling more than 600,000 barrels, or roughly 100 million litres (26.4 million gallons), to bolster national supplies amid a global fuel crunch due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

    The statement from the prime minister also confirmed that the government secured an additional 38,500 tonnes of agricultural-grade urea fertiliser from Brunei.

    According to Albanese, the three jet fuel cargoes coming from China are expected to start to arrive in the country from early June.