Al Jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands and Zaid Sabah

    Iran’s ISNA news agency says mediated discussions between Tehran and Washington are ongoing, with the two sides exchanging messages and draft texts in an effort to establish a formal framework for an agreement to end the conflict.

    Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran reports that Pakistani officials are engaged in “intense mediation activity”, while a senior Iranian official said a deal was close, though a second Iranian source said it was too early to say whether a final agreement could be reached.

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier on Thursday there were “some good signs” for a deal as US President Donald Trump warned of “very drastic” action if Iran does not give up its uranium stockpiles.

    Israel said it deported all foreign activists involved in the Gaza aid flotilla. The move follows a global outcry over the brutal treatment of the activists by Israeli forces and Israel’s ultra-nationalist Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

    Israel continued its deadly bombardment of southern Lebanon as the Lebanese Health Ministry expressed outrage after Israeli forces attacked a government hospital, injuring nine people, including several staff members.

Four dead in Israeli air strike on medical centre in south Lebanon

    Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that an overnight air strike targeting an Islamic Health Authority centre in the town of Hannaouiyah, in the Tyre District, has killed four people.

    The air attack also wounded two paramedics, according to the NNA.

    The US and Iran have signalled progress in negotiations to end the war as a senior Pakistan official is currently in Tehran to mediate the exchange of messages between both sides.

    An Iranian official told Al Jazeera earlier that negotiators were close to a ceasefire framework.

US military says forces in Middle East remain at ‘peak readiness’

    The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees operations in the war on Iran, said the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group is “maintaining peak readiness” in the Arabian Sea.

    In a post on social media, CENTCOM shared images of US warplanes, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, launching from the deck of an aircraft carrier, saying that its forces remain ready while “enforcing the US blockade against Iranian ports”.

    CENTCOM’s comment comes as Pakistan is engaged in mediation efforts to reach an agreement to end the US war on Iran, though President Trump warned again on Thursday that Tehran would face “very drastic” action if it did not hand over its uranium stockpiles to the US.

Iranian Red Crescent says 7,200 people rescued from rubble during war

    The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has shared videos for the first time showing its workers and volunteers rescuing people harmed in US and Israeli air attacks on Iran, before the current ceasefire.

    The videos show multiple people being pulled from the rubble covered in dust after entire buildings have been destroyed in bombing raids, many of which appeared to be multistorey residential buildings.

    “IRCS aid workers rescued more than 7,200 people alive from beneath the rubble during the war,” which continued from February 28 until the ceasefire on April 8, the humanitarian organisation said in a post on social media.

Iran condemns US-Israeli attack on renowned Pasteur Institute as ‘war crime’

    Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has condemned the US-Israeli attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran in March, part of the global network of institutes dedicated to medical research.

    In a post on X, Baghaei said: “The American-Israeli deliberate attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran was a flagrant war crime. The perpetrators must be held accountable.”

    Baghaei said that targeting the century-old scientific and public health institution represented an assault on the Iranian civilian population’s fundamental right to health, science and life.

    His comments came in response to a statement published by The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, which warned that the destruction of the institute posed a significant threat to regional health security.

    According to The Lancet, the World Health Organization confirmed that the institute was no longer functional and cannot deliver health services following the recent bombardment, which occurred after years of international sanctions had already left Iran’s public health system in a precarious condition.

Oil prices rise amid scepticism over US-Iran talks to end war

    Oil prices have climbed as investors grow sceptical about a potential breakthrough in US-Iran talks as the two nations remain deadlocked over Tehran’s uranium stockpile and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

    Brent crude oil rose by $2.38, or 2.3 percent, reaching $104.96 per barrel as of 00:34 (GMT) on Friday, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by $1.73, or 1.8 percent, to settle at $98.08 per barrel.

    The rise followed a roughly 2 percent drop for both benchmarks’ crude on Thursday, which had marked their lowest prices in almost two weeks.

Israeli army says it killed two people in southern Lebanon

    In a post on X, the Israeli military says people were “attacked and eliminated in an air strike” after “suspicious movement” was identified by Israeli military posts in southern Lebanon, “hundreds of metres from the border with Israel”.

    The Israeli military claimed the two people were armed.

    As we’ve been reporting, at least 20 people were killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Thursday.

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Top US navy official tells Senate arms sales to Taiwan paused due to Iran war

    Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao said that the United States paused weapons sales to Taiwan due to its war on Iran, in response to a question from top Republican Mitch McConnell.

    During a Senate hearing, Senator McConnell told Cao: “We’ve encouraged Taiwan to buy arms from us, and all of a sudden there’s a pause. What are you hearing from the Taiwanese about the pause ”

    Cao responded, saying, “I have not spoken to [the] Taiwanese.”

    “However, we have done some foreign military sales to them, and it’s just right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury,” of which he claimed the US has “plenty”.

    “The foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary,” Cao continued, adding that it “would be up to the Secretary of War and the Secretary of State” to determine when the sales would resume.

    McConnell replied: “Well, that’s what’s really distressing.”

Israeli soldiers punished him for being ‘the wrong kind of Jew’

    David Adler grew up in a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California, with two very different traditions: Zionism and resistance.

    When the 2025 Global Sumud Flotilla stopped in Tunisia, he decided he couldn’t stay on the sidelines and joined the effort to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

    For Adler, joining the Gaza aid mission meant reclaiming his Jewish identity – but also being punished in Israeli detention “for being the wrong kind of Jew”.