Iran-US war latest: Centcom issues update on US helicopter that crashed near Strait of Hormuz

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” by a renewed escalation of violence in the Middle East and called on Israel to reopen crossings into Gaza.

“All attacks must stop immediately. The ceasefires in Lebanon, Iran & Gaza must be fully respected,” he said in a post on X.

Israel struck targets in Iran on Monday for the first time since a ceasefire in April, after Iran fired missiles at Israel in what Tehran said was retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s capital.

Israel and Iran both called a halt to the exchange on Monday shortly after Trump told them to stop shooting, although they each left the door open to a possible resumption.

The most direct confrontation between the two countries since April threatened to wreck Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than 3-month-old war.

The Israeli military has said it received a report about gunfire being directed at its forces in the Ramim Ridge area of northern Israel.

It said in a statement that its soldiers returned fire and eliminated someone in the area, who it described as a “terrorist”.

It said no Israeli soldiers had been wounded in the incident, which was ongoing, with troops conducting searches of the area supported by the air force.

For more than two years, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon have lived in dread of Avichay Adraee’s next social media post.

Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman has been the animated face of its campaigns and the main source of warnings ahead of strikes and major offensives. That has made him one of the most recognizable Israelis in the Arab world and a focus of fury as well as some fascination.

In social media videos shared to his 2.5 million followers across platforms, the colonel appears in military fatigues, gesticulating as he delivers official statements and mocks Israel’s enemies, often using satire or pop culture references, all in fluent Arabic.

China’s exports picked up pace in May, rising 19.4 per cent from a year earlier, its customs agency said today, as technology-related shipments remained robust despite impacts from the Iran war.

The stronger-than-expected performance was an improvement from April’s 14.1 per cent year-on-year increase.

Imports in May jumped 27.4 per cent, also at a faster pace compared with April’s 25.3 per cent year-on-year expansion.

Exports to the US in May surged more than 35 per cent from the year before, after an 11 per cent increase in April.

The UK, along with 19 other Asian and European countries, has issued a joint statement criticising Israel’s new registration laws for aid groups working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“The aid entering Gaza has remained largely insufficient, both in quantity and in quality, while nearly the entire population depends on life-saving services,” the statement read.

Israel’s top court last week upheld the restrictions, which have banned 37 aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, for refusing to provide lists of their Palestinian and international employees to the Israeli government.

“The registration law will affect and severely limit the INGO’s capacity to respond inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” the countries said.

“We again strongly urge Israel to not implement the registration law in its current form.”

A magnitude 5 earthquake struck Sargaz in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province early on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported.

The quake was at a depth of 22 km (13.67 miles), it said.

A US Navy surface drone found and rescued the two crew from a US Apache attack helicopter from the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, the US military’s Central Command told Reuters on Tuesday.

We earlier reported that a US Apache helicopter has crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, hours after hostilities in the region escalated with Iran and Israel exchanging their first direct strikes in two months.

Donald Trump said both pilots are “fine”.

Israel has killed eight people in new attacks on southern Lebanon, officials said according to a report, despite Donald Trump pleading with Benjamin Netanyahu to halt strikes on Iran and Lebanon.

An Israeli airstrike hit a popular housing district in the ancient southern Lebanese city of Tyre, civil defence officials told Al Jazeera Arabic.

The Israeli military earlier had issued an evacuation order for the entire city, including its Christian quarter which has previously been excluded from evacuation zones.

Tyre, the fifth largest city in Lebanon with a peacetime population of around 200,000, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.