US President Donald Trump also said he is going to make a "final determination" on a deal with Iran during a meeting in the White House Situation Room. DW has more.
Here are the latest developments on Iran and across the Middle East on Friday, May 29:
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After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to expand its territorial control of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Islamist armed group Hamas decried the comments as a “blatant violation.”
“In a blatant violation of all agreements, as is their usual practice, Netanyahu announced expanding control over 70% of the Gaza Strip, while the killing and starvation continue,” Hamas spokesman Bassem Naim told the AFP news agency.
Israel launched a prolonged offensive in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 terror attack by Hamas, with the fighting subsiding following the 20-point ceasefire deal in October 2025, which was due to be implemented in stages. One of the points of the deal instructs the Israeli forces to gradually hand over control to an International Stabilisation Force rather than occupy and annex Gaza.
The implementation of the deal and the talks between the two sides, however, have stalled.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry estimates at least 738 Palestinians were killed since the deal was announced.
As Israel expands military operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah digs in, peace hopes for the upcoming direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington are fading. Is the country heading for a humanitarian collapse?
Read more about how Lebanese civilians are bearing the brunt of the war between Israel and Hezbollah in this report by DW’s Jennifer Holleis.
Donald Trump’s comments on a possible deal with Iran are a “mixture of truth and lies,” according to sources cited by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.
“Trump claimed that Iran was obligated to open the Strait of Hormuz without tolls, even though no such clause appears in the next of the agreement,” the agency said.
The report also disputed Trump’s claims that Iran and the US will work together to secure and destroy Iran’s enriched uranium.
“Well-informed sources emphasised that not only does this not appear in the memorandum of understanding, but this claim is fundamentally baseless,” the agency said.
Iran was also reportedly demanding the release of $12 billion (€10,28 billion) of frozen Iranian funds, with its representatives indicating that they will not move to the next phase of negotiations “until this payment is made.” The Iranian side also commented on Lebanon, saying that the ceasefire must be “complete” and “in line with Hezbollah’s demands” with any violation of it triggering retaliation.
The Iranian leadership has not made a definite decision on the memorandum of understanding with the US, but the document was in the final stages of ratification, according to the sources cited by Fars.
With Washington sending positive signals regarding a peace deal with Iran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that ”arriving at a final agreement depended on ending the American party’s attitude based on excessive demands and shifting and contradictory positions.”
The comments were published in a statement summarizing the a call between Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi and Oman Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi.
Despite occasional bouts of fighting in recent weeks, Iran and the US are officially abiding by a truce announced by President Donald Trump on April 7. Washington has repeatedly indicated that a more permanent deal was near at hand, but failed to present concrete results, with Trump appearing to give contradictory statements on US terms for ending the war.
Earlier today, Trump indicated he was about to make a “final determination” on the conflict.
In his latest post on the Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump laid out his demands for a deal with Iran to end the conflict.
“Iran must agree that they will not have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump said. “The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, or unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions. All water mines (bombs), if any will be terminated (we have removed, through detonation, numerous such mines with our great underwater mine sweepers. Iran will complete the immediate removal and/or detonation of any mines that are left, which will not be many!).”
“Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!'”
“The enriched material, sometimes referred to as ‘Nuclear Dust,’ which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains, caused by our powerful B2 Bomber attack 11 months ago, sitting on top of it, will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED. No money will be exchanged, unfurther notice,” Trump said.
Trump said he is in the Situation Room now to make a final determination on a ceasefire deal with Iran.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli army forces crossed the Litani River in southern Lebanon, approximately 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the border between the two countries.
“We are also active in Beirut, in the Beqaa Valley, across the whole front,” Netanyahu said during a visit at an army base located at Israel’s northern border, adding the Israeli military is hitting Islamist militant group Hezbollah״hip and thigh.”
This means the Israeli military is now operating beyond the so-called yellow line, the area in which its troops stayed as part of the ceasefire agreement reached with Lebanon in April 2026.
Despite the agreement, both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have continued carrying out strikes in each other’s direction, with each side blaming the other for violating the ceasefire.
Netanyahu and his government came under pressure in Israel due to the daily drone attacks in the country’s north, bringing the Israeli leader to promise an escalation in the military operation against Hezbollah in recent days.
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Iran’s official speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the country’s top negotiator in the talks with the US, says Tehran has no trust in any promises given by Washington.
“We don’t have any trust in guarantees through words, only actions are our criteria,” he posted on his X account.
Ghalibaf also added that those who are to be considered as winners to come out of any negotiation are those “getting ready for war from the following day.”
The Iranian official’s post comes as reports over a potential agreement between the two countries over ending the war could be edging nearer.
Lebanon‘s Culture Minister Ghassan Salame warned of a “serious danger” to heritage sites due to the Israeli bombardments in the country’s south.
“Bombings fell very close to the ruins of Tyre,” Salame told AFP, referring to the ancient Phoenician city acknowledged by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 1984, also mentioning the medieval Beaufort castle being directly hit.
”The intensification of the battles means that these sites are in serious danger.”
Despite officially having a ceasefire in place, Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollahhave been exchanging blows, with both accusing each other of violating the agreement to justify their strikes.
Lebanon placed 79 sites across the country under increased UNESCO protection, meaning any damage caused to them could become” potential grounds for prosecution,” the UN organization said.
A new poll has found that Israelis are largely supportive of using increased military means against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
A May 2026 poll by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) found that 58% of Israelis think the country should “deepen” its fighting against the Iran-backed Islamist militia. The number increases to 69.5% when it comes to Israeli Jews.
The poll also found that a similar number of Israelis (57%) believe the Israeli military should establish a buffer zone in Lebanon’s south, where Israeli forces would be stationed permanently to defend Israeli towns near the border from Hezbollah drone and missile fire.
Almost half of Israelis (48%) think the security situation with Lebanon has worsened, with only 28% arguing it has gotten better.
The Israeli government, a right-wing coalition that includes ministers from far-right parties, is facing increased pressure domestically to tackle the ongoing Hezbollah drone attacks, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising an increase in strikes in Lebanon as a result.
Israeli and Lebanese military officials are set to meet for security talks at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., later on Friday.
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The Israeli Foreign Ministry has slammed the UN’s addition of Israeli entities to a blacklist of sexual violence in conflict zones, calling the decision “shameful and absurd.”
“Today’s decision must be understood in its true context: an attempt to create a fake symmetry between Israel and the real sexual atrocities committed by Hamas,” the ministry wrote on its X account.
The country ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, called the decision a “disgrace,” blaming UN head Antonio Guterres for “campaigning against Israel.”
“We’re done with this secretary-general. We will not cooperate with him or his representatives anymore,” Danon said in a video in Hebrew.
The blacklist also includes Hamas — classified as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and Israel, among other governments — which was added following the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is aiming to tighten its grip on the Gaza Strip.
“We are now in 60% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. You know what? We were at 50%, we moved to 60%,” he said Thursday at the Jordan Valley Conference, which took place in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu said Israel would move to control 70% of the enclave in a bid to put more pressure on the Palestinian group Hamas.
“The most important thing is to continue leveraging our power, to increase it,” Netanyahu said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, vowed that what he called the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of the largely destroyed Gaza Strip “will be implemented.”
“It will all happen at the right timing and in the right way,” Katz posted on his X account.
Human rights organizations have warned that such a move could amount to ethnic cleansing.
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Israeli and Lebanese military officials are set to hold security talks at the Pentagon on Friday amid escalating cross-border violence and intensifying Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
The talks, mediated by the United States, will be the first direct security discussions between the two sides since the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted. A fourth round of broader US-brokered talks is expected early next week.
On the eve of the meeting at the Pentagon, Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern city of Tyre, killing at least 14 people, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel’s military said Thursday that it had struck more than 135 Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon, including rocket launch sites and military infrastructure in Tyre.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the military to “deepen our operation in Lebanon” while continuing negotiations aimed at disarming Hezbollah and securing a peace agreement.
Netanyahu vowed earlier this week to “crush” the Iran-backed militant group.
Hezbollah has condemned the talks, accusing Lebanon’s leadership of negotiating “at the cost of their own people’s blood.”
Beirut lacks leverage to force an Israeli withdrawal or end the war, Hezbollah said.
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The US military said no US aircraft were shot down near the city of Bushehr in Iran.
“No US aircraft were shot down. All US air assets are accounted for,” the US Central Command said in a post on X.
Early on Friday, Iran’s state media claimed to have downed a “hostile aircraft” in the southern province of Bushehr.
US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that the United States and Iran had made good progress toward a ceasefire extension deal, but President Donald Trump is not yet ready to approve it.
Hours after US sources said Washington and Tehran had agreed on a deal, Vance told reporters that Washington was “not there yet” on the agreement with Iran. Vance, however, added that the parties were close and that the US was in a position to substantially set back Tehran’s nuclear program.
According to Vance, there were a couple of sticking points in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran concerning its stockpile of enriched uranium and the question of further enrichment.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU. We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points,” Vance said.
“I can’t guarantee that we’re going to get there, but right now I feel pretty good about it. We’ve made a lot of progress here,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll continue to make progress and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement, but obviously that’s still TBD (to be determined),” Vance added.
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Welcome to DW’s ongoing coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.
According to unnamed sources who spoke with the US outlet Axios, as well as international news agencies, US and Iranian negotiators have agreed to extend the current ceasefire for another 60 days.
However, the deal is still awaiting the approval of the US president and Iranian supreme leader.
According to the reports, the deal would restart nuclear talks and allow free passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Stay tuned for more news and analysis.
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