The US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Thursday warned Lebanese group Hezbollah against getting involved in the war between its main backer Iran and Israel.

Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, is on his first visit to Beirut, where he met top Lebanese officials including parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.

“I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump… that would be a very, very, very bad decision,” Barrack said after his meeting with Berri, responding to a question on what the US position would be on any involvement by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the war.

The group condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran when the conflict erupted on Friday, but did not announce its intention to intervene in support of Tehran.

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Hezbollah suffered devastating losses in its war against Israel last year, which ended with a ceasefire agreement in November.

The war heavily weakened the group, which was once seen as the most powerful and influential component the so-called Iran-led “axis of resistance”.

Reacting to the Iran-Israel war, the Lebanese foreign ministry said last week that it was “continuing its contacts” to spare the country from being dragged into any conflict.

In a statement shared by the Lebanese presidency after his meeting with Barrack, President Joseph Aoun said that “communications are ongoing to achieve the goal of weapons monopoly at both the Lebanese and Palestinian levels, and will intensify after stability returns… to the region”.

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According to the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah must pull back its fighters north of the Litani river, roughly 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Israel, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the area.

Israel is required to fully withdraw its troops from Lebanon, but it has kept them in five positions it deems “strategic”.

Lebanon has also recently amped up efforts to disarm Palestinian armed groups, which for decades had been in charge of Palestinian refugee camps in the country.

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Barrack also said on Thursday that Washington was “committed to help… so what we have altogether is hope, and that chaos will subside soon, and that out of that will come the blossoming of peace and prosperity”.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire, Israel has repeatedly attacked Lebanon, saying it would continue to strike the country until Hezbollah was disarmed.

An Israeli strike on Kfar Juz, south Lebanon, killed two people on Wednesday, while another strike injured one person in Barish, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Israel said it killed two Hezbollah members in its attacks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would “pay a heavy price” after a hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack on Thursday, while his defence minister said Iran’s supreme leader would be “held accountable”.

“This morning, Iran’s terrorist dictators fired missiles at Soroka Hospital… and at civilians in the centre of the country. We will make the tyrants in Tehran pay a heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.

The Soroka Hospital in the southern town of Beersheba was left in flames following an early morning barrage of “dozens” of Iranian ballistic missiles, with impacts also reported in two Israeli towns close to coastal hub Tel Aviv.

Speaking at the scene of the hospital, director Shlomi Kodesh said that a surgical building which had been evacuated in the past few days was hit, adding that 40 people had sustained injuries.

“Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings across the medical centre,” he told journalists.

Iran said it was targeting an Israeli military and intelligence base, not the health facility.

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The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries, with US President Donald Trump maintaining suspense about whether Washington will enter the war alongside Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected Trump’s demand for an “unconditional surrender”, despite claims from the US leader that “Iran’s got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate”.

– ‘Never surrender’ –

Trump has left his intentions on joining the conflict deliberately ambiguous, saying Wednesday: “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

“The next week is going to be very big,” he added, without further details.

Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordow, for which special bunker-busting bombs have been developed.

The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict.

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“I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven’t made a final (decision),” Trump said. “I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due, because things change. Especially with war.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme.

Trump told reporters that Iranian officials “want to come to the White House”, a claim denied by Tehran.

The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran’s nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term.

But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally.

– Nuclear sites –

On Thursday morning, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a nuclear facility in Natanz that has been struck previously.

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The Israeli military said the Arak site on the outskirts of the village of Khondab in central Iran had been hit “to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development”.

There was also a “near-total national internet blackout” in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran’s Fars news agency confirming heavier internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week.

The military campaign has sparked calls for a return to diplomacy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a deal to guarantee both Israel’s security and Iran’s desire for a civilian nuclear programme was possible.

“I believe it would be good for all of us together to look for ways to stop the fighting and seek ways for the participants in the conflict to find an agreement,” he told foreign journalists at a televised event.

He said Iran had not asked Russia for military help.

– Daily barrages –

An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday.

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About 20 missiles had struck civilian areas in Israel, the official added.

Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday.

Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

Both countries have not issued an updated official toll since then.

Israel says its surprise air campaign is aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear death but still short of the 90-percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.

Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own atomic activities, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.

Irish authorities have commenced excavation at a site in Tuam, County Galway, believed to contain the remains of nearly 800 infants who died at a Catholic-run institution for unmarried mothers.

According to Sky News on Tuesday, the site, formerly home to the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, was operated by an order of Catholic nuns between 1925 and 1961. The facility catered to unmarried pregnant women, many of whom were victims of rape or sexual abuse and were forced to give up their babies after delivery.

A general view of the remembrance garden on the former site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home can be seen on June 15, 2025 in Tuam, Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Local historian, Catherine Corless, who brought the case to national attention in 2014, discovered death certificates for 798 children but found burial records for only one.

Her investigation sparked widespread outrage and prompted a government inquiry into Ireland’s system of institutional care for women and children.

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Preliminary findings showed that the remains of many of the children, some as young as 35 weeks in the womb, were dumped in what used to be a septic tank on the premises, an area now surrounded by a modern apartment complex.

Corless told Sky News that the structure, referred to as “the pit,” may hold the remains of 796 infants, most of whom were never given a proper burial.

The excavation, which began this week, is part of efforts to identify the remains and accord them dignified reburials. The process is expected to last up to two years.

“I don’t care if it’s a thimbleful, as they tell m

“There wouldn’t be much remains left; at six months old, it’s mainly cartilage more than bone,” Annette McKay, whose sister is believed to be one of the 798 victims, told Sky News.

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Annette McKay, whose sister is believed to be among the deceased, recalled how her mother, Margaret O’Connor, was informed about her baby’s death.

Her mother, Margaret “Maggie” O’Connor gave birth to a baby, Mary Margaret, at the home after she was r@ped at the age of 17.

The girl died six months later, and her mother only found out when a nun told her.

“She was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said ‘the child of your sin is dead,’” said Annette, who now lives in the UK.

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The Bon Secours facility was part of a broader system of state-sanctioned institutions across Ireland where pregnant women were confined, forced into unpaid labour, and separated from their children. Women who became pregnant again were often sent to Magdalene Laundries, infamous religious-run institutions for “fallen women.”

Originally, the term “fallen women” was applied mostly to sex workers, but the Magdalene laundries later started taking in “seduced” women, victims of rape and incest, and female orphans or children abandoned or abused by their families.

The last of the Magdalene laundries only closed their doors in the 1990s.

A 2021 state inquiry revealed that about 9,000 children died in 18 similar homes, mainly from preventable illnesses such as gastroenteritis and respiratory infections.

In 2014, the Irish government issued a formal apology to survivors. In 2022, it launched a compensation scheme, which has so far paid out over $32m to more than 800 individuals.