Iran-US war latest: Trump claims Iran plans to offer deal to satisfy his demands as Tehran rejects direct negotiations

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at American allies Friday for not committing naval forces to forcibly re-open the Strait of Hormuz after Iran shut down the key waterway in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks.

“It’s a bold and dangerous mission … courtesy of a bold and historic president,”, Hegseth said.

Donald Trump has claimed Iran plans to offer a deal to satisfy his demands.

“They’re making an offer and we’ll have to see”, the US president told Reuters Friday.

The US has been unwavering in its demand that Iran give up its enriched uranium and pledge to never obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump also wants oil tankers to be able to move freely through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran effectively closed the vital oil passageway after the US and Israel began launching strikes against Tehran on February 28.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has shared the Trump administration’s hope that Iran will agree to never obtain a nuclear weapon during this “diplomatic phase” of the war.

“Diplomacy, hopefully, continues, and we’ll get to a place where the president’s red lines will be met”, Leavitt told Fox News Friday. “Where Iran will turn over their enriched uranium and where they will firmly commit to never obtaining, possessing or moving towards creating and building a nuclear bomb”.

The US military has said it redirected 34 ships so far during its ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.

The Israeli prime minister, 76, said on Friday that an early-stage malignant tumour had been discovered during a routine checkup. He said “targeted treatment” had removed “the problem” and left no trace of it.

According to the medical report, Netanyahu was treated with radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer. It was unclear when the treatment occurred.

Houssam Naddaf said no words could capture the shock of seeing an Israeli soldier smash a crucifix in his family’s private garden in the southern Lebanese village of Debel — an image he recognized instantly as it spread online.

“I saw it on the internet like everyone else,” he said. Naddaf had not been able to go to the house in person to see the damage because of restrictions on movement imposed by Israeli forces in the area.

Israeli forces took control of the area as part of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2 when the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired a salvo of missiles over the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.

Israel then launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and its forces have remained there despite the announcement of a truce last week.

Zeinab Faraj, a Lebanese journalist who was wounded in an Israeli airstrike that killed her colleague Amal Khalil this week, described hours of agony as they waited for help to arrive, in an interview with The Associated Press

On Wednesday, the two were driving behind a relative of Faraj in the village of al-Tiri, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border with Israel on Wednesday.

As they passed through the village, Khalil holding her phone out the window to film, an Israeli strike hit the car in front of them, Faraj said, speaking from the Beirut hospital where she is recovering.

The women pulled over and got out of the car, hunkering down on the side of the road as a drone remained in the sky overhead.

About an hour later, a second strike hit Khalil’s car, next to them.

“Don’t leave me alone”

Faraj managed to pull open the metal shutter of a shop behind them and the women took refuge inside.

“Amal was crawling, she was wounded — her nose and head and shoulder and leg,” Faraj recalled, speaking with difficulty with her face swollen and bruised.

Faraj said Khalil had also suffered burn wounds after the targeted car next to them caught fire.

The journalists were able to speak with their families and colleagues. Faraj said Khalil had put on a brave face and tried to assure her family that they were fine.

After a while, Faraj began to drift off. “When I said I wanted to go to sleep, Amal came closer and hugged me and told me, ‘Zeinab, don’t leave me alone’,” she said. “I realised that Amal was not in good condition. The colour of her face had changed and I realised that she had some internal bleeding, too. “

She was half asleep when she heard the sound of a missile falling. A third strike hit the building where the two journalists were sheltering. Faraj was thrown out of the shop by the impact while Khalil was trapped inside.

“I was in and out of consciousness, and then I thought my dad had come to get me and I began calling to him, ‘Baba, I’m here, come and help me’,” Faraj said.

A rescue team arrived and was able to pull Faraj out of the rubble and evacuate her as well as the bodies of the two people killed in the strike on the first car.

Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement that the Israeli military opened fire on the Red Cross ambulance that arrived to rescue Khalil, forcing it to turn back.

Israel’s military said individuals in the village had violated the ceasefire, endangering its troops, and denied that it targets journalists or that it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area. It said the incident was under review.

Faraj had lost consciousness and said she was unaware that Khalil had not been rescued along with her until hours later.

Shortly before midnight, after the Lebanese army, civil defence and the Lebanese Red Cross received clearance and got to the scene, Khalil’s body was pulled from the rubble.

Faraj believes that “if they had gotten to her a bit sooner, Amal would be here today.”

The economic fallout from the conflict in the Middle East has become a major new threat to humanitarian aid efforts as Gulf nations that have grown to become major aid donors reprioritise, experts have warned.

Humanitarian groups are already reeling from sweeping cuts to foreign aid programmes from traditional aid donors like the US and UK, with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) targeting just $23bn (£17bn) in humanitarian funding this year, which is significantly down on the $37bn raised in 2024.

But while Western countries have been signalling a retrenchment, Gulf states have become ever more significant donors over the past few years, with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait collectively providing some $6bn in humanitarian aid last year.