Two Cabinet ministers visit district of Nabatieh; UN says more than 800,000 forcibly displaced people have returned to their home towns | LIVE

Lebanon and Israel begin their second day of talks in Rome

Lebanese and Israeli negotiators have just resumed talks as part of the second day of this seventh round of negotiations, which began in Rome on Tuesday, according to several local media outlets.

The Israeli army claims to have destroyed another Hezbollah tunnel in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army claimed, in a post published on X by its Arabic-language spokesperson Ella Waweya, that it had destroyed an "underground infrastructure stretching for several tens of meters" in Srebbine (Bint Jbeil), southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army claims that this infrastructure was being used by Hezbollah to plan and carry out attacks against its forces.

It also claimed to have discovered an arms cache containing launchers and rockets belonging to Hezbollah, as well as dozens of other weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, anti-tank missiles, and various items of military equipment.

Field report: 6 years after the Beirut Port tragedy, hope for justice is tempered by doubt

A few 100 parents of victims and supporters, including ministers and members of Parliament from across the political spectrum, gathered at the site to honor the memory of those killed and demand the truth.

The sixth commemoration of the double explosion at the Beirut Port, which killed more than 235 people and injured over 7,000 in 2020, looked different from the previous five. While the rituals remained largely the same and the emotion was just as palpable, this year’s somber anniversary came with a promise: the publication of the indictment within 60 to 90 days, as Justice Minister Adel Nassar previously announced.

Read Suzanne Baaklini's field report here.

The Houthis claim attack on Saudi oil tanker in Red Sea

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said on Wednesday that they had attacked a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of Yanbu, a Saudi port on the Red Sea, as part of the blockade they had announced against the Saudi fleet.

The group “successfully targeted the Saudi oil tanker ‘Wafa’ in the northern Red Sea, off the coast of Yanbu, with several ballistic missiles,” said their military spokesman Yahya Saree in a video address, adding that this was the eighth vessel targeted since the blockade was announced, on July 22, against the Riyadh-led fleet, which supports the Yemeni government.

Defence Minister and Minister for Public Works on tour in South Lebanon

According to our correspondent in southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Michel Menassah and Minister for Public Works and Transport Fayez Rassamny have arrived in southern Lebanon for a tour that began at the Qaaqaaiyet al-Jisr bridge, in the Nabatieh district, and is due to take them to Zawtar Gharbien, amongst other places, to assess the extent of the damage and destruction caused by Israel in the area. The Qaaqaaiyet al-Jisr bridge, which spans the Litani River and links the districts of Bint Jbeil and Nabatieh, has been bombed on several occasions by Israel.

The two ministers are also due to observe, from a distance, several sites located in the "yellow zone" occupied by Israel, according to the program reported by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

Lebanon: More than 800,000 displaced people have returned to their home regions, according to the UN

More than 800,000 people displaced in Lebanon by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have returned to their home regions since hostilities subsided in June, the U.N. has said.

This figure was released during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, following the start in Rome of a seventh round of U.S.-sponsored talks between Lebanon and Israel, which are due to continue until Thursday.

According to OCHA, the U.N.’s humanitarian agency, “821,077 people had begun to return to their home areas as of 30 July” in Lebanon, with a further 360,000 remaining displaced, including around 26,000 being accommodated in public shelters.

Israel continues to carry out dynamite blasts and bombings in southern Lebanon

Despite the ongoing negotiations in Rome, Israeli forces continue to raze villages in southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Loud explosions caused by dynamite blasts could be heard on Tuesday evening in Haddatha, then at dawn on Wednesday in Haddatha and Aita al-Jabal (Bint Jbeil).

The Israeli army also fired machine-gun rounds towards Haddatha and shelled the outskirts of the village with its artillery between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Flares were also fired into the sky over Haddatha around midnight.

On Tuesday evening, an Israeli drone also bombed Nabatieh Fawqa, in the district of Nabatieh.

At around 9 a.m., the Israeli army blew up houses in the village of Zawtar Sharqieh (Nabatieh).

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz boasted that the Israeli army had completely destroyed 24 villages in southern Lebanon, claiming that their inhabitants had “nowhere to return to,” in an interview given on Sunday evening to the Israeli broadcaster Channel 14.

Ship sinks in the Red Sea

A ship sank on Tuesday in the Red Sea following an attack, according to a local Yemeni official and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, against the backdrop of a naval blockade of Saudi ports by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

“The Red Sea province coastguard rescued the crew of an Indian cargo ship on Tuesday after it sank following an attack by a booby-trapped vessel off the coast of Hodeida,” a Yemeni port held by the Houthis, said an official from the Yemeni town of Mokha. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs condemned the attack, stating that 13 sailors on board had been rescued.

Tuesday’s update on the new front that has opened up between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen can be found here

Hello and welcome to our live blog

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East, where the United States and Iran are once again attempting to reach an agreement to end the war launched on Feb. 28 by Washington and Tel Aviv, which has since spread across the region.

We will also be monitoring the situation in southern Lebanon, where Israel continues to occupy several hundred square kilometers along the border, whilst Lebanese and Israeli officials are negotiating in Rome with a view to achieving a lasting end to the war on Lebanon.