Ukraine on Tuesday announced that President Volodymyr Zelensky will skip the Ukraine Recovery Conference, to be hosted in Poland later this week, amid a spiraling diplomatic spat between the allies and neighbors over World War II memory.

"I am leading Ukraine's delegation and our overall work at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026", Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media, effectively confirming that Zelensky will not attend the event.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called again for his country to increase its military autonomy and reduce its reliance on support from the United States, according to a statement released on Tuesday by his office.

"I deeply appreciate the support we have received from our American friends, but we need to break free from dependency and build our own independent armaments network," the premier told reserve officers on a training course in the occupied West Bank.

Hezbollah decried what it called a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire in Lebanon on Tuesday, after state media there reported two people killed by Israeli gunfire in the country's south.

"The Islamic Resistance warns that what the enemy has committed constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire, which the Resistance has adhered to up to this point," the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military said Tuesday its soldiers struck a "cell of armed terrorists" in southern Lebanon, the first fighting it has reported since Saturday evening.

"A short while ago, the IDF identified a cell of armed terrorists operating in close proximity to IDF soldiers in the security zone in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area," the military said.

Iran said Tuesday that the United Nations nuclear watchdog's inspectors would not be given access to the country's key nuclear sites that were bombed during the war with Israel and the United States last year.

"We have not had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities damaged by the U.S. and Zionist military aggression," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday.

The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it had found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces", which it called a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza".

Italy's health ministry declared a red heatwave alert in 15 cities including Milan and Rome on Tuesday and said the number would go up to 16 on Wednesday.

During a red alert -- the highest level -- the ministry advises people to eat light, stay indoors in the hottest parts of the day and sprinkle themselves with cool water.

Technical talks between Iran and the United States in Switzerland have concluded, with negotiating groups to be set up on nuclear issues and sanctions, Iran's state media reported Tuesday.

The negotiators "decided that four working groups would be established: Sanctions Termination, Nuclear Affairs, Reconstruction and Economic Development, and Monitoring and Implementation," said IRNA state news agency, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi.

After a first round of U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland on ending the Middle East war, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said on Monday that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a "de-confliction cell" with Lebanon "to ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations" there.

Under U.S. pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks with Israel in April in Washington, and a fifth round of negotiations is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Direct damage to buildings in south Lebanon in the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah is estimated at around $1.38 billion, a U.N. agency and a Lebanese research center said Monday.