The Israeli military said it had repatriated the remains of Sgt First Class Yehuda Katz, a soldier killed in Lebanon 44 years ago, in a joint operation with the Mossad intelligence agency.

Katz was the last Israeli soldier declared missing in the Sultan Yacoub battle against Syrian forces in eastern Lebanon in 1982.

President Joseph Aoun will head to Rome this week for talks focusing on the future of the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, whose mandate ends this year, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The visit scheduled for Thursday comes after Italy and France said in June that they wanted to set up a multinational coalition to succeed the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

U.N. nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi said Tuesday that his agency had found several tons of nuclear materials at a previously undeclared site dating from the rule of Syria's previous authorities.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that no talks with Tehran are under way or planned and insisted the blockade of Iran’s ports remains in force.

Lebanon's judiciary decided on Tuesday to extradite a former Syrian general it detained this month following a warrant from Damascus accusing him of "killing and crimes against humanity", a judicial official said.

The official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that Lebanon's public prosecutor "decided to extradite former Syrian General Adel Issa, currently detained in Lebanon, to Syrian authorities to stand trial for crimes he is accused of committing on Syrian soil" during the rule of former president Bashar al-Assad, ousted in late 2024.

Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Tuesday that the strategic Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the United States meets Tehran's demands, including lifting a naval blockade.

"I want to state clearly that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the American commitments stipulated in the memorandum of understanding... are implemented," Ghalibaf said in a speech broadcast on state television. He listed the removal of the blockade, the lifting of oil sanctions and unfreezing of Iran's assets abroad among the demands.

Syrian state media said three people were killed on Tuesday in an explosion of unknown origin at a power plant on the country's Mediterranean coast.

News agency SANA reported "an explosion in the thermal power plant in Banias", with the cause under investigation. It cited a regional health official as saying the blast resulted in three deaths.

Hamas said Tuesday it remained committed to a Gaza peace deal backed by the United States after envoy Jared Kushner spoke to Israel about pressuring the group on disarmament.

"Hamas is committed to this agreed-upon process. It is clear that, so far, the Israeli side has not given the mediators clear approval of the roadmap," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP.

A Syrian court on Tuesday issued a death sentence to detainee Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad who was himself sentenced to death in absentia a week ago.

Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan said Wassim al-Assad was convicted of multiple murders and "murder accompanied by torture and brutality... classified as crimes against humanity and war crimes", adding that "he is therefore sentenced to death".

Firefighters were making a potentially decisive push on Tuesday to encircle the massive wildfire burning in Belgium's High Fens nature reserve, despite unfavorable weather hampering air support operations, authorities said.

"We are trying to definitively encircle the fire today," regional government spokesperson Nicolas Yernaux told AFP, saying all focus was on "reinforcing our eastern defenses" with the arrival of "sustained winds" blowing towards the German border a stone's throw away.