In a letter Friday to the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, mothers of soldiers called for an end to the further ground offensive into Lebanon.

The group, Parents of Combat Soldiers, includes 600 military parents. The letter said the military was receiving orders from politicians who are ready to “sacrifice” its children, and urged Zamir to focus on a political solution. “Four soldiers have already been killed in Lebanon, how many more will sacrifice their lives in vain?!” said the letter.

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Iran and threatened on Friday that its attacks "will escalate and expand" after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going well and gave Tehran more time to open the Strait of Hormuz, though there have been no signs of Iran backing down.

With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran's chokehold on the strait, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil is usually shipped.

Humanitarian organizations under intense strain because of the United States' steep cuts to foreign aid say they are scrambling to find the funds needed to respond to the war in the Middle East, where millions of people have already been displaced by the widening conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last year to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development — once the world's leading donor of humanitarian assistance — forced aid groups around the world to fire tens of thousands of staffers and shutter lifesaving programs. Now, some of those same groups are struggling to mount a response in the Middle East. Already, the United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates 3.2 million people inside Iran and 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

U.S. President Donald Trump's surprising claim this week that talks with Iran were yielding great progress has only raised more confusion over a war whose goals were already unclear. The most basic question: What talks?

A 15-point plan from the Trump administration offering a potential pathway to an exit was offered late Tuesday to Iran through Pakistan, according to a person briefed on the contours of the plan but who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Hezbollah joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Long before he became Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf went on a charm offensive for almost two decades, portraying himself as a hard-liner the West could do business with in the Islamic Republic.

"I would like the West to change its attitude to Iran and trust Iran, and rest assured that there's an attitude in Iran to advance issues through dialogue," he told The Times newspaper of London in 2008.

Wall Street shot higher and global oil futures tumbled Monday after President Donald Trump extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz and said the U.S. would hold off on strikes against Iranian power plants and other energy infrastructure for five days.

Trump's post on social media about the strikes came as the war with Iran enters its fourth week. Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 2.6% before the opening bell. Oil prices also immediately reversed course, sinking as much as 10%. Benchmark U.S. crude slid $8.23 to $90 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, tumbled $9.02 to $103.17 a barrel.

A strike on a bridge Monday in the southern village of Qaaqaaiyet al-Jisr cut a main link between the southern city of Nabatiyeh and al-Hujair valley region farther south.

Israel also struck two bridges in Qasmiyeh and Matariyeh and another in Burj Rahhal linking the city of Tyre to Sidon. Other strikes on south Lebanon hit al-Qlayleh, al-Henniyeh, Jwaya, al-Tiri, Zrarieh, Hamoul, al-Bayyada, Shehabiyeh, Tebnine, Majdal Selem, Shaqra, Ainata, al-Khiam, Maroun al-Rass, and al-Rihan.

Benjamin Netanyahu must soon decide when to hold Israel’s next elections. With war raging on multiple fronts and no end in sight, Israel’s enemies in Iran and Lebanon may help make that decision for him.

Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Thursday that Israel has killed 500 Hezbollah fighters in its current war against the group, among them 200 from the elite Radwan unit. He gave no further evidence.

The claim came as the death toll in Lebanon topped 1,000.