Even if the Middle East war stopped immediately, disrupted global humanitarian supply lines would not recover before 2027, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Nearly 100 days on from the February 28 US-Israeli attacks on Iran that triggered the conflict, the fall-out extends far beyond the Middle East region, said Jean-Cedric Meeus, chief of global transport and logistics for the UN children's agency UNICEF.

GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Surging global transport costs and supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis are threatening the delivery of lifesaving aid to children, the U.N. children's agency warned on Tuesday.

Nearly 100 days after the outbreak of the Iran war, heightened insecurity around key Gulf shipping routes has driven up fuel prices and insurance premiums, while congestion at alternative ports has compounded disruptions, hampering aid deliveries.

• U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it was increasingly relying on air freight due to shipping delays.

Iran's football team will leave for Spain this weekend en route to their World Cup base in Mexico despite still awaiting visas, the head of the country's football federation said.

The 2026 World Cup is being hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Neither the United States, where Iran will play their three group stage matches, nor Mexico, where the team will be based throughout the tournament, have yet issued visas for the players.

By Alexander Cornwell

TEL AVIV, June 2 (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu is under criticism at home after U.S. President Donald Trump declared Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him losing.

Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on one another, hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, prompting a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran's talks with the U.S.

By Maya Gebeily and Steven Scheer

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, June 2 (Reuters) - Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, pressing its campaign against Hezbollah a day after U.S. President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Beirut, averting further escalation in the three-month-old war.

Following Trump's intervention, Lebanon's government said Israel would refrain from carrying out threatened strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, while the group would halt attacks against Israel.

By Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, June 2 (Reuters) - Iran is reviewing a proposed agreement with the United States to halt the war between the two countries, Iran's Mehr news reported on Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks to reach a deal were continuing.

More than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran, the conflict has hardened into a stalemate while largely indirect talks to negotiate an interim deal have proved inconclusive, leaving the Strait of Hormuz largely shut.

Israel has portrayed the capture of a Crusader-era fortress as a turning point in its offensive against Hezbollah, but the operation has also sparked fears of a new quagmire in south Lebanon.

Israeli authorities praised the symbolism of the capture of Beaufort, perched atop a rocky outcrop, as they announced its capture in an assault documented by military drones.

Almost 44 years to the day earlier, Israeli forces had seized the same commanding position overlooking a valley, later turning it into a key base during their two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon.

CAIRO, June 2 (Reuters) - Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Gaza health officials said.

Medics said at least one person was killed and four were wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle east of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The blast left the vehicle a mangled skeleton.

Another strike earlier in the day killed one person and wounded another in the nearby Zawayda town, they added, while Israeli gunfire killed one man in northwest Khan Younis, south of the enclave.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Tuesday while Lebanese and Israeli envoys met in Washington for direct talks, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the militant group was the only impediment to a peace deal.

The fighting came after US President Donald Trump declared Monday that he had brokered a deal which the Lebanese embassy in Washington said would at first only cover Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory, before expanding in scope.

By Elizabeth Pineau

SARCELLES, France, June 2 (Reuters) - When Bassi Konate became mayor of Sarcelles this spring, the independent candidate backed by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party ended three decades of municipal rule by the Socialists, the traditional powerhouse of the French left.

A native of Sarcelles, a poor, multi-cultural town north of Paris, Konate, 38, leveraged his hometown roots and a network of rappers, soccer stars and influencers to mobilise young voters through social media and canvassing.