Strait of Hormuz tensions escalate ahead of Israel-Lebanon meeting

The New Arab's live blog on the US-Iran ceasefire and other reginal developments has now ended, and will resume at 0900am.

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ranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a South Korean special envoy that responsibility for the consequences of the war lay with "aggressors," referring to the United States and Israel, Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The envoy, Chang Byung-ha, held a meeting with Araghchi in Tehran, the ministry said in a post on X. 

Despite the ongoing conflict at home, the Iran men's national soccer team is "fully prepared" to participate in the World Cup this summer, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported.

The team's involvement was called into question after the United States and Israel began air attacks on Iran in February. The World Cup will be co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, but all of Iran's group-stage games are scheduled to be in the United States.

Mohajerani reported that the Iranian Ministry of Youth and Sports has handled the logistics involved in having the soccer team play in the US.

Last month, Iran sports minister Ahmad Donyamali said on state television, "Considering that this corrupt regime (in the U.S.) has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup. Our children are not safe and, fundamentally, such conditions for participation do not exist."

Oil prices jumped four percent Thursday after Iran vowed not to reopen the Strait of Hormuz so long as a US naval blockade remained in place despite a ceasefire extension.

At around 0025 GMT, the benchmark US oil contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) climbed 4.06 percent to $96.73 per barrel. International oil benchmark Brent North Sea crude rose 3.62 percent to $105.63. Both eased back in the following minutes.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli airstrike targeted a group of civilians in a northern part of the Palestinian territory late on Wednesday, killing five people including three children.

Despite an October 10 ceasefire, Gaza remains gripped by daily violence as both the Israeli military and Hamas accuse one another of breaking the truce.

"Five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of civilians near Al-Qassam mosque in Beit Lahia," the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority, said in a statement.

"Their bodies were taken to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City," it said, without specifying how old the children were.

The hospital confirmed it received the bodies.

The Lebanese Civil Defence announced that its search and rescue teams have recovered the body of journalist Amal Khalil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Al-Tayri on Tuesday night.

The search and rescue operations were carried out jointly with members of the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Red Cross, and all necessary procedures were followed according to established protocols.

The Israeli military said it apprehended and returned dozens of Israeli civilians who had briefly crossed into Syria on Wednesday, with Israeli media reporting that the group were activists from a settler organisation.

The military said around 40 people gathered near Israel's northern border before crossing into Syrian territory and continuing for several hundred metres.

It said Israeli soldiers returned the group to Israel, apprehending them and handing them over to police.

"The IDF strongly condemns this incident and emphasises its severity, which constitutes a criminal offence that endangers civilians and IDF troops," the military said.

The United Nations deputy special envoy for Syria, Claudio Cordone, condemned the incursion and said "the crossing and their behaviour was highly provocative".

"I reiterate our strong call on Israel to cease violations, respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, adhere to the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and prevent incidents such as the one today," he said at the UN Security Council.

Israel's public broadcaster Kan posted footage on X which it said showed dozens of activists from the "Pioneers of Bashan" organisation, who were "barricading themselves on a roof on the outskirts of the Syrian village of Hader at the foot of Mount Hermon".

The "Pioneers of Bashan" is a fringe settlement organisation that wants to establish Israeli settlements in southern Syria.

US President Donald Trump has not set a deadline by which Iran must submit a peace proposal, the White House said on Wednesday.

"The president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal, unlike some of the reporting I've seen today. Ultimately, the timeline will be dictated by the commander in chief," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.

US President Donald Trump does not consider Iran's seizure of two container ships to be a ceasefire violation because the vessels are not American or Israeli, the White House said Wednesday.

"No, because these were not US ships, these were not Israeli ships. These were two international vessels," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News, when asked if Trump viewed it as a violation of the ceasefire that paused US-Israeli operations against Iran.

Iran's judiciary on Wednesday described as "false news" remarks by US President Donald Trump that the Islamic republic had reversed a decision to execute eight women, saying they had never faced the death penalty.

"Despite the claim from last night being exposed as a lie, Trump, just minutes ago in another post, claimed that the death sentences of eight protesting women who were supposed to be executed tonight in Iran have been cancelled, and thanked Iran!" the judiciary's Mizan Online website posted on X.

"Trump's empty hand in the field has led him to fabricate achievements from false news," it said, in response to the US president's remarks that Iran had halted alleged plans to execute eight women arrested over anti-government protests, after he urged Tehran to release them to help peace negotiations.

The US-Israeli war against Iran is "starting to weaken Europe", Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday.

"The war in our region is likewise starting to weaken Europe, and if we do not address this situation with an approach that prioritises peace, the damage caused by the conflict will be far greater," Erdogan told Steinmeier, according to a statement from the Turkish leader's office.

The US breach of commitments and its blockade of Iranian ports and threats are the main obstacles to "genuine negotiations", Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday.

"The world sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions," he said, one day after US President Donald Trump's ceasefire extension. 

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran had halted alleged plans to execute eight women arrested over anti-government protests, after he urged Tehran to release them to help peace negotiations.

"I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution," he said. Iran denied it planned to execute the women.

Iran's parliament speaker said on Wednesday that the Islamic republic would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz as long as the US naval blockade remained in place, calling it a "blatant violation of the ceasefire".

"A complete ceasefire only has meaning if it is not violated through a naval blockade... reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not possible amid a blatant violation of the ceasefire," speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X.

 An Israeli drone dropped a grenade on rescuers trying to lift a wounded journalist from rubble in Tayri, in southern Lebanon, a senior Lebanese military official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The official said the Lebanese army asked the Israeli military through a U.S.-led mechanism to allow rescuers to retrieve the wounded journalist. 

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Wednesday that the Islamic republic appreciates Pakistan's efforts to end the Middle East war, without commenting on a ceasefire extension announced by the United States.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that Baqaei was asked by journalists to comment on the truce extension, which US President Donald Trump said he approved following a request by Pakistani mediators.

"While appreciating Pakistan's efforts to end the imposed war and establish peace", Baqaei stressed that Tehran "is taking the necessary measures to safeguard Iran's national interests and security".

 Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the latest developments in talks between the United States and Iran in a call with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar on Wednesday, news agency Reuters- citing a Turkish diplomatic source.

The two ministers also exchanged views on efforts led by Pakistan and Turkey to reach a compromise between the sides, the source added. 

Wall Street stocks jumped early Wednesday, greeting US President Donald Trump's announcement to extend the Iran ceasefire, along with a batch of mostly good corporate earnings.

Trump said late Tuesday he had pushed back the end of a two-week truce with Tehran following a request by Pakistani mediators and to give Iran's "fractured" leadership time to formulate a proposal.

But oil prices pushed higher Wednesday after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their naval forces had seized two container ships seeking to cross the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

About 35 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.8 percent at 49,552.28.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent to 7,116.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.9 percent to 24,473.07.

"Markets are exuberant about the idea of a ceasefire continuing," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers, who views the earnings thus far as generally good, but not necessarily meriting the market's outsized positive reaction.

"Right now, we're not in a normal environment," Sosnick said. "Anything that could plausibly be considered good news, or even okay news, will be taken as a positive."

Among companies reporting results, Boeing gained 2.2 percent, GE Vernova surged 11.4 percent and United Airlines fell 3.6 percent.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon during its latest war with Hezbollah damaged or destroyed more than 62,000 housing units in the country, a government estimate found on Wednesday.

"Within about 45 days (of the war), we had 21,700 destroyed housing units and 40,500 damaged housing units," Chadi Abdallah, head of the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), said in a press conference.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed more than 2,400 people and displaced more than a million since Iran-backed Hezbollah drew the country into the Middle East war on March 2.

Despite an ongoing 10-day truce that started on Friday, Israeli forces have continued to demolish and blow up homes in southern Lebanese towns they currently occupy, according to Lebanese authorities, eyewitnesses, and photographs taken by AFP from the Israeli side.

The CNRS estimates that "428 housing units were destroyed and 50 were damaged" during the first three days of the ceasefire, Abdallah said.

A second French soldier died on Wednesday from wounds suffered in a weekend ambush against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon blamed on Hezbollah, President Emmanuel Macron said.

A first soldier, staff sergeant Florian Montorio, was shot dead in the Saturday ambush, for which Hezbollah has denied responsibility.

"Corporal Anicet Girardin... brought home yesterday from Lebanon, where he was badly wounded by Hezbollah fighters, died this morning of the consequences of his wounds," Macron posted on X.

One of three soldiers hurt in the same attack, Girardin, a member of a specialist dog-handling unit, was part of a mission "to clear a route booby-trapped with an improvised explosive device", Armies Minister Catherine Vautrin posted on X.

"Coming under sustained fire from concealed Hezbollah fighters at very close range, he moved to aid his section leader who had just fallen, only to be seriously hit in turn," she added.

Macron and Vautrin offered their condolences to Girardin's family and loved ones.

He is the third French soldier to die since the start of the fighting in the Middle East, after Montorio and the killing of Arnaud Frion last month by an Iranian drone in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

A second round of US-Iran talks could take place within the next three days, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Pakistani sources and President Donald Trump.

"It's possible!" Trump reportedly told the Post by text message, when asked about sources in Pakistan -- which mediated the first round of talks -- saying that a second round was "expected in Islamabad within the next 36 to 72 hours."

Trump on Tuesday extended a two-week truce in the war just as it was about to expire. A digital news outlet in Pakistan, News Post, reported the three-day time frame for more talks without a source or further details.

 U.S. President Donald Trump has not set a timeline for the extension of a ceasefire with Iran, news agency Reuters reported- citing a source briefed on the matter on Wednesday. 

Israel’s foreign minister has urged Lebanon to work jointly to counter Hezbollah ahead of talks between the two countries, set to resume in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

Gideon Saar said such cooperation was even more necessary for Lebanon, adding it would require “moral clarity” and the courage to take risks, but argued there was no real alternative to securing peace for both sides.

Despite a ceasefire that began on Friday, Israeli forces remain active in southern Lebanon. Defence Minister Israel Katz said last week that troops would use “full force” if threatened.

Israel launched air strikes across Lebanon and invaded the south after Hezbollah entered the war in support of Iran on 2 March.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will make an official visit to London this week for talks on the wars in Iran and Ukraine, news agency Reuters reported, citing a Turkish diplomatic source on Wednesday, adding that he will also discuss cooperation between the NATO allies.

Turkey, which neighbours Iran and is in close contact with Tehran, Washington, and mediator Pakistan, hosted a diplomacy forum at the weekend attended by delegations from all sides. It has repeatedly called for an end to the conflict.

US President Donald Trump said earlier that he would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks. Fidan's visit comes as the British government said military planners from more than 30 countries would hold two-day talks in London from Wednesday to advance a mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

More than a dozen countries said last week they were willing to join an international mission, led by Britain and France, to protect ‌shipping in the strait when conditions permit. Fidan has warned of difficulties with such a mission.

During his two-day visit, Fidan will also repeat Turkey's readiness to contribute to efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the source said, after Kyiv said on Wednesday it had asked Turkey to host a leaders' level meeting with Russia.

He will also convey Ankara's request to finalise a free trade agreement with Britain and emphasise the importance of deepening defence industry and energy cooperation between the allies, the source added. 

Indonesia on Wednesday accused Israel of flying a "propaganda" banner over the ruins of a hospital that had been built in Gaza with Indonesian funding.

The Indonesia Hospital, in the north of the Gaza Strip near the fortified border with Israel, was opened in late 2015 after Indonesia's Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, a humanitarian NGO, raised 126 billion rupiah (some $7.3 million) in donations for its construction, according to state news agency Antara.

It has since been destroyed, and Jakarta on Wednesday objected to the raising of a banner over the ruins that alludes to Israel's 12-day "Rising Lion" military operation against Iran last year.

"The use of military symbols and propaganda over the ruins of a destroyed hospital, especially when linked to a specific military operation, is a highly provocative act and cannot be justified," the foreign ministry said in a statement posted on X.

"This act is an insult to a humanitarian facility built from the solidarity of the Indonesian people for the Palestinian people."

The ministry said all medical facilities "must be respected and protected" under international humanitarian law and called on Israel to cease actions that endanger civilian infrastructure.

In 2023, Indonesia denied an Israeli claim that the hospital sat atop a network of Hamas tunnels.

Since the outbreak of war between Iran, Israel and the United States, colourful murals have sprung up across capital Tehran and other major cities, rich in symbolism and themes of resistance and defiance.

Murals and banners have long been a defining feature of Iran's urban landscape, particularly in Tehran, where such paintings in central squares mirror the state's political messaging and foreign policy.

Since the 1979 revolution which established the Islamic republic, such imagery has served as a medium to reflect ideology and collective memory.

In recent days, a mural in Tehran showed a US aircraft carrier carrying rows of coffins draped in American flags, surrounded by small Iranian-flagged boats and a helicopter.

The image evoked dominance at sea, as Iran's armed forces continue a blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas in peacetime.

Another mural depicts a man raising both arms, each wrapped in the Iranian flag, his hands forming a heart.

Another shows the Iranian flag flowing across the wall with its tulip-shaped emblem bearing a missile in its centre, while a young woman carries a banner reading: "We have all come for the revolution," referencing support for the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday their naval forces had seized two container ships seeking to cross the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump announcing he was extending a ceasefire to allow more time for peace talks.

UK-based maritime security monitors confirmed that three commercial vessels had reported incidents involving gunboats in the strait, the international gateway for the Gulf oil and gas industry which US and Iranian forces are battling to control.

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval force this morning identified and stopped in the Strait of Hormuz two violating ships," the Guards said in a statement. "The two offending ships... were seized by the IRGC's naval forces and directed to the Iranian coast."

They identified one ship as the Panama-flagged container ship MSC Francesca and the Liberia-flagged Epaminodas. The tracking site Marine Traffic showed the last known positions of both vessels closer to the Iranian coast of the strait, northeast of Oman.

Lebanon will request a one-month extension of the ceasefire during its meeting with Israel in Washington on Thursday, a Lebanese official told news agency AFP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the topic, said "Lebanon will request an extension of the truce for one month, an end of Israel's bombing and destruction in the areas where it is present, and a commitment to the ceasefire".

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that "contacts are underway to extend the ceasefire period", which began last week and is set to expire Sunday.

Italy has slightly lowered its growth forecasts for this year and next to 0.6 percent, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said Wednesday, as the Middle East war roils the global economy.

The eurozone's third-largest economy had previously forecast that GDP would increase 0.7 percent this year and 0.8 percent in 2027, Giorgetti told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Growth for 2028 is also forecast at 0.8 percent, down from an earlier 0.9 percent, he said.

But Giorgetti said Italy's public deficit was still expected to fall below the European Union's threshold of three percent of GDP this year, reaching 2.9 percent.

The deficit stood at 3.1 percent of GDP in 2025.

Palestinians in one of the only Gaza cities not overrun by Israeli ground forces during the war will vote this weekend in municipal elections that will feature some pro-Hamas candidates, offering a rare barometer of the militant group's popularity.

The vote in Deir al-Balah is part of Palestinian Authority municipal elections that Palestinians have cast as a display of national unity against a U.S. plan for Gaza that they believe intends to entrench their separation from the occupied West Bank.

It will be Gaza's first vote of any kind since 2006, when Hamas won the PA's legislative elections and later seized control of Gaza following a brief civil war with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, dominant in the West Bank.

The polls will be the fifth municipal elections in the West Bank since 2005. In January, the PA said it would extend those elections to Gaza "wherever possible", a move analysts see as a symbolic effort to show Gaza remains part of a future Palestinian state.

At least three container ships were hit by gunfire in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, maritime security sources and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

Iran has imposed restrictions on ships using the strait, first in retaliation for the US-Israeli bombardment of the country, and then in response to a US blockade of Iranian ports.

A Liberia-flagged container ship sustained damage to its bridge after being hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades northeast of Oman.

The UKMTO said the master of the vessel reported being approached by an IRGC gunboat. The vessel, it said, was subsequently fired upon. All crew members were safe and there was no fire or environmental impact due to the incident.

Maritime security sources said that three people were onboard that gunboat. The master of the Greek-operated container ship also reported that no radio contact was made prior to the incident and that the vessel had been initially informed that it had permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

The UKMTO later said that a second container vessel had been fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran. The Panama-flagged vessel was not damaged and its crew members are safe.

Maritime security sources said that a third container ship was fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran while transiting outbound of the Strait of Hormuz. The Liberia-flagged vessel, which was not damaged had stopped in the water. Its crew are safe, the sources said.

Before the war began on February 28, the waterway typically handled roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

Iran's agriculture minister said a US naval blockade has had little impact on the country's ability to supply basic goods and food, citing strong domestic production and alternative import routes.

"Despite the US naval blockade, we have no problem in supplying basic goods and food because, due to the size of the country, it is possible to import from different borders," Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri said on Tuesday.

"About 85 percent of agricultural products and basic goods are produced domestically, so the country's food security is established," he added, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The United States imposed a naval blockade on Iran's ports and coasts on April 13, days after a ceasefire was announced that paused its war with Iran.

Iran has strongly criticised the blockade, describing it as a violation of the ceasefire.

An Iranian gunboat fired at a container ship off the coast of Oman on Wednesday, causing damage but no casualties, the UKMTO British maritime security agency said.

"The master of a container ship reported that the vessel was approached by one IRGC gunboat... that then fired upon the vessel, which has caused heavy damage to the bridge. No fires or environmental impact reported," the UKMTO said.

It added that the incident took place 15 nautical miles northeast of Oman and all the crew were safe.

An Israeli strike on Lebanon's Bekaa region killed one person and wounded two others on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, despite an ongoing truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"One person was killed and two others were wounded as a result of an attack carried out by an enemy drone at dawn on the outskirts of Al-Jabur in West Bekaa," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had launched rockets and attack drones at a site in northern Israel in response to "blatant" Israeli ceasefire violations, which it said included "attacks on civilians and the destruction of their homes and villages".

The Israeli military said that day that Hezbollah "launched several rockets" towards soldiers stationed in south Lebanon and that the military struck the launcher in response.

NNA on Wednesday reported Israeli artillery shelling and demolitions in southern towns Israel currently occupies.

Israel conducted huge strikes across Lebanon and invaded the south after Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran on March 2.

Despite the truce which began on Friday, Israeli soldiers are still active in south Lebanon, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying on Sunday that they would use "full force" if threatened.

Under the truce terms, Israel says it reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Iran hanged a man on Wednesday convicted of links to Israel's Mossad spy agency, the judiciary said, the latest in a string of executions against the backdrop of the war with Israel and the United States.

"Mehdi Farid... was hanged this morning for extensive cooperation with the terrorist spy service Mossad after the case was examined and the final verdict was approved," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

It was not immediately clear when he was arrested or when his trial took place, but the court found him guilty of "intelligence cooperation and espionage for the Zionist regime" under the capital offence "corruption on earth".

Iran has in recent weeks carried out multiple executions of people linked to mass protests in January that authorities say were instigated by Israel, the United States and opposition groups, including the banned People's Mujahedin.

Iran has been at war with the United States and Israel since February 28 but a ceasefire has been in place since April 8.

Britain's annual inflation rate jumped to 3.3 percent in March as the Middle East war sent oil and gas prices surging, official data showed Wednesday.

The Consumer Prices Index increased from 3.0 percent in the 12 months to February, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

"Inflation climbed in March, largely due to increased fuel prices, which saw their largest increase for over three years," Grant Fitzner, chief economist of the Office for National Statistics, said in a statement.