‘Fragile’ ceasefire tested as Israel pounds Lebanon, Iran claims Strait of Hormuz closed

Washington: Iran accused the US and Israel of violating the fledgling ceasefire after Israel launched a deadly bombardment against Lebanon, amid contention over the status of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and whether tankers will be allowed through.

Multiple Iranian state-affiliated news agencies said Iran had halted the passage of ships through the strait as Israel conducted its largest strikes against Hezbollah since the war began.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said it hit 100 targets – including command centres, missile infrastructure and other assets – in a 10-minute period. The blitz struck dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut, and came without warning, the Associated Press reported.

The daylight attack on Wednesday afternoon (Beirut time) was unusual given most of Israel’s prior strikes took place at night and targeted southern Lebanon.

The death toll was not immediately clear, but Lebanon’s civil defence service said at least 254 people had been killed in what was the highest single-day death toll in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. Another 1100 people were wounded in the strikes, it said.

An IDF spokesman said there would be no let-up. “As long as Hezbollah continues to threaten our civilians, we will continue to operate against them,” he said.

In his first address since the start of the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire, and Israel was also prepared to resume striking Iran at any moment.

“We are ready to return to fighting at any time, our finger is on the trigger,” he said. “Iran is weaker than ever, and Israel is stronger than it has ever been.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that Lebanon was not part of the agreed ceasefire, despite Pakistan’s prime minister earlier saying that it was.

She said US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu might discuss including Lebanon in the ceasefire in future, but gave no indication the US was seeking such an outcome imminently.

Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the US negotiating team heading to Pakistan on Saturday (Pakistan time), later said Israeli officials had “offered to… check themselves a little bit in Lebanon, because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.

The point of contention over Lebanon, which comes amid confusion over what the US and Iran provisionally agreed with Pakistani mediators, threatens to derail the ceasefire after less than 24 hours.

It arose from a “legitimate misunderstanding” on the part of the Iranians who “thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t”, Vance told reporters in Budapest.

Leavitt said the White House was closely monitoring traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, and that what Iran was saying publicly about its closure was different from what the US was being told privately.

“We have seen an uptick in traffic in the strait,” she said. “It’s something we are monitoring minute by minute, hour by hour.”

Trump was made aware of Iran’s claims to have shut the strait, Leavitt said, and if true, it would be “completely unacceptable”. His demand was for the waterway to reopen quickly and without impediment – including tolls.

The Wall Street Journal reported Iran allowed just four ships through the strait on Wednesday, “the fewest so far in April”, citing S&P market data.

Leavitt also said that versions of a 10-point “plan” being circulated in the media and by branches of the Iranian government were not the same as a “modified” 10-point proposal from Iran offered to mediators privately.

Several manifestos published online and in world media outlets indicated Iran was seeking war reparations and the withdrawal of US forces from all military bases in the region, among other demands.

Leavitt said the regime had since “acknowledged reality” and put forward a much more reasonable and entirely different proposal, though she would not provide details or make the document public.

She confirmed Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to Islamabad for talks that would begin on Saturday (Pakistan time).

“This is a fragile truce,” Leavitt said. “Ceasefires are fragile by nature … We understand things take time.”

Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US and Israel of breaking their deal, including through the Lebanon attacks and by denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium, which he said was the sixth clause of Iran’s framework for a truce.

“The ‘very workable basis for which to negotiate’ has been openly and clearly violated,” Ghalibaf said in a statement written in English and posted online. “In such situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations is unreasonable.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the world had seen Israel’s “massacre” in Lebanon, and the ball was in Trump’s court. “The US must choose – ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” he said.

One of the other outstanding questions is the fate of hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium still in Iran’s possession, which could form the basis of a future nuclear weapons program, and was ostensibly the key reason for the war when it started 39 days ago.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US reserved the right to retrieve the uranium by force if necessary. But he also argued the “new Iranian regime” knew that it could never have a nuclear weapon.

“It’s buried and we’re watching it. We know exactly what they have,” Hegseth said.

“They will either give it to us voluntarily – we’ll take it out. Or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did with [Operation] Midnight Hammer, or something like that, we reserve that opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Trump suggested the US and Iran would work together to dig up the nuclear “dust”, and that the US would discuss relieving sanctions and tariffs on Iran.

He continued to insist Tehran had gone through “a very productive Regime Change” – a claim rejected by most Iran experts, who say that while US and Israeli strikes killed many of Iran’s former top personnel, the regime’s fundamentals remain intact.

Trump said Iran could begin its reconstruction process. “There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made,” he wrote on social media.

With AP

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