Israeli strikes on Lebanon jeopardise Iran truce; talks planned but Hormuz still shut

Follow our live coverage here.

DUBAI/BEIRUT – Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on April 9, putting the Middle East ceasefire in further jeopardy after its biggest attacks of the war on its neighbour killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo US President Donald Trump’s truce.

In Pakistan, the authorities locked down the capital Islamabad in anticipation of the war’s first peace talks, cutting off all access to a 3km zone around the five-star luxury Serena Hotel.

Both the US and Iranian delegations are expected to stay at the hotel, which told all guests to check out until April 12 as it had been “requisitioned” for “an important event”.

But there was no sign Iran had lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history, and Tehran said there would be no deal as long as Israel was striking Lebanon.

In the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, just a single oil products tanker and five dry bulk carriers sailed through a strait that accommodated 140 ships a day before the war.

Israel says ceasefire does not cover Lebanon

Israel, which invaded Lebanon in March in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the armed group and Tehran’s ally Hezbollah, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on April 7 by Mr Trump.

Washington has also said Lebanon is not covered by the truce, but Iran and Pakistan, which acted as mediator, say it was explicitly part of the deal.

A host of countries, including prominent US allies Britain and France, said the truce should extend to Lebanon, and condemned Israel’s attacks on the country.

A Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions said Pakistan was working on a ceasefire for Lebanon, as well as for Yemen, another country where Israel has hit Iran-aligned forces: “It will be discussed during the (upcoming) talks, and we will settle it.”

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is expected to head the Iranian delegation opposite US Vice-President J.D. Vance, said in a post on X that Lebanon and the rest of Iran’s “axis” of regional allies were inseparable parts of any ceasefire.

Israel says it killed Hezbollah chief’s nephew

The Israeli military said on April 9 that it had killed Hezbollah secretary-general Naim Qassem’s nephew, who had served as his personal secretary, and had struck river crossings used by the group overnight.

Israel hit Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and towns across the south on the morning of April 9, Lebanese state media said.

For its part, Hezbollah, which had initially said it would pause attacks on Israel in line with the ceasefire, said it was resuming them on the morning of April 9 and had fired once across the border into Israel and twice at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon declared a day of national mourning and shut state offices, while rescuers worked through the night to free the wounded and the dead from under the rubble of buildings blasted apart by Israel without customary warnings to residents to flee.

Outside Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a steady stream of ambulances kept arriving throughout the afternoon, driving past the emergency room entrance straight to the forensic department.

“We’re picking up body parts for the most part. It’s very rare that we find entire bodies intact,” said a rescue worker on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

One woman, between tears, told Reuters she had lost her entire family in one of the strikes.

Mourning for Khamenei

“What happened yesterday was a grave violation,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told BBC Radio of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. “It was a catastrophe, could actually end in more catastrophe, and this is the nature of this rogue behaviour that we are seeing from Israel in the whole Middle East.”

Inside Iran, where the halt to six weeks of US and Iranian air strikes has been portrayed as a victory for the clerical rulers, huge crowds turned out for a commemoration to mark 40 days of mourning for supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the war’s first day.

State TV showed crowds in Tehran, Kermanshah, Yazd and Zahedan, with mourners in black carrying Iranian flags and portraits of Ayatollah Khamenei, and his son and successor Mojtaba.

Large commemorative billboards were displayed, and a large Lebanese Hezbollah flag was visible on one building, while crowds moved towards the compound where the senior Khamenei was killed.

In Shiraz, a funeral procession was held for Revolutionary Guards intelligence chief Majid Khademi, who was killed earlier this week in an Israeli strike in his home province of Fars.

Physical oil prices spike

After six weeks of war, Mr Trump has sought an off-ramp before the economic consequences derail his presidency.

The ceasefire has curbed a surge in energy price benchmarks, which are based on contracts to deliver oil a month in the future. But present-day spot prices paid by refineries around the world are still rising.

Though Europe and Asia have been worst hit so far, the US retail price for diesel rose to US$5.69 a gallon on April 9, just 13 US cents below the all-time high.

Mr Trump, who announced the truce on the night of April 7 just before a deadline he had set to destroy Iran’s “whole civilisation” unless it unblocked the strait, threatened more attacks.

If Iran did not comply, then “the shootin’ starts, bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before”, he posted on social media.

“In the meantime, our great military is loading up and resting, looking forward, actually, to its next conquest. America is back!”

Though Mr Trump has declared victory, Washington did not achieve the aims he had announced to justify the war at its outset: To eliminate Iran’s ability to attack its neighbours, destroy its nuclear programme, and create conditions that would make it easier for Iranians to topple their government.

Iran still possesses missiles and drones capable of targeting its neighbours and a stockpile of more than 400kg of highly enriched uranium. Its rulers, who had faced a mass uprising just months ago, survived the superpower onslaught with no sign of organised opposition.

And they have demonstrated their ability to exert control of the strait, despite a massive US military presence in the region.

Iran is pressing for even more US concessions in a final deal, including the total lifting of sanctions that have crippled its economy and acknowledgement of its control over the strait, previously freely open to trade.

Iranian officials say they plan to impose rules on passage, including a potential fee similar to those charged to access man-made canals.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards published a map with the strait’s main shipping channels marked as unsafe, telling ships instead to sail around islands nearer the Iranian shore. REUTERS