- Israeli strikes in Lebanon threaten the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, killing over 250.
- Peace talks are planned in Islamabad, but the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked.
- Iran demands U.S. concessions, including lifting sanctions and acknowledging control over the strait.
DUBAI — Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the U.S.-Iran ceasefire into further jeopardy after the biggest Israeli attacks on its neighbor of the war killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo Donald Trump's truce.
In Pakistan, authorities locked down the capital Islamabad in anticipation of the war's first peace talks, cutting off access to a 2-mile zone around the five-star luxury Serena Hotel. Both the U.S. and Iranian delegations are expected to stay at the hotel, which told all guests to check out until Sunday as it had been "requisitioned" for "an important event."
But there was no sign Iran was lifting its near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused the worst disruption to global energy supplies in history. 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 last month in parallel with the war on Iran to root out the Iran-aligned armed group Hezbollah, says its actions there are not covered by the ceasefire announced late on Tuesday by 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 Britain and France, said the truce should extend to Lebanon.
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 Baqer Qalibaf, expected to head the Iranian delegation opposite Vice President JD Vance, tweeted that Lebanon and the rest of Iran's "axis" of regional allies were inseparable parts of any ceasefire.
Israel says it kills Hezbollah chief's nephew
The Israeli military said it had killed the nephew of Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem and struck river crossings in southern Lebanon overnight. Israel hit Beirut's southern suburbs just before midnight and at dawn, and hit towns across the south on Thursday morning, 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 and had fired once across the border and twice at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Following Wednesday's attacks, which Lebanese officials described as a "massacre," Lebanon declared a day of mourning. Rescuers searched through the night for wounded people trapped under rubble after the attacks, which hit heavily populated areas without customary warnings for civilians to flee.
Outside Beirut's Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a steady stream of ambulances arrived throughout Thursday 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 authorized 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
After six weeks of war, Trump has sought an off-ramp before the economic consequences derail his presidency.
The ceasefire has curbed a surge in benchmark oil prices, which are based on contracts to deliver oil a month in the future. But present-day spot prices are still rising, with some refineries in Europe and Asia paying record levels near $150 a barrel. The U.S. retail price for diesel rose to $5.69 a gallon on Thursday, just 13 cents below the all-time high.
Inside Iran, where the halt to six weeks of U.S. and Iranian airstrikes has been portrayed as total victory for the clerical rulers, huge crowds turned out to commemorate 40 days of mourning for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed on the war's first day.
State TV showed crowds in Tehran and other cities, with mourners in black carrying Iranian flags and portraits of Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba. Commemorative billboards were displayed, and a huge Hezbollah flag hung from one building.
Trump, who announced the truce just before a deadline he had set to destroy Iran's "whole civilization" unless it unblocked the strait, said on Wednesday he would resume attacks unless Iran complies, "the 'Shootin' Starts,' bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before."
Though Trump has declared victory, Washington has not achieved the aims he announced at the war's outset: to eliminate Iran's ability to attack its neighbors, destroy its nuclear program or make it easier for Iranians to topple their government.
Iran still possesses missiles and drones that can hit its neighbors and a stockpile of more than 900 pounds of uranium enriched to near weapons grade. Its rulers, who put down a mass uprising just months ago, survived the superpower onslaught with no sign of organized opposition.
And they demonstrated their ability to exert control of the strait despite a massive U.S. military presence in the region.
Iran is pressing for even more U.S. concessions in a final deal, including the total lifting of sanctions that have crippled its economy and acknowledgment of its control over the strait, previously freely open to trade.
Washington, for its part, wants Iran to yield up the enriched uranium, forego further enrichment, give up its missiles and stop backing regional allies, all demands it had already made in talks it abandoned two days before the war.
Iranian officials say they plan to impose rules on passage through the strait, including a potential fee. 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.
