Middle East crisis live: Trump orders navy to attack any boats laying mines in strait of Hormuz

US Central Command said on Thursday that 33 vessels have been ordered to turn around or return to port as part of its blockade on ships leaving from or heading to Iran.

That adds two more vessels since its last update on Wednesday night.

The White House press secretary said on Wednesday that US president Donald Trump was “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”.

However, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said that the reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”.

Lebanon’s foreign minister Yousseff Raggi said in a post on social media that there is “no shame in negotiating with Israel if the goal is to end the war, recover territory, and secure a lasting peace.”

“Lebanon can no longer endure wars fought on its soil on behalf of others, nor can Hezbollah continue to sell the illusion of victory,” he wrote.

• US president Donald Trump said he has ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill any boat” that is laying mines in the strait of Hormuz. He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

• Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday. “Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.

• An American-Kuwaiti journalist held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war has been cleared of all charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to the New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on 3 March for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

• Italian UN peacekeepers have replaced the statue of Jesus Christ vandalised by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday. The sculpture of a crucified Jesus was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

• The United Nations said Thursday it was “working on” maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its Unifil peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year, AFP reported. “In terms of the post-Unifil, we’re currently in the process of working on these options,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, with the Lebanese government “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence”.

• An Israeli drone strike killed three men inside a car Thursday in central Gaza Strip, health officials said. Those killed were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

• Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said. In a short statement, the ministry announced that “15-year-old Youssef Sameh Shtayyeh was killed by the [Israeli] occupation’s gunfire in Nablus”, in the north of the West Bank.

• The US military stopped and boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian ocean which the Pentagon said was carrying oil from Iran, in the second such action this week. The US defence department said its forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the M/T Majestic X overnight.

• Italy is ready to deploy up to four vessels, including two minesweepers, to the strait of Hormuz to clear it of mines, the Italian navy’s chief of staff, Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, said. Speaking to Italy’s Rai network, Bergotto said the mission is being planned with the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

• The son of the former Shah appealed to Western countries to join the war against Iran and criticised the decision of the German government not to meet him during his visit to Berlin on Thursday. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was deposed in the revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979, accused Europe of standing by and allowing the Tehran government to continue the bloody repression of protests that killed thousands at the end of last year.

• The deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, said Iran has received its first revenue from tolls levied on ships in the strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The fees have been deposited into the central bank of Iran, the news agency reported, without disclosing the amount.

• Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said the world is facing “the biggest energy security threat in history”. In an interview with CNBC, Birol cited the loss of around 13 million barrels per day of oil supply due to the Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three people on Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a statement, the ministry said that “an Israeli airstrike on the Shoukine road in the Nabatieh district”, more than 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Israel, killed three people while a strike on the village of Yater wounded two people, including a child.

The attacks come hours ahead of the second meeting between Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors in Washington, where Beirut is expected to ask for a ceasefire extension.

Israel is awaiting the green light from the US to “return Iran to the Stone Age”, defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.

“Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The IDF is ready in defense and offense, and the targets are marked,” Katz said.

He told The Times of Israel that Israel is “awaiting a green light from the United States, first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty, the initiator of the extermination plan against Israel, and the successors of the successors of the leadership of the Iranian terror regime, and in addition to return Iran to the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities and crushing national economic infrastructure.”

Katz added:

This time the attack will be different and deadly and will add devastating blows in the most painful places, following the enormous blows the Iranian terror regime has already suffered so far, that will shake and collapse its foundations.

Threats to bomb power stations or attack civilian targets, if enacted, would constitute a war crime. Article 52 of a 1977 protocol to the Geneva conventions states clearly that “civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals”.

US president Donald Trump was criticised for declaring that “a whole civilization will die, never to be brought back again” in a threat against Iran.

An American-Kuwaiti journalist held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war has been cleared of all charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to the New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on 3 March for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

One of his last social media posts included a geolocated video, verified by CNN, that showed a US fighter jet crash near an American air base in Kuwait, according to the CPJ.

“We are relieved that Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been found innocent after 52 days in detention,” Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the press watchdog, said in a statement.

“Ahmed’s freedom and safety remain our topmost priority and we will continue to closely monitor his case.”

The office of Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a lawyer representing two of the journalist’s sisters, said he was expected to be released “imminently.”

An Israeli drone strike killed three men inside a car Thursday in central Gaza Strip, health officials said.

Those killed were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Two of them were inside the vehicle targeted on Salah al-Din Street near Maghazi camp, while a third was nearby, hospital director Raed Hussein told the Associated Press.

Three others were injured.

Italian UN peacekeepers have replaced the statue of Jesus Christ vandalised by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday.

The sculpture of a crucified Jesus was located in the Christian village of Debl in south Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

A photo shared online showed an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of the statue, sparking international condemnation.

Meloni in a statement thanked the Italian contingent of the UN’s Unifil peacekeeping force “for deciding to donate a new crucifix to the Lebanese village of Debl”.

She said the instalment of the new statue was “a powerful message of hope, dialogue and peace”.

The United Nations said Thursday it was “working on” maintaining a presence in Lebanon once the mandate for its Unifil peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year, AFP reported.

“In terms of the post-Unifil, we’re currently in the process of working on these options,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, with the Lebanese government “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence”.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has served as a peacekeeping force between Israel and Lebanon since 1978 but finds itself caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

Unifil comprises nearly 8,200 troops from 47 countries. It has lost five troops in recent days: three Indonesian and two French.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on 2 March when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli airstrikes.

Lacroix told a press conference in Geneva that any future uniformed UN presence in southern Lebanon would have to be decided upon by the Security Council in New York.

The Security Council has requested options for a possible post-Unifil United Nations presence, and “we must present these recommendations… before June 1”, he said.

Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said.

In a short statement, the ministry announced that “15-year-old Youssef Sameh Shtayyeh was killed by the [Israeli] occupation’s gunfire in Nablus”, in the north of the West Bank.

Contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli military said it was looking into it.

The Lebanese journalist killed in an Israeli attack on Wednesday had previously spoken of receiving a threat via an unidentified Israeli phone number that she would be killed if she did not leave southern Lebanon, where she had long been based and worked.

Amal Khalil, 43, who worked for al-Akhbar newspaper and had described herself as supporting the resistance against Israel “whether communist or Islamist”, was killed yesterday in a sustained attack by Israeli forces in which a colleague was also wounded.

In 2024, Khalil told local media she had received an Israeli death threat warning her to leave the south and threatening to destroy her home and decapitate her.

Khalil said she had “received a message from an Israeli enemy” urging her to leave the south. “I have informed the relevant authorities about this, as the enemy has recently used this tactic with many others there,” she said.

According to Khalil, the warning – allegedly sent from an Israeli phone number – included details of her recent movements and said: “We know where you are and we will reach you when the time comes.” It was not clear who had sent the message.

Khalil was the ninth journalist killed in Lebanon this year. Last month three journalists were killed in a double-tap attack.

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The US military stopped and boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian ocean which the Pentagon said was carrying oil from Iran, in the second such action this week.

The US defence department said its forces carried out “a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding” of the M/T Majestic X overnight.

“We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate,” it said in a post on social media.

The seizure came after a day after Iran attacked three cargo ships in the strait of Hormuz, capturing two of them.

On Tuesday, the US navy boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Asia Pacific region, the M/T Tifani, after the Pentagon said it was “providing material support to Iran”.

Donald Trump has claimed the US has “total control” of the strait of Hormuz, as he berated Iran for “not knowing” who its leader is.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said:

Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

His latest remarks followed an earlier post saying he ordered the US Navy “to shoot and kill” any boat “that is putting mines in the waters of the strait of Hormuz.”

He also said that US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” to clear any mines from the waters.

Italy is ready to deploy up to four vessels, including two minesweepers, to the strait of Hormuz to clear it of mines, the Italian navy’s chief of staff, Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, said.

Speaking to Italy’s Rai network, Bergotto said the mission is being planned with the UK, France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

“We are part of an international coalition, and other nations will also send minesweepers,” he said.