US President Donald Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats choking the Strait of Hormuz.
In a social media post Thursday morning, he said the military is intensifying its mine clearing efforts in the critical waterway. The move intensified the US-Iran standoff in the Persian Gulf and raised questions about efforts to end the war.
Later Thursday, Trump said Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting Thursday was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire Monday.
Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited on 2 March, when the group opened fire in support of Iran in the regional war. The ceasefire in Lebanon emerged separately from Washington’s efforts to resolve its conflict with Tehran, though Iran had called for Lebanon to be included in any broader truce.
Nearly 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive.
Israel is occupying a belt of the south that extends 5 to 10 km into Lebanon, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah, which has fired hundreds of rockets during the war. Israel’s military reiterated a warning to residents of south Lebanon not to cross into the area.
Meanwhile, the US military said it seized another tanker Thursday associated with smuggling Iranian oil, the Majestic X, in the Indian Ocean, deepening confusion over efforts to end the war. The seizure comes after a day after Iran attacked three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, capturing two of them. Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
The standoff between the US and Iran has effectively choked off nearly all exports through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world’s traded oil passes in peacetime, with no end in sight.
West Asia war | Live updates
10.30 am: Oil at $106 a barrel
Oil rose for a fifth day as concerns grew that the US and Iran were making little progress toward resuming talks on de-escalation, keeping the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed.
Brent, the global crude benchmark, rose 0.9 percent to $106 a barrel, taking this year’s gains to about 74 percent. The commodity is set for its biggest weekly gain since the first week of the war as the closure of the Strait disrupts the flow of oil from West Asia to the rest of the world.
Source: Bloomberg
10.15 am: Israeli military says ‘several rockets’ fired towards north
Israeli military said “several rockets” were launched towards Shluhot, in the north of the country, despite extension of the ceasefire, announced Thursday night. It said the launcher that fired the rockets was struck within minutes, and a second launcher was also hit by Israeli forces.
On Friday, Israel carried out new strikes on southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported. Two raids targeted the town of Touline, while a separate strike hit Khirbet Selm, the Lebanon 24 news outlet said.
9.45 am: Third US aircraft carrier arrives in West Asia
The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush has now arrived in US Central Command, making the ship the third aircraft carrier to be present in West Asia during a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war.
The Bush is now in the Indian Ocean, according to a social media post from the military command. The USS Abraham Lincoln is located in the Arabian Sea and the USS Gerald R. Ford is in the Red Sea. The Bush, which left its home port of Norfolk, Va. at the end of March, proceeded to sail across the Atlantic Ocean but then made the unusual choice to turn south and sail around the Horn of Africa before heading north toward the waters of West Asia.
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9.35 am: Iran leadership puts up a united front
“In Iran there are no hardliners’ or moderates’. We are all Iranians and revolutionaries,” Iran’s President, and Iran’s parliament speaker wrote in an almost identical statement on their social media. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the US president’s claim that there was a leadership rift in Iran “a form of deflection,” with other Iranian officials also claiming on social media that the country was united.
Hours earlier, Trump said that Iran is going through a hard time “figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!“
Since the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war, it has been unclear who in Iran wields ultimate authority over its collection of civilian figures and powerful generals who appear to be in charge.
The failure of Israel's terrorist killings is reflected in how Iran's state institutions continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline.
The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war.
Iranians are all united, more than ever before.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 23, 2026
در ایران ما تندرو و میانهرو وجود ندارد؛
همه ما «ایرانی» و «انقلابی» هستیم و با اتحاد آهنین ملت و دولت، با تبعیت کامل از رهبر معظم انقلاب متجاوز جنایتکار را پشیمان خواهیم کرد.یک خدا، یک رهبر، یک ملت، و یک راه؛ آن هم راه پیروزی ایرانِ عزیزتر از جان.
#ایران_ما— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) April 23, 2026
In Iran there are no "hardliners" or "moderates" We are all Iranians and revolutionaries. With ironclad unity of nation and state and obedience to the Supreme Leader, we will make the aggressor regret. One God, one nation, one leader, one path; victory for Iran, dearer than life
— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) April 23, 2026
9.30 am: US video of ‘boarding sanctioned ship’
The US Department of Defence (DoD) said in a statement it had carried out a “maritime interdiction” on ship M/T Majestic X carrying sanctioned Iranian crude. The latest interception comes as President Trump ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Overnight, U.S. forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean within the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.
We will continue global maritime enforcement to… pic.twitter.com/SWF6Jt9Ci4
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) April 23, 2026
9.15 am: Pope Leo urges for US, Iran talks
Pope Leo XIV urged the US and Iran to return to talks to end the war Thursday and condemned capital punishment, in a wide-ranging press conference en route home from his trip to Africa. Leo also asserted that countries have the right to control their borders but mustn’t treat migrants worse than “animals,” and lamented that the church’s morality teaching is often reduced to sexual issues.
After a trip that was dominated by the very public back and forth between Leo and US President Donald Trump over the war, Leo urged the United States and Iran to return to negotiations. He called for a new “culture of peace” to replace the recourse to violence whenever conflicts arise.
He said the question wasn’t whether the Iran regime should change or not. “The question should be about how to promote the values we believe in without the deaths of so many innocents.” He revealed that he carries with him the photo of a Muslim Lebanese boy who had been killed in Israel’s recent war with Hezbollah. The boy had been photographed holding a sign welcoming the pope when he visited Lebanon last year.
“As a pastor I cannot be in favour of war,” he told reporters aboard his plane. “I would like to encourage everyone to find responses that come from a culture of peace and not hatred and division.”
Asked if he condemned Iran’s recent executions, Leo said he condemned “all actions that are unjust” and included capital punishment in the list. “I condemn the taking of people’s lives. I condemn capital punishment. I believe human life is to be respected and that all people from conception to natural (death), their lives should be respected and protected.
“So when a regime, when a country takes decisions which take away the lives of other people unjustly, then obviously that is something that should be condemned,” he said. Pope Francis changed the church’s social teaching to declare capital punishment immoral in all cases.
9.00 am: Overnight recap
- ‘Historic moment’: Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said Israel and Lebanon “have never been next to each other more than today”. Leiter thanked Trump and Vance for a day he said was decades in the making. “We are going to keep going, working for peace. Let’s hope we will get it as soon as possible,” he said. Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad thanked Trump for presiding over “this historic moment.” She added: “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again.”
- Iran ‘must’ stop backing Hezbollah: The President reiterated that the US continues to demand that Iran stop it’s backing of proxy groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, as part of any deal between Washington and Tehran to end the war on Iran. “Yeah, they’ll have to cut that,” Trump said to a reporter’s question about aiding the group. “That’s a must.
- ‘A kid throwing rocks’: “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel are neighbors and they want to get along,” said Mike Huckabee, the US envoy to Israel, who was on hand for the White House talks. “They can get along,” he said. “But it’s like neighbours who have a rough little kid living in the neighborhood who keeps throwing rocks at everybody’s window. And if the kid will quit throwing rocks, the neighbours can get along and start actually working together.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, next to President Donald Trump, in Oval Office at the White House | Photo: Reuters
8.45 am: Trump says ‘won’t be rushed’ to end the war
“I don’t want to rush myself,” Trump said, adding that Iran’s leadership is in “turmoil.”
The US President, in an exchange with reporters at the Oval Office, also pushed back against questions that the conflict is exceeding the four-to-six week timeline that he and aides previously set for the war. “I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. I took it out militarily,” Trump said. “Now all we’re doing is sitting back and seeing what deal (we make). And if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll finish it up militarily.”
"I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation." – President Donald J.… pic.twitter.com/zRS9PEfUBW
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 23, 2026
Trump also said he is not considering using a nuclear weapon against Iran. The President appeared perturbed when asked by a reporter if he’d consider deploying nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic.
“No, I wouldn’t. We don’t need it. Why do I need it? Why would a stupid question like that be asked?” Trump fumed.
He went on, “Why would I use a nuclear weapon, when we’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it. No, I wouldn’t use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”
8.30 am: Lebanon to seek Israel withdrawal from its territory
A Lebanese official said Beirut wants a ceasefire extension as a prerequisite for talks to expand beyond the ambassadorial level to the next phase, in which Lebanon would push for an Israeli withdrawal, the return of Lebanese detained in Israel and a delineation of the land border.
Israel says its objectives in the talks with Lebanon include securing the dismantlement of Hezbollah and creating conditions for a peace deal. Israel has sought to make common cause with Lebanon’s government over Hezbollah, which Beirut has been seeking to disarm peacefully for the past year.
8.15 am: In Lebanon, Wednesday was deadliest day since ceasefire
The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed two armed individuals in southern Lebanon after identifying them approaching soldiers and posing what it described as an immediate threat.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to strikes reported earlier in nearby areas by Lebanon’s health ministry, which said an Israeli air strike had killed three people and artillery shelling wounded two others, including a child.
Wednesday was Lebanon’s deadliest day since the ceasefire took effect on 16 April. Those killed by Israeli strikes included Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, according to a senior Lebanese military official and her employer, Al-Akhbar newspaper.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group wanted the ceasefire to continue but “on the basis of full compliance by the Israeli enemy”. At a televised press conference, he reiterated Hezbollah’s objections to the face-to-face talks and urged the government to cancel all forms of direct contact with Israel.
8.00 am: The Lebanon ceasefire
The ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was extended for three weeks after a high-level meeting at the White House, Trump announced Thursday.
The decision was reached after Trump hosted Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador to the US Nada Moawad in the Oval Office for a second round of talks. The day before, Israeli strikes killed at least five people, including a journalist.
“The Meeting went very well! The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump added that he looked forward to hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the near future.
The ceasefire, reached after talks between the two nations’ ambassadors to Washington last week and set to expire on Sunday, has yielded a significant reduction in violence. Still, attacks have continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops have seized a self-declared buffer zone.
Iran-backed Hezbollah says it has “the right to resist” occupying forces.
Vice-President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa also attended the meeting.