In a potential boost to Middle East ceasefire efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he authorised direct negotiations "as soon as possible" with Lebanon aimed at disarming Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants and establishing relations between the neighbours.

The two countries have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948.

There was no immediate response from Lebanese authorities. But Israel-Lebanon negotiations were expected to begin next week at the State Department in Washington, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The prospect of talks appeared to bolster the tentative ceasefire in the Iran war that had staggered under the weight of Israel's bombardment of Beirut, Tehran's continued chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and uncertainty over whether planned peace talks can find common ground.

Netanyahu's announcement came amid disagreement over whether the ceasefire deal included a pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and a day after Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes that resulted in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began on Feb. 28.

Israel has fought multiple wars and launched several major invasions over the years, most recently sending in large numbers of troops last month in response to Hezbollah fire on Israel's northern border communities.

The launch of direct peace talks is a significant achievement, though reaching a deal will be difficult after decades of hostilities, Hezbollah's continued presence and longstanding disagreements over the exact route of their shared border.

The talks in Washington are expected to be handled on the American side by the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and on the Israeli side by the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the situation.

It was not immediately clear who would represent Lebanon. Axios first reported the timing and location of the talks.

After declaring victory with the ceasefire announcement, both Iran and the US appeared to apply pressure on each other. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran suggested forces have mined the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil that Tehran has closed. President Donald Trump warned that US forces would hit Iran harder than before if it did not fulfill the agreement.

Questions also remained over what will happen to Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium at the heart of tensions, how and when normal traffic will resume through the strait, and what happens to Iran's ability to launch future missile attacks and support armed proxies in the region.

Despite the fragile and disputed nature of the ceasefire, it appeared to have halted weeks of missile and drone attacks by Iran on its Gulf Arab neighbours and Israel, with no new launches reported Thursday. There were no reports of strikes by the US or Israel targeting Iran.

Iran supreme leader says Hormuz Strait's management will enter new phase

Iran will move the management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz into a new phase, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday in a statement read out on state TV.

"Iran is not seeking war but will not forfeit its rights and considers all resistance fronts as a unified entity," Khamenei added.

Israel had vowed to continue striking Hezbollah in Lebanon

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned Thursday that continued Israeli attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon would bring "explicit costs and STRONG responses" in a social media post.

Qalibaf has been discussed as a possible negotiator who could meet US Vice President JD Vance this weekend in Islamabad. The White House has said Vance would lead the delegation for talks starting Saturday.

Iran had said Israel's ongoing attacks on Hezbollah were violating the ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu and Trump have said it was not.

Hours before opening the way for talks with Lebanon, Netanyahu said Israel would continue striking Hezbollah "with force, precision and determination."

Lebanon's health ministry said more than 300 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded Wednesday in Israeli strikes in central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon that Israel said targeted Hezbollah, which joined the war in support of Tehran.

Israel said Thursday it killed an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, Ali Yusuf Harshi. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A New York-based think tank warned that the ceasefire " hovers on the verge of collapse " following Israel's strikes Wednesday.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike overnight killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately acknowledge the strike.

Hezbollah lawmaker says group rejects direct negotiations with Israel

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said on Thursday that the group rejected direct negotiations with Israel and that the Lebanese government should demand a ceasefire as a precondition before any further steps are taken.

Fayyad's statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed his cabinet to begin direct talks with Lebanon. Fayyad said the Lebanese government's position should also prioritize the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory and the return of displaced people to their homes.

Oil prices remain high amid uncertainty over the strait

Semiofficial news agencies in Iran published a chart Thursday suggesting the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war - a message that may be intended to pressure the United States.

The chart, released by the ISNA news agency and Tasnim, showed a large circle marked "danger zone" in Farsi over the route ships take through the strait, through which 20 per cent of all traded oil and natural gas once passed.

Only a trickle of ships have transited since the war began after several were attacked, and Iran threatened to hit any that it deemed connected to the US or Israel. Ships appeared to continue to avoid the strait even after the ceasefire.

The chart suggested that ships travel through waters closer to Iran's mainland near Larak Island, a route that some ships were observed taking during the war. It was dated from Feb. 28 until April 9, and it was unclear if the Guard had cleared any mines since then.

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told the BBC that his country will allow ships to pass through the strait in accordance with "international norms and international law" once the United States ends its "aggression" in the Middle East and Israel stops attacking Lebanon.

The head of the United Arab Emirates' major oil company, Sultan al-Jaber, said some 230 ships loaded with oil were waiting to get through the strait and must be allowed "to navigate this corridor without condition."

The strait's de facto closure has caused oil prices to skyrocket - affecting the cost of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East. Oil prices fell Wednesday on news of the ceasefire but climbed again as uncertainty over the deal grew.

The spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, was around USD 98 Thursday, up about 35 per cent since the war began.

Points to address in talks include whether Iran will be allowed to formalize a system of charging ships to use the strait. That would upend decades of free transit through what has been treated as an international waterway.

UN envoy meets Iran deputy minister and visits bombed sites in Tehran

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' personal envoy Jean Arnault met Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi in Tehran on Thursday as part of UN efforts to bring about an end to the Iran war, the UN said.

Arnault also met representatives of the Iranian Red Crescent and visited some civilian sites damaged in recent air strikes, including a university and an apartment block that had been destroyed, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a regular briefing in New York.

"He heard views on the way forward and reiterated the secretary-general's firm commitment to making every possible effort to support a peaceful settlement of this conflict," he said.

Dujarric said Arnault would continue his regional tour with several visits in the Middle East "aimed at supporting the ongoing efforts to achieve a comprehensive and durable resolution to this conflict."

The UN said on Wednesday that Arnault was also expected in coming days to visit Pakistan, which facilitated the ceasefire between the United States and Iran and has been preparing for a first round of US-Iran talks.

Dujarric said Arnault's travel plans were currently "a moving target," but the envoy had been discussing what constructive role the world body could play in bringing peace.

He said Arnault's meeting with the deputy minister had been "substantive, and he hopes to continue his consultations."

"We expect him to stay a little bit longer in Tehran, but obviously, things shift quite quickly," Dujarric said.

The fate of Iran's enriched uranium remains a question

The fate of Iran's missile and nuclear programs - which the US and Israel sought to eliminate in going to war - also remained unclear. The US insists Iran must never be able to build nuclear weapons and wants to remove Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to build them. Iran insists its program is peaceful.

Trump said Wednesday that the US would work with Iran to remove the uranium, buried in last year's US and Israeli strikes, though Iran did not confirm that. In one version of the ceasefire deal that Iran published, it said it would be allowed to continue enrichment.

The chief of Iran's nuclear agency, Mohammad Eslami, said Thursday that protecting Tehran's right to enrich uranium is "necessary" for any ceasefire talks.

Trump warned that US warships and troops will remain around Iran "until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with."

Lebanon says death toll from Israeli attacks on Wednesday rises to 303

Lebanon's health ministry said on Thursday that the toll from Israel's strikes the previous day across Lebanon had risen to 303 killed. It said the toll was not final and was expected to rise further as rescue teams were still removing bodies from under the rubble.

The ministry added that the total toll since March 2 was 1,888 dead and more than 6,000 wounded.