Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has issued a brief statement on social media following his meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

“Had a most warm, cordial exchange of views on the current regional situation. We also discussed matters of mutual interest, including the further strengthening of Pakistan-Iran bilateral relations,” Sharif said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed 15 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, despite a three-week extension of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire.

In a statement on social media, the IDF said three Hezbollah members “who were travelling in a van armed with weapons” were killed in southern Lebanon, without giving a specific location. It said it killed another Hezbollah member “who was riding a motorbike” south of what it described as the “forward defence line” (or “yellow line”), an area deep in Lebanese territory from the border with Israel occupied by IDF troops.

It is not clear whether the deaths are connected to earlier reports by Lebanese media of Israeli attacks on a lorry and a motorbike in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh district, killing four people.

The IDF said two more Hezbollah members were killed in an airstrike in the Litani area, claiming they “posed a threat to IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon”.

The Lebanese news outlet al-Mayadeen has reported that the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has left Islamabad after holding meetings with Pakistani officials.

It is not clear when the US delegation is due to arrive in Pakistan.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it detected two rockets launched from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel, as sirens sounded in three Israeli towns.

In a post on X, the IDF said: “Following the alerts issued in Manara, Margaliot and Misgav Am, two rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israeli territory were detected. One rocket was successfully intercepted and another landed in an open area.”

It added that there were no casualties from the incident, which it described as “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement” by Hezbollah.

State media in Lebanon have reported multiple incidents of attacks across the south of the country, with four people reported killed in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh district.

Fighting Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in recent days, signalling a worsening security situation and threatens to unravel the ceasefire that was extended by Donald Trump on Thursday.

We still have no idea what is happening with talks in Pakistan, other than the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is in Islamabad and has held meetings with Pakistani officials, including prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are expected to lead the US negotiation team, are travelling to Pakistan today, although the US has declined to say when they are due to arrive.

Araghchi is said to be heading to Oman and Russia after his meetings in Pakistan. It is not clear whether he will stay in Pakistan for Witkoff and Kushner’s arrival, although Iran has previously ruled out direct negotiations, citing the continuation of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Four people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor al-Shaqif, according to the official Lebanon National News Agency.

Citing health officials, the news agency reported Israeli attacks on a lorry and a motorbike in the Nabatieh district, resulting in four deaths. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report.

A wave of Israeli strikes, artillery fire and drone activity have been reported elsewhere in southern and eastern Lebanon today, in a sign of escalatory attacks despite an ongoing ceasefire.

The Lebanese news agency reported shelling in the town of Houla near the border with Israel, as well artillery fire in the towns of Qantara and al-Qusayr in the south-eastern district of Marjayoun, strikes in the port city of Tyre and drone activity in villages in the southern Zahrani area.

Six people were killed in southern Lebanon yesterday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, in the deadliest day during the ceasefire that was recently extended.

Earlier today, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it launched overnight strikes in southern Lebanon against what it claimed were Hezbollah rocket launchers.

Iran’s military has threatened to retaliate against the continued US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In a statement carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, Tehran’s Khatam al-Anbiya joint military command said: “If the aggressive American army continues its siege, banditry, and piracy in the region, they can be sure that they will face a response from the powerful Iranian armed forces.”

Donald Trump announced the blockade almost two weeks ago in response to the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz. It has done little to sway Tehran into a peace deal, with Iranian officials refusing to come to the negotiating table until the blockade is lifted.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi delivered Tehran’s negotiating demands, as well as its reservations about US demands, to Pakistani officials during his visit to Islamabad, a Pakistani source involved in the talks has told Reuters.

As we’ve been reporting, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on their way to Islamabad, though Iranian state media has denied direct talks will take place.

Nearly eight weeks after Donald Trump launched his assault on Iran, the White House has shifted from a strategy of shock-and-awe bombardments and leadership decapitation to a plan of sustained economic pressure as it tests the will of a regime practiced over decades at wars of attrition.

Since the negotiations stalled, the White House has begun to shift its messaging to say it is willing to wait to strike a more durable deal with Iran – despite the growing economic toll inflicted on the world economy by the closure of the strait of Hormuz. The reason, senior officials have said, is because the joint US-Israeli strikes were so successful that they have fractured Iran’s leadership and prevented a new consolidation of power.

“Don’t rush me,” Trump told reporters on Thursday when asked how long he was willing to wait for Iran to respond to the US’s latest ceasefire proposal. “We were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years … I’ve been doing this for six weeks.”

Reminded that he told people in the US that the war would end in four to six weeks, Trump added: “Well, I hoped that, but I took a little break.”

The whiplash of Trump’s diplomacy – as well as the growing cost of the war – has unsettled career officials at the Pentagon and state department, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as foreign allies who increasingly view the US as a destabilising force.

The White House’s latest strategy coalesced earlier this week during a meeting of Trump’s national security team – including Vance and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state: continued economic pressure on Iran to open the strait while waiting for Tehran to provide a unified response to US offers for a ceasefire deal.

But the lack of a sustained strategy to end the Iranian war – and in particular to address the closure of the strait of Hormuz – has convinced US allies that the White House is running out of ideas to manage the threat from Tehran.

The UK Foreign Office has issued a joint statement between Britain and Finland condemning attacks on journalists in Lebanon, after the death of Amal Khalil, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday.

The statement said:

Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war.

Attacks on journalists in Lebanon, including journalist Amal Khalil, killed in an Israeli strike on 22 April, are unacceptable.

As Co Chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition, the UK and Finland strongly condemn all violence directed against journalists and media workers.

We call on the Israeli authorities and all other parties to make every effort to ensure that media workers in Lebanon can conduct their work freely and safely.

Associated Press has been speaking to some Palestinian voters taking part in today’s local elections in the occupied West Bank and central Gaza.

Khalid al-Qawasmeh, from the West Bank city of Beitunia, said people were voting out of hope for changes that address crumbling infrastructure and public services.

“Municipal laws need to be enforced so people feel there’s justice,” he said.

There have been no national elections since 2006, with the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority remaining in power in the West Bank and president Mahmoud Abbas serving well beyond his original term which expired in 2009.

Under the slogan “We Stay”, the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission has campaigned to encourage participation.

Voting “reflects the will if the Palestinian people to stay on their land and develop their country”, its spokesperson, Fareed Taamallah, said.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the central area of Gaza are casting ballots today for local elections in the first vote since the Gaza war.

Over 1 million people are eligible to vote, including more than 70,000 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

An AFP journalist visiting stations in the West Bank said turnout was low this morning, with the elections commission reporting a turnout of 15% so far.

Most of the electoral lists are aligned with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party or feature candidates running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip.

The Fatah party is the driving force behind the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the latter of which governs the West Bank in a tense partnership with occupying Israel and is deeply unpopular among Palestinians. Many in the West Bank continue to face relentless settler attacks, with two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, killed on Tuesday after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school in the village of al-Mughayyir.

Today’s vote is the first Palestinian election to be held since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said Turkey could consider taking part in demining operations in the strait of Hormuz following a possible peace agreement between Iran and the US, Reuters reports.

Speaking to reporters in London yesterday, Fidan said any demining work would be carried out by a technical team from various countries, and that Turkey would have “no problem” with participating.

He also said he believed issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme could be resolved at the next round of talks in Pakistan.