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forces had targeted an Iranian oil tanker and another ship, and carried out air attacks on civilian areas on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby coastal areas. It said Iranian forces responded by attacking US military vessels east of the strait and south of the port of Chabahar.

A spokesperson for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the Iranian strikes inflicted “significant damage,” but US Central Command said none of its assets was hit.

Later Iran’s Press TV reported that, after several hours of exchanges, “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities ... is back to normal now”.

The confrontation was not confined to the waterway. The United Arab Emirates said its air defences engaged with two ballistic missiles and three drones from Iran yesterday, resulting in three moderate injuries.

Iranian forces seized the oil tanker Ocean Koi in the Gulf of Oman, east of the strait, over an alleged attempt to disrupt Iran’s oil exports, state media said yesterday, quoting an army statement.

It said the Barbados-flagged tanker was carrying Iranian oil and “was trying to harm and disrupt oil exports...by exploiting regional conditions”, without giving further explanation.

The oil tanker - which has been under US sanctions since February - was escorted to the southern coast of Iran and handed over to the judicial authorities, according to state media. Iran has created an authority to approve transit through the Hormuz and to collect tolls from vessels, a shipping journal said.

Around 1,500 ships and their crews are trapped in the Gulf due to the Iranian blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) chief said in Panama on Thursday.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike yesterday killed four people including two women in the southern Lebanon town of Toura, the health ministry said, as state media and AFP correspondents reported Israel was conducting widespread strikes.

Despite a truce in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, fighting has not stopped in south Lebanon, where an Israeli strike killed a civil defence rescuer earlier in the day.

The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said that more than 70 tankers were being prevented from entering or leaving Iranian ports yesterday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US should get a response from Iran to its proposal to end the war.

“We’ll see what the response entails. The hope is it’s something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation,” Rubio, told reporters in Rome yesterday.