US-Iran war updates: US Iran 45-day ceasefire talks reportedly underway after Trump Strait of Hormuz deadline

We are wrapping up another day of our live coverage of the US-Israel-Iran war in the Middle East.

Thank you for following our blog updates. Join us again tomorrow as we bring you the latest events as they happen.

The bodies of four missing people have been recovered from the ruins of a residential building that was struck by an Iranian missile, according to Israeli rescue services.

“All four missing persons have been located … All were found without signs of life, and MDA paramedics declared them deceased,” emergency service Magen David Adom said in a statement.

The recovery of the two men and two women were carried out after two other bodies were retrievedfro the site hours earlier.

An Israeli strike on an apartment east of Beirut has killed a local official from a Christian political party, sharpening internal divides over Hezbollah as Israel’s strikes expand to new parts of the country.

The war raging in Lebanon in the past month has deepened fractures between supporters of Hezbollah and those who blame the Iran-backed group for igniting a new conflict with Israel just 15 months after the last one.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominantly Christian town in the hills east of Beirut, killing a man and two women, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

Ain Saadeh’s mayor said the victims were one floor below the targeted apartment.

The Lebanese Forces Party, a fiercely anti-Hezbollah Christian party, identified two of the dead as Pierre Moawad, a local party official, and his wife Flavia.

Read the ​full story here.​

Israel has launched an attack on the South Pars petrochemical facility in Asaluyeh.

Israel’s Defence Minsister Israel Katz confirmed his country’s millitary are responsible for the attack.

“The IDF has now strongly attacked the largest petrochemical facility in Iran located in [Asaluyeh],” following an attack on another facility last week,” Katz said.

“Now the two facilities, which together are responsible for about 85% of Iran’s petrochemical exports - have been taken out of service and are not functioning.”

Katz added that the Asaluyeh facility produced about half of the country’s petrochemicals.

The Bahrain Defense Force Command says it has intercepted and destroyed 468 drones and 188 missiles launched from Iran since the war began, Reuters reports.

“Use of ballistic missiles and drones to target civilian objects and private property is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations,” the organisation said in a statement posted to Instagram.

The Israel Defense Forces says it is responsible for the killing of the intelligence chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Majid Khademi.

In a post to Telegram, the IDF said the “elimination” of Khademi marked “another significant blow” to the IRGC.

“Last night (Sunday), the Israeli Air Force, acting with precise IDF intelligence, conducted a strike in Tehran and eliminated Majid Khademi, the Head of Intelligence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the statement began.

“Khademi worked to advance terrorist activities against the State of Israel and against Jewish targets worldwide. He also took part in attempts to target American individuals and was responsible for monitoring Iranian civilians as part of the regime’s suppression of internal protests.

“His elimination joins dozens of other senior commanders of the Iranian regime who have been eliminated during the operation, and constitutes another significant blow to the IRGC’s command-and-control systems and its ability to conduct terrorist operations against the State of Israel and countries worldwide.”

US-Israeli strikes have killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organisation, according to state media.

Major General Seyyed Majid Khademi was killed in a “terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy” early on Monday morning, the IRGC said in a statement.

The energy shock caused by the war in the Middle East caught China, the world’s top buyer of oil, by surprise. But Beijing has been preparing for a crisis like this for years.

China has stockpiled increasingly large amounts of oil. It has pursued renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and hydropower so aggressively that its demand for refined oil, diesel and gasoline is falling.

And it has harnessed technology to reduce its reliance on the foreign-sourced raw materials that go into the massive output of its factories.

China’s ruling Communist Party has long viewed its industries as the foundation of its national security strategy. It has sharpened — and expanded — that approach since President Donald Trump’s first term. China has doubled down on policies to build up local industries, in turn strengthening its global dominance over resources and supply chains.

Read the full story here.

Demand for fuel has spiked by a third during the Easter break as Australia secures more petrol and diesel.

The nation had supply until mid-April, but more orders have been locked in, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.

“We now have security of supply through April and now into May,” he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

“But as we’ve indicated on multiple occasions, we recognise that it’s a difficult international environment and there are risks to supply chains as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.”

Mr Bowen said fuel companies reported demand during Easter had been 30 per cent higher than the previous one.

“If you’re storing fuel at home, that’s very dangerous,” he said.

“It’s not recommended and it doesn’t help the situation, it makes the situation worse for all of us.”

In NSW, 142 out of 2400 service stations are without diesel, slightly down on Sunday’s figures.

Thirty-nine servos have no fuel.

Read more.

A suspected cluster munition has struck in Haifa, Israel, with two bodies already located.

“Rescue operations and attempts are still ongoing at this time in an effort to reach two additional trapped/unaccounted-for individuals,” a statement from Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said.

Video from the scene circulated online showing flames outside a building as emergency crews responded.