Speaking to reporters as he left Hungary yesterday, US vice president JD Vance said Iran would be 'dumb' to pull out of the fragile ceasefire deal.

He added: 'If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart – in a conflict where they were getting hammered – over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice.'

Lebanon has declared a national day of mourning after Israel destroyed much of the country with a blitz of strikes that killed nearly 200 and left nearly 900 injured.

In Lebanon, where UN rights chief Volker Turk called the scale of killing 'horrific', strikes across the capital Beirut that came without warning triggered horror and panic.

'People started running left and right, and smoke was billowing,' said Ali Younes, who was waiting for his wife near Corniche Al-Mazraa, one of the areas targeted.

More than 1,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched airstrikes and a ground invasion last month, local officials said.

Israel is set to spend 750million shekels (£181million) on state-subsidised education programmes for children who missed out on school due to the war in the Middle East.

Education minister Yoav Kisch said: 'In light of the gaps that accumulated during the war, I instructed the ministry to extend summer programming by three weeks, expand services to all elementary school students up to sixth grade, and launch the ‘Summer Preparatory Program’ for middle schools, which will help fill in the gaps and provide a stable and supportive framework for students.'

It comes after the IDF's Home Front Command, in charge of internal security, yesterday said wartime restrictions would tonight be lifted across Israel.

Spain's foreign minister said today that his nation's government would reopen its embassy in Tehran.

Manuel Albares told reporters: 'I’ve instructed our ambassador in Tehran to return, to take up his post again and reopen our embassy, and for us to join in this effort for peace from every possible quarter, including from the Iranian capital itself.'

Albares later told lawmakers: 'Yesterday we saw how Israel, flouting the ceasefire and in violation of international law, dropped hundreds of bombs on Lebanon.'

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said today that Israel 'disrespected' the temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran by attacking Lebanon.

She told her nation's parliament: 'We have come within a step of the point of no return, but we now face a fragile prospect of peace that must be pursued with determination.'

An Israeli minister has become the first official in the government to publicly criticise the US-Iran ceasefire deal, which Israel officially backed.

Amichai Chikli, minister of diaspora affairs,said the deal was a 'mistake', claiming there was only a '50% chance' of lasting.

He said: 'I think it was a mistake to go to a ceasefire at this time. Countries like these, the Japanese Empire, Nazi Germany, you need to bring them to their knees.'

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran have made official contact for the first time since the outbreak of war.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said: 'The call focused on reviewing developments in the situation and ways to slow the pace of tensions so as to help restore security and stability in the region.'

Oil prices have crept up while global indexes have been left shaken by the increasing risk that the US-Iran ceasefire may fall through.

After the massive fall in price following Tuesday night's announcement of a temporary ceasefire, the price of Brent crude - the international standard - was up 2.7% to $97.23 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the UK's FTSE 100 was down 0.1% just after markets opened, while German and French indexes also fell after opening.

The fallout was more pronounced in Asia, where Japan's Nikkei closed 0.7% lower while South Korea's Kopsi fell 1.6%.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard may have put sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz during the war, a chart published by semi-official news agencies in the country on Thursday suggested.

The message may be intended to pressure the United States as uncertainty hangs over a days-old two-week ceasefire and further negotiations are set to begin in Pakistan.

The charts were released by the ISNA news agency, as well as Tasnim, which is believed to be close to the Guard, and showed a large circle marked "danger zone" in Farsi over the Traffic Separation Scheme, which was the route ships used to take through the strait - a narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil and natural gas traded once passed.

The chart suggested ships travel further north through waters closer to Iran's mainland near Larak Island, a route that some ships were observed taking during the war.

The charts were dated from February 28 until Thursday April 9, and it was unclear if the Guard had cleared any mining on the route since then.