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Iran military orders Indian ship to abort Strait of Hormuz passage

Iran military orders Indian ship to abort Strait of Hormuz passage
By Yashraj Sharma, Mariamne Everett, Nils Adler, Urooba Jamal, Elis Gjevori and Zaid Sabah
Published On 19 Apr 2026

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20 Apr 2026 - 00:00
 (00:00 GMT)

Our coverage continues

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Join us for all the latest developments, analyses and reactions here.

19 Apr 2026 - 23:50
 (23:50 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

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Here are some of the day’s top developments:

  • Trump has said that US forces have taken custody of an Iranian-flagged vessel that tried to get through the US blockade of Iranian ports.
  • Iran’s military confirmed an attack claimed by the US military on a ship returning from China, vowing it will “retaliate soon”.
  • Iranian state media is reporting that Tehran is not currently planning to attend talks with the US, citing the ongoing blockade as well as Washington’s shifting positions and “excessive demands”.
  • It comes after Trump ordered US negotiators to travel to Pakistan on Monday, just days before a two-week ceasefire expires.
19 Apr 2026 - 23:40
 (23:40 GMT)

WATCH: US forces attack, seize Iranian ship Touska near Strait of Hormuz

US Central Command has published a video said to show a guided-missile destroyer firing at an Iranian-flagged cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz. Watch it below:

19 Apr 2026 - 23:35
 (23:35 GMT)

‘Security of Strait of Hormuz is not free’: Iran’s first vice president

Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref has said that the “security of the Strait of Hormuz is not free”.

“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” he said in a post on X.

“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” he added. “Stability in global fuel prices depends on a guaranteed and lasting end to the economic and military pressure against Iran and its allies.”

19 Apr 2026 - 23:15
 (23:15 GMT)
Analysis

Tehran academic warns of escalation ladder in maritime standoff

Zahra Kharazmi, an assistant professor in the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, tells Al Jazeera that Iran’s understanding is that the US blockade is, in itself, an act of war based on international law, and that news of the US seizure of an Iranian cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz “indicates that we are just going up the escalation ladder”.

“For Iranians, they take it [that they have] safe passage [in the Strait of] Hormuz. Having control of the safe passage is their right, because they don’t like to see crossing Hormuz to be actually the platform of active aggression against them,” she said.

“I think that it’s a very bad escalation and can be a sign that can be added to the military build-up of the United States”, Kharazmi continued.

“Iran is determined, I think, to have retaliation, but the retaliation can have different ways,” she warned, suggesting that the “Bab al-Mandeb Strait can be closed.”

19 Apr 2026 - 23:00
 (23:00 GMT)

Israeli army says image showing soldier smashing Jesus statue in south Lebanon is authentic

As we previously reported, a photo showing an Israeli soldier using a jackhammer to smash the head of a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon had sparked outrage.

After a review, the Israeli army has now confirmed that the image circulating on social media is authentic.

It added that an investigation has been opened.

19 Apr 2026 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)

Oil prices rise again as Iran tensions unsettle markets

Oil prices jumped, the US dollar rose and stock futures fell today, as investors dealt with conflicting messages about the Iran war and news that the Strait of Hormuz was closed again.

In early Asian trading, oil benchmark Brent crude futures jumped about 7 percent to $96.85 a barrel, and the price of US crude oil jumped 6.4 percent to $87.88 per barrel after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

 

19 Apr 2026 - 22:30
 (22:30 GMT)

Iran’s Araghchi warns US against threatening ports and ships

The Tasnim News Agency reports that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told his Pakistani counterpart that threats to Iranian ports and ships, alongside irrational demands from Washington, are a sign of its lack of seriousness.

“Iran will use all of its capacities to protect the interests and national security of Iran,” Araghchi said, according to Tasnim.

19 Apr 2026 - 22:15
 (22:15 GMT)
Analysis

‘Tonight, things changed’

We’ve been speaking to Hassan Ahmadian, an associate professor at the University of Tehran, about the US attack on the Iranian ship.

Ahmadian said Iranian officials were clear from the day the US announced the blockade that they would “not observe the limits of any siege” on Iranian shipments and would move according to their “previous code”.

He added that while there were warnings previously, “tonight, things changed”.

Ahmadian warned that the situation “can escalate quite fast”, noting that if the US decides to carry on “attacking Iranian shipments or seizing Iranian ships, the Iranians will have no choice but to retaliate in kind”.

Ahmadian characterised the blockade as “an act of war” under international law and viewed the seizure of a vessel as a further “escalation within that act of war.” He noted that while Iran made proposals to avoid being “dragged into this war”, the current US administration has been “trying to enforce a surrender; capitulation”.

19 Apr 2026 - 22:01
 (22:01 GMT)
Houthi

Iran confirms US interdiction, seizure of Iranian vessel, says will retaliate ‘soon’

Iran’s Hazrat Khatam al-Anbiya military headquarters confirmed an attack claimed by the US military on a ship in the Sea of Oman in a statement carried by the Tasnim News Agency.

“The aggressive America, by violating the ceasefire and committing maritime piracy, attacked one of Iran’s commercial ships in the waters of the Sea of Oman by firing upon it and disabling its navigation system by deploying several of its terrorist marines on the deck of the mentioned vessel,” it said, confirming that the ship had been seized.

“We warn that the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon respond to and retaliate against this armed piracy by the US military,” it added.

19 Apr 2026 - 22:00
 (22:00 GMT)
Houthi

Israeli forces wound Palestinian teenager in occupied West Bank

The Wafa news agency reports that Israeli fire injured a 17-year-old Palestinian in the Ras al-Jura area, south of Hebron.

Medical sources said the teenager was shot in the head and is in critical condition, according to Wafa.

19 Apr 2026 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)
Analysis

US seizure of Iranian cargo ship amounts to ‘declaration of war’

Harlan Ullman, a senior adviser at The Atlantic Council, says that the US’s move to interdict and seize an Iranian cargo vessel amounts to a declaration of war on Iran.

“It is an act of war, quite frankly. You just don’t do that”, he told Al Jazeera. “In fact, what the United States is doing, has been, and is, in terms of international law, a declaration of war, but the US Congress doesn’t seem to accept that”.

He said that the attack on the ship is also a “violation of international law” and adds confusion to an “already confused” negotiation process between the US and Iran.

19 Apr 2026 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Iranian sources report confrontation with US forces in Sea of Oman

By Ali Hashem

Reporting from Tehran, Iran

We have two lines coming from Iranian sources, through two Iranian news agencies.

The latest comes from the IRIB, which is Iranian radio and television, and it reported that an “Iranian container ship named Touska was targeted by an American attack, 50 miles (80km) from the port of Chabahar, and in response, Iran carried out drone attacks on American warships”.

The other line that came earlier from the semi-official Mehr News Agency… said [that] today, the “US Forces stationed in the waters of the Sea of Oman, in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the return of Indian and British commercial ships as well as the control measures taken by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, fired on an Iranian commercial ship to force it to return to Iranian territorial waters.

“Thanks to the immediate presence [and] rapid response of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy units to support the Iranian ship, the US forces were forced to retreat and leave the area.”

State TV is saying that they’ve launched drones towards the American warships; the other just said that they fired on it.

19 Apr 2026 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

WATCH: Displaced Lebanese return to destroyed homes, despite ongoing Israeli shelling

Thousands of internally displaced people in Lebanon have returned to the south, after weeks of Israeli attacks, to find their homes destroyed. Israel has agreed to a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon and direct talks with the government.

But it has refused to withdraw its troops from the country’s south.

Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto reports from southern Lebanon:

19 Apr 2026 - 21:10
 (21:10 GMT)
Houthi

CENTCOM confirms interdiction of Iranian cargo ship

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says on X that US forces “operating in the Arabian Sea enforced naval blockade measures against an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel attempting to sail toward an Iranian port”.

CENTCOM says that after it issued multiple warnings over a period of six hours, the ship, Touska, did not comply with the orders, after which time it was fired upon.

“American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel it was in violation of the U.S. blockade. After Touska’s crew failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period, Spruance directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room. Spruance disabled Touska’s propulsion by firing several rounds from the destroyer’s 5-inch MK 45 Gun into Touska’s engine room.

“U.S. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit later boarded the non-compliant vessel, which remains in U.S. custody,” the statement adds.

This account differs from those presented in Iranian media, in which Iranian military ships returned fire on US vessels, causing them to flee.

19 Apr 2026 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Israel says investigating viral image of soldier destroying Jesus statue in Lebanon

A photo circulating on social media shows an Israeli soldier using a jackhammer to smash the head of a statue of Jesus, as the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon continues.

The image, which has since gone viral and sparked outrage, threatens to further erode Israel’s image among one of its strongest support bases in the US: evangelical Christians.

The Israeli army says it is reviewing the image, claiming that “if this is indeed a real, recent picture”, the actions would go against its “values”.

Local officials in the village of Debel, Lebanon, told AFP that the statue is located there, but could not confirm the damage.

19 Apr 2026 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

More questions than answers over reported US seizure of Iranian vessel

By Rosiland Jordan

Reporting from Washington, United States

The capture of an Iranian ship has not been confirmed by CENTCOM, which is part of the US military that conducts operations in the greater Middle East.

This announcement is only coming from the US president, who may be referring to a situation that is still, at this hour, classified.

That said, what we do know about the ship, named Touska, is that it is part of an official Iranian government shipping company, and that company has long been under US sanctions.

As such, all of its vessels and assets are similarly sanctioned and not allowed to travel to countries that maintain relations with the United States without those countries facing the possibility of secondary sanctions.

We don’t know how many people are on board. We don’t know whether anyone on board the ship was injured. We don’t know whether, if US Marines have taken control of the vessel, any of them were injured or killed during this incident. This is all coming, for now, from the US president’s personal social media account.

19 Apr 2026 - 20:40
 (20:40 GMT)

Israeli military kills person for crossing ‘yellow line’ in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military is claiming it killed an “armed” person who crossed the so-called “yellow line” it has etched in southern Lebanon as part of its invasion of the country.

The army did not offer proof of its claims.

The yellow line is a military zone stretching roughly 10km (6 miles) north of the border inside southern Lebanon. Israeli officials say they intend to keep the zone under military control, while reserving the right to strike the area in what they describe as efforts to root out Hezbollah.

The line has drawn comparisons with Gaza, where Israel has partitioned Palestinian territory into separate zones, with an eastern area totalling 60 percent of the enclave controlled by the Israeli military.

19 Apr 2026 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

If you’re just joining us

Let’s bring you up to speed:

  • In a move that will likely increase tensions, US President Donald Trump announced in a social media post that US Marines have taken custody of an Iranian-flagged vessel that tried to get through the US blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
  • Trump earlier today said that negotiators will arrive in Pakistan on Monday night to hold a second round of talks with Iran. He again threatens to destroy the entire country of Iran if its government refuses to make a deal with the US.
  • Iran has denied it agreed to participate in a second round of peace talks, which the US claimed was scheduled for tomorrow.
  • The official IRNA news agency has condemned “Washington’s excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant shifts in stance, repeated contradictions, and the ongoing naval blockade, which it considers a breach of the ceasefire”.

  • Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian this evening in a bid to move talks along.

19 Apr 2026 - 20:22
 (20:22 GMT)
Houthi

Iranian forces thwarted US attempt to seize Iranian commercial ship, state-linked media says

The semiofficial Mehr news agency has offered an account of an incident in the Sea of Oman that appears to differ from what US President Trump said earlier, regarding the US seizing an Iranian vessel.

It is important to note that the statement below does not name the ship in question.

“American terrorist forces deployed to the waters surrounding the Sea of Oman and opened fire on an Iranian merchant ship to force it to return to Iranian territorial waters”, the statement reads.

“However, with the timely presence and rapid response of the IRGC naval units in support of the Iranian ship, the Americans were forced to retreat and flee the area,” it continued.