By Julia Payne and John Irish

BRUSSELS/PARIS, April 20 (Reuters) - The European Union will expand the criteria of its Iran sanctions to include those responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely shut for nearly two months upending global energy and commodities markets, two EU diplomats said.

Tehran effectively closed the strait after ​U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28, cutting off roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israel did not persuade him to attack Iran, after news reports that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu influenced the U.S. president's decision and criticism from right-wing commentators.

"Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Traffic once again seized up in the Strait of Hormuz as both Tehran and Washington imposed separate blockades, with Iranian vessels continuing to test the US shutdown, tracking data showed Monday.

Iran announced on Friday that it would reopen the strategic waterway, but the United States did not reciprocate for vessels going to and from Iranian ports.

Dozens of commercial vessels passed through the strait before Iran reclosed the passage on Saturday, later warning that any approaching ship would be treated as a target.

Israel says it has established a "Yellow Line" in south Lebanon near the border, where its forces are operating despite a 10-day ceasefire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

What is the so-called "Yellow Line", how does it resemble an Israeli military demarcation in the Gaza Strip and where does it leave Lebanon?

What has Israel announced?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the truce, which took effect on Friday, but would maintain a 10-kilometre (six-mile) deep "security zone" along the border in southern Lebanon.

April 20 (Reuters) - Israeli and Lebanese representatives will hold talks in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli source speaking on the condition of anonymity told Reuters on Monday.

Israel will be represented by its ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, the source added.

It will mark the first talks between the two countries since a 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Elimam in Cairo; and Alexander Cornwell in Jerusalem, Editing by Hugh Lawson)

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, April 20 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, health officials said, and fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses said.

Medics said one man was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Bureij camp in the central area of the enclave, while another strike killed one person and wounded others in Gaza City.

By Pesha Magid

SA-NUR, West Bank, April 20 (Reuters) - A Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank received demolition orders for 15 shops on Monday a day after Israeli ministers celebrated the reestablishment of a settlement on a neighbouring hill.

Israel's ruling far-right coalition has supported a rapid expansion of settlements and Palestinians have received thousands of demolition orders since the government took power, according to U.N. data.

The release of the latest order was for Al-Fandaqumiya, according to a local official.

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. will host further talks in coming weeks for the Group of 20 major economies on the impact of the war in the Middle East on food and fertilizer, as it continues to push for coordinated action.

The U.S., current chair of the G20, will make the vow in a chair's statement about a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors held during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on April 16.

BEIJING, April 20 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping called for normal passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz to be maintained, in a phone call on Monday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held as Beijing steps up efforts to help end the Iran war.

China is concerned over renewed instability around the strategic waterway, as a U.S.-Iran ceasefire came under fresh strain after the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship and Tehran signaled it would not join new peace talks for now.

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Recovering Iranian uranium will be 'difficult': Trump -

US President Donald Trump said Monday the United States obtaining uranium from Iran would be "long" and "difficult" in the aftermath of last year's US strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites.

"Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process."