By Ali Sawafta and Dedi Hayun

HEBRON, West Bank, June 17 (Reuters) - Israel on Wednesday approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement.

Israel's finance minister announced the plans a day after saying he had scrapped a deal that gave the Palestinian municipality control over certain planning and construction around Hebron's historic core, home to a flashpoint holy shrine.

By Nilo Tabrizy

June 17 (Reuters) - When Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced the interim deal this week to end the war with the United States, he declared his country the victor. To many Iranians it does not feel that way.

More than three months of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, and a blockade of Iranian ports, have poured new misery on a people already toiling under years of sanctions.

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday did not publish an extension of its waiver of sanctions on Russian seaborne oil that ran out at midnight, but President Donald Trump and administration officials did not say whether that meant the measures would be re-imposed.

The vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane is expected to re-open on Friday after nearly four months, following the signing of a US-Iran agreement to end the Middle East war.

AFP examines how the re-opening could work and why a return to normal is likely to take time.

- Are ships ready? -

Once formal approval is given to re-open, stranded ships could theoretically begin to move through the strait almost immediately.

By Jonathan Saul, Florence Tan and Siyi Liu

LONDON/SINGAPORE, June 17 (Reuters) - While U.S. President Donald Trump has recently hailed the resumption of oil flows from Gulf allies, Iran, too, appears to be gearing up to resume exports and trading.

At least three tankers carrying some five million barrels of Iranian oil have sailed through the U.S. naval blockade this week, shipping data shows, despite the U.S. military saying its operations against Iran-linked shipping will stay in place until Friday.

By Steve Holland and Bo Erickson

EVIAN, France, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday told reporters at the G7 meeting in France that he had a "very good" conversation with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding the two countries are working on trade deals.

Trump called Modi a "tough negotiator," and said he will be going to India "sometime in the future."

India has been pressing the United States for months for a Trump trip, potentially as part of a meeting including Japan and Australia.

By Steve Holland

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had spoken to Syria's leader about combatting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, a day after criticizing Israel for killing too many civilians and not getting the job done.

Asked at a Group of Seven summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, if he had talked to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about Hezbollah, Trump nodded and said "yes." Asked if Sharaa was willing to take on the Shi'ite armed group, Trump said he would talk about that later.

By Jihed Abidellaoui and Zohra Bensemra

TYRE, Lebanon, June 17 (Reuters) - In the dimly lit hospital room where he has lived for months, Youssef Fares broke down in tears as he spoke of his home in the historic southern Lebanese city of Tyre - now a pile of rubble and rebar after Israeli strikes during a three-month war.

An interim agreement between Iran and the United States has brought relative calm to Lebanon - but it has also revealed the full scale of destruction wreaked by Israel's air campaign, which it said was aimed at armed group Hezbollah.

ROME, June 17 (Reuters) - Extreme hunger has intensified in 13 "hunger hotspots," and of these Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Northeast Nigeria and Gaza are at immediate risk of famine without urgent humanitarian intervention, a joint United Nations report warned on Wednesday.

• The report was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme.

• It warned acute food insecurity could worsen in the hotspots of highest concern between June and November 2026, with conflict the main driver in almost all cases.

By Steven Scheer

TEL AVIV, June 17 (Reuters) - Israel has no base in Somaliland but is training its police and military forces, Somaliland's Defence Minister Mohamed Yusuf Ali said on Wednesday, as the breakaway territory appealed for Israeli investment in agriculture and other sectors.

Yusuf Ali was part of a large delegation to Israel this week to mark Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi's first official visit, after Israel became the first country to formally recognise Somaliland as ​an independent state in December.