By Rami Ayyub and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, May 29 (Reuters) - Israeli forces have advanced to positions north of Lebanon's Litani River, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, as Israel escalates attacks against Hezbollah militants after warning thousandsmore Lebanese to flee their villages.

The Israeli advance came as the U.S. military hosted Israeli and Lebanese defence representatives in Washington on Friday to pursue a U.S.-brokered plan to forge peace between the two countries and disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah.

May 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he would be meeting in the White House Situation Room on Friday to make a final decision on a deal with Iran.

He also listed what a potential deal would need to include: Iran agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the removal of any sea mines, the lifting of the U.S. blockade on Iran and the removal and destruction by the U.S. of Iran's highly enriched uranium.

By Dawoud Abu Alkas , Haseeb Alwazeer and Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA/CAIRO, May 29 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's declaration that his country would expand its area of control in Gaza was a dangerous escalation, as residents of the Palestinian territory also voiced alarm at the plan.

Under a ceasefire deal in October Israel's military was to remain in control of 53% of Gaza, but Netanyahu said on Friday that it would expand that area to an initial 70%, without laying out details or a timeline.

US President Donald Trump said he was meeting in the White House Situation Room on Friday to make a final decision on whether or not to strike a peace deal with Iran.

Trump said Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iran but insisted Tehran must open the Strait of Hormuz and agree never to have nuclear weapons.

Iranian sources told the Fars news agency that Trump's comments on the deal were a "mixture of truth, lies."

By Jonathan Landay, Steve Holland and Yomna Ehab

WASHINGTON/CAIRO, May 29 (Reuters) - Iran said on Friday it was looking for actions, not words from the United States after sources said President Donald Trump was weighing an initial U.S.-Iranian agreement to extend a ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz.

The comments by Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, were in line with previous defiant statements from Iran but added to questions over how such an agreement might unfold.

May 29 (Reuters) - Russian drones attacked three foreign-flagged merchant vessels late on Thursday and overnight as they sailed along Ukraine's maritime export corridor in the Black Sea, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Friday.

The strikes caused fires on the vessels, but they were extinguished by the crews, Kuleba said on Telegram.

Ukraine's seaports authority said the vessels were under the flags of Vanuatu, the Comoros and Panama.

KARACHI, May 29 (Reuters) - Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Washington on Friday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that are expected to include the latest developments in negotiations on ending the Iran war.

A first round of peace talks in Pakistan concluded without a pact but Reuters cited sources as saying on Thursday that Tehran and Washington had reached an initial agreement, to extend a ceasefire announced in April and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Professional photo and video journalists working in Gaza are to receive an annual press freedom award on Monday for risking their lives to report on the war, an association of publishers has said.

The 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom will be handed to representatives of global news agencies still operating in Gaza -- Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters -- "whose local journalists continue to provide consistent, professional coverage under extremely challenging conditions", said the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Israel's military issued evacuation warnings on Saturday for residents of seven villages in southern Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had pushed deeper into the country.

The latest warnings came a day after military delegations from the two countries held landmark security talks in Washington and ahead of US-brokered negotiations early next week -- the fourth round since the latest Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.

US President Donald Trump will only make a peace deal with Iran if it meets all of his conditions, a White House official told AFP on Friday, as questions swirled about the state of negotiations to end the war.

The White House had indicated Trump was close to a decision on a potential deal, even as Tehran insisted there was still "no final agreement" on ending the Middle East conflict.

An Iranian state media report also rebutted several key elements of Trump's characterization of the deal, with sources calling his remarks a "mixture of truth and lies."