Israel and Lebanon on Thursday extended a shaky ceasefire by three weeks, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, as he voiced hope for a historic three-way meeting soon and a potential peace deal.

Trump, at a standstill in negotiations with Iran, spoke in glowing terms of peace prospects for Lebanon, even as Hezbollah fired new rockets following deadly Israeli strikes.

By extending a ceasefire indefinitely with Iran, President Donald Trump appears to be searching for a way out of a costly war, but Tehran may be unwilling to give him a win.

Trump has insisted on maintaining a naval blockade, which Iran is demanding must end before it can consider any agreement to end the conflict launched on February 28 by Israel and the United States.

LONDON/NEW DELHI, April 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had agreed not to execute eight women protesters in a sign of respect for him, while officials in Tehran denied the executions had been planned and accused the U.S. president of spreading falsehoods.

"Very good news," Trump said in a social media post a day after granting a unilateral ceasefire in the war started by the U.S. and Israel on February 28.

Trump said four of the eight women would be released immediately and four would be sentenced to one month in prison.

April 22 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump wants to see a "unified" response from Iran's leadership to U.S. proposals to end hostilities, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.

Leavitt told reporters that Trump had not set a deadline for an end to the ceasefire extension he announced on Tuesday.

Earlier, Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" that Iran must agree to turn over its enriched uranium to the United States as part of negotiations to end the war.

By Maya Gebeily

BEIRUT, April 22 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon wounded one journalist and left another trapped under rubble on Wednesday with rescuers temporarily blocked from reaching her by ongoing Israeli fire, Lebanon's health ministry, a senior military official and press advocates said.

Israel's military said in a statement it had received reports that two journalists were injured as a result of its strikes, and denied it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.

ANKARA, April 22 (Reuters) - Turkey is making efforts to revive negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring together the leaders of the warring sides, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in a meeting in Ankara, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kyiv said it had asked Turkey, a NATO member, to host a leaders' level meeting with Russia. Ankara has maintained good ties with both Ukraine and Russia since Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Palestinian mourners said Wednesday that Israeli settlers descended from a nearby hill and attacked a school in the occupied West Bank, killing two people, including a teenage student.

Aws Hamdi al-Naasan, 14, and Jihad Marzouq Abu Naim, 32, were killed by gunfire on Tuesday in the village of Al-Mughayyir.

"The students were taking their monthly exams. Suddenly, we were shocked to see settlers advancing towards the school and attacking it," principal Bassam Abu Assaf told AFP, as relatives and villagers gathered at the funeral.

April 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. breach of commitments and its blockade of Iranian ports and threats are the main obstacles to "genuine negotiations", Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday.

"[The] world sees your endless hypocritical rhetoric and contradiction between claims and actions," he said, one day after U.S. President Donald Trump's ceasefire extension.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Iranian officials have kept a united front in the Middle East war and there appears for now to be no major split within the leadership, even though factional disagreements exist and the complete absence from public view of key decision makers creates confusion, analysts said.

Announcing an extension of the ceasefire in the war against the Islamic republic, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday the move was partly "based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so".