April 8 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he told the leaders of Iran and the United States that he hoped a ceasefire between them would be respected in Lebanon and across "all areas of confrontation", as Israeli strikes continued to hit Beirut.

The U.S. and Iran on Tuesday agreed to pause their sprawling conflict for two weeks, but Israel on Wednesday killed more than 250 people in its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since fighting with Hezbollah broke out last month.

ATHENS, April 8 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday it would be unacceptable for ships to have to pay a fee to cross the Strait of Hormuz as Iran has suggested, and such a move would set a dangerous precedent for freedom of navigation.

The Iran war has threatened Gulf ports and disrupted global trade through the strait, a waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes.

Greece controls one of the largest merchant fleets globally in terms of cargo-carrying capacity.

While some Iranians in the capital Tehran fear the ceasefire with the United States will lead to nothing, others declared victory and most breathed a sigh of relief after weeks of war.

"Everyone is at ease now, we are more relaxed," Sakineh Mohammadi, a 50-year-old housewife, told AFP, saying she was "proud" of her country.

Just the day before, US President Donald Trump threatened to eradicate "a whole civilization" in Iran if its leaders did not heed his ultimatum to accept Washington's war demands.

April 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday condemned a massive wave of Israeli strikes across Lebanon, saying reports that hundreds of people, including civilians had been killed and injured were "appalling" just hours after the Iran ceasefire.

Israel's strikes on Lebanon have been the heaviest since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire.

US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday urged Iran not to let the fragile ceasefire deal fall apart over Israel's attacks on Lebanon, days before he is due to lead talks with Tehran in Pakistan.

As Iran's president said a truce in Lebanon was a key condition for ending the Middle East war, Vance said he believed there had been a "legitimate misunderstanding".

BUDAPEST, April 8 (Reuters) - Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday said Tehran's negotiators thought the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreed to on Tuesday included Lebanon, but the U.S. had in fact not agreed to that.

"I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't," Vance told reporters in Budapest.

The scale of the killing in Israeli strikes on Lebanon Wednesday is "horrific", the UN rights chief said, urging the international community to help end the unfolding "nightmare".

At least 112 people were killed and 837 more were wounded in Lebanon Wednesday after Israel launched a wave of strikes unprecedented in the current war, according to the latest Lebanese health ministry toll.

Volker Turk, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, condemned the attacks, saying the numbers killed and injured were appalling.

Donald Trump claimed "total" victory after a ceasefire with Iran. But critics say the deal is a fresh example of their maxim that the tough-talking US president always "chickens out."

In the space of 12 nerve-wracking hours, Trump went from warning that a "whole civilization will die" to hailing that agreement as a big day for world peace.

The reality on the ground however showed a still shaky two-week ceasefire with a host of unanswered questions -- not least about whether Trump had ever intended to follow through on his apocalyptic threats.

CAIRO, April 8 (Reuters) - Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed four people on Wednesday, including an Al Jazeera journalist, local health authorities said and the Qatari television network reported.

The strike that killed Al Jazeera's Muhammad Washah targeted a vehicle he and one other Palestinian, who was also killed, were driving along the coastal road in Gaza City, health authorities said.

Eleven leaders of a Turkish LGBT rights group went on trial Wednesday on charges of "obscenity" and "violating the protection of the family", their lawyer told AFP.

The defendants, leaders of the Genc LGBTI+ association (Young LGBTI+ in Turkish), stand accused of breaching an article of the Turkish constitution on protecting family values, as well as publishing images on social media showing same-sex couples kissing -- deemed "obscene" by the authorities.