Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed sharply over the weekend as ships avoided a transit corridor off Oman after a fresh exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran.

Only four tankers and one container ship used the Omani southern corridor to enter the Gulf on Sunday, escorted by US Navy vessels, according to research firm HFI Research.

No vessels used the route to leave the Gulf on Sunday, according to data by maritime tracking firm Kpler.

Traffic slowed on Saturday after a vessel was struck while transiting the strait — two days after another vessel was targeted on Thursday — and as rounds of strikes between the United States and Iran strained their preliminary deal to end the conflict.

Washington and Tehran have since agreed to halt their attacks but traffic through the strait remains limited.

Just one vessel used the Omani route to exit the Gulf, and another to enter, by 1500GMT on Monday, Kpler data showed.

Iran on Sunday warned ships against using routes it does not approve of to pass through the vital maritime passage.

In total, 29 commodity vessels crossed on Saturday and 12 transited on Sunday, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

AXSMarine, another firm that tracks all commercial ships, detected 36 crossings on Saturday and 19 on Sunday.

The figures suggest ships are still passing through the strategic waterway but that traffic has declined from last week’s wartime records after a memorandum of understanding was signed by Tehran and Washington on June 17.

After Saturday’s attack on a vessel crossing the strait, ships continued to use the southern route off Oman for several hours before traffic appeared to slow, according to the Kpler-owned website MarineTraffic.

The website tracks only vessels with active transponders, meaning additional ships may have crossed with their signals switched off.

AXSMarine found that 44 vessels stopped transmitting their AIS signal in the Gulf region after Thursday’s attack.

AXSMarine analyst Mihail Todorov told AFP, however, that large-scale signal spoofing and interference in the region made it difficult to “confirm that every case was a direct result of the recent vessel attacks”.

Ships have continued crossing using Iran-approved routes.

A CMA CMG container ship exited the Gulf on Sunday morning using such a route through Iranian waters north of Larak Island.

Six commodity vessels have used the Iranian route so far on Monday, Kpler shows.

Since Saturday, more ships have entered the Gulf than departed, reversing a trend seen over the previous week, when efforts focused on evacuating seafarers stranded in the Gulf.

“Inbound traffic has remained relatively stable. The decline is almost entirely in outbound traffic,” AXSMarine analyst Mihail Todorov told AFP on Monday.

A UN-led operation to evacuate 11,000 seafarers was suspended on Thursday after a vessel was struck in the Gulf of Oman.

Total figures may rise further as crossings are identified retrospectively, notably through satellite imagery.

Iran said Monday that it had held its first meeting with Oman to discuss managing the strait, as Washington warns it will not accept transit fees for using what it considers an international waterway.