Israel Hezbollah Ceasefire Trump Netanyahu Lebanon Beirut Strikes Us Iran Talks

Lebanon said that Hezbollah has agreed to a US-proposed plan involving “mutual cessation of attacks” with Israel. According to the country’s embassy in Washington, the Iran-backed group has agreed to halt attacks in exchange for Israel refraining from launching strikes in Beirut.

According to news agency Reuters, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group would support a full ceasefire across Lebanon as a precursor to the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The statement came after US President Donald Trump said that he held productive talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives of the Lebanese militant group. He said that there “will be no Troops going to Beirut” and that Hezbollah “agreed that all shooting will stop.”

Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he spoke with the US President, but warned that “if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens—Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut.”

Despite Trump’s announcement, exchanges from both sides were reported. The BBC reported Hezbollah saying that it launched three attacks on personnel and assets near two villages in northern Israel, and cited Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reporting Israeli strikes on several southern areas and an explosion in the town of Debbine.

Netanyahu earlier said that Israel would attack Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah.

While confirming the agreement, Netanyahu said that “the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.” The development comes days after Israeli forces captured Beaufort Castle — a strategically and symbolically vital location it withdrew from in 2000 — past the Litani River.

Israeli ground forces are pushing toward the Zaharani River, marking the deepest incursion in Lebanon in 25 years, Reuters reported.

Tel Aviv intensified its operations in the buffer zone it established south of the Litani River in Lebanon — a region from which Hezbollah launched attacks — last week as the US-Iran ceasefire talks picked up pace.

Following the development, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that the US-Iran truce was “unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon” — a stance Tehran has maintained since March, when both sides were working towards a ceasefire.

After Netanyahu’s statement on social media, Axios reported that Trump lashed out at the Israeli PM and called him “crazy” in an expletive-laden conversation over the operation in Lebanon, before he put the brakes on Tel Aviv’s plans to hit Beirut. The operation in Lebanon has killed over 3,000 people and displaced over a million, according to the United Nations, citing Lebanese authorities.

According to a New York Times report last week, the distance between Washington and Tel Aviv has grown, with Israeli officials being kept out of the loop in the peace talks between US and Iranian officials as both sides set the conditions for a deal.

The agency, citing US officials, reported that Trump had viewed Netanyahu as a war ally, but not as a close partner when it came to negotiating with Tehran, as their priorities appeared to diverge over time. The White House has been more focused on ending the war as global oil prices surge owing to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the US mid-term elections scheduled to take place in November, this year.

In the initial weeks of the war, Tel Aviv and Washington were on the same page, although their goals seemed to oscillate between regime change, Iran’s nuclear capability and ballistic missiles programme.

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