Lebanon announced a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has killed thousands of Iranian and Lebanese people at the hands of US-Israeli strikes and inflamed the broader US-Israeli war on Iran.
According to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel.
Hostilities in southern Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March, continued on Monday evening. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no injuries were reported.
US President Donald Trump, who first announced the agreement, said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel. No US president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The US has designated the group as a terrorist organisation.
Read: Talks with Iran continuing at rapid pace: Trump
Trump also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pull back any troops preparing to attack Beirut.
After Trump’s announcement, Netanyahu said Israel would continue military operations in southern Lebanon, where ground forces are pushing toward the Zaharani River, their deepest invasion in Lebanon in 25 years.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the militia would support a full ceasefire across all Lebanon as a precursor to the withdrawal of Israeli troops. He did not say whether the group would stop its strikes on Israeli territory.
Lebanon said it would seek to expand the ceasefire in talks with Israel in Washington on Wednesday.
That could clear the path for renewed efforts to end the three-month-old war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran. The process has been stuck in limbo for weeks under a fragile ceasefire as negotiators have been unable to agree on an initial framework for peace talks.
The Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2 as an offshoot of the broader conflict and has been entangled with it ever since.
Iran has insisted on a halt to Israeli attacks in Lebanon as a condition of any deal to end the war, while the US has said the two conflicts are separate.
Read more: Trump says no Israeli troops will go to Beirut after call with Netanyahu
“The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement.
Israeli attacks target towns, villages across southern Lebanon
Israeli forces have continued their attacks across southern Lebanon, firing artillery near Nabatieh and striking the villages of Shukin and Kafr Tibnit, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli drones also carried out three strikes on the town of Tallet Tol in Nabatieh district, according to reports.
Separately, an Israeli air attack struck near Tibnin.
‘Nothing can justify’ Israel’s ‘prolonged occupation’ of Lebanon: France
No justification can be made for Israeli troops remaining deep inside Lebanon after Israel’s biggest incursion into its northern neighbour in two decades, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France TV, according to Al Jazeera.
Despite a “ceasefire” currently in effect in Lebanon, fighting continues to intensify between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Israel bombs southern Lebanon, forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of its residents.
“Nothing can justify the continuation of military operations and Israel’s prolonged occupation deep inside Lebanese territory,” Barrot told France TV.
Iran has said a permanent ceasefire in Lebanon remains a key condition for any peace deal with the US.
Hezbollah’s night-time use of FPV drones ‘considerable concern’ for Israeli forces: Israeli media
Israel’s military is reportedly investigating how Hezbollah’s first-person-view (FPV) drones have managed to strike Israeli forces in southern Lebanon at night several times in recent days, according to Al Jazeera.
The Israeli news website Ynet News reported that the first incident occurred on Saturday night when Givati Brigade soldier Staff Sergeant Michael Tyukin was killed, and a second followed overnight on Sunday into Monday when Maglan commando Staff Sergeant Adam Tzarfati was killed.
“It’s quite unusual that the drone struck a force at night. That still hasn’t happened to combat teams before,” an Israeli soldier told Ynet after visiting soldiers wounded in a night-time drone attack near southern Lebanon’s Beaufort Castle.
Ynet reported that Israeli forces were “concerned that Hezbollah could equip fibre-optic FPV drones with thermal systems, enabling them to operate at night … Until now, the assessment had been that the drones involved did not carry thermal systems, which would indicate improved operational capabilities after dark.”
“They [the drones] improve the accuracy of their fire every time,” a military official told Ynet. “That’s why we try to keep moving as much as possible.”
The report also said the Israeli army has begun to limit the use of heavy vehicles, such as those used for engineering purposes like military bulldozers and excavators, describing them as “easy targets” for FPV drones.
Iran hasn’t yet sent response to US peace proposal over ‘distrust’
Iran is still reviewing the final text of a possible deal with the US and no response has yet been sent, Iran’s semi-official news agency Mehr reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Iran is seeking to achieve “real, tangible” benefits, the source added, saying that “the history of US non-compliance and historical distrust” has led Tehran to view the issue “very strictly.”
Tensions in the Middle East have escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February. Tehran retaliated with attacks targeting Israel and US allies in the Gulf, alongside the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran threatens to break off talks
Iranian state media said earlier on Monday that Tehran was halting indirect peace negotiations with the US and might end a ceasefire that has largely held since early April, citing the war in Lebanon.
There was no direct confirmation of the reports from Iranian officials, and Trump told an NBC reporter that he had not heard from Iran. He said in a CNBC interview on Monday that the peace talks had “started to get very boring” and that he did not care if they were over.
“I really don’t care, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said.
Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he is close to signing a peace agreement but has yet to do so. Despite the ceasefire, Iran and the US have exchanged strikes several times over the past week.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, Esmaeil Qaani, threatened to expand its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz to the Bab El Mandeb Strait, another chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Iran has already bottled up maritime traffic in the Gulf that before the war provided one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, sending prices sharply higher.
Oil prices rose 4% on Monday on the heightened tensions.Latest News, Breaking News & Top News Stories | The Express TribuneReutersRead More
