Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, United States President Donald Trump says. The truce will take effect at 5pm US East Coast time ( ) on Thursday, Trump wrote on social media after speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. EST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the announcement in a post on X, describing the ceasefire as “a central Lebanese demand we have pursued since the first day of the war” and the primary goal of Tuesday’s meeting between Lebanese and Israeli officials in the US. Netanyahu confirmed he had agreed to the truce, which presented his country with an opportunity for a “historic deal” with Beirut. Lebanon was drawn into the US-Israeli war on Iran on March 2 when Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group, fired rockets at Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in an Israeli strike on the opening day of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Israeli forces responded with a ferocious campaign that has since killed more than 2,196 people in Lebanon and wounded thousands more. Israel has also issued forced evacuation orders covering roughly 15 percent of Lebanese territory. Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told on Thursday that the group would respect the US-brokered ceasefire if Israeli attacks on its fighters fully stopped.
The US State Department said that Israel would retain the right under the agreement to carry out strikes in Lebanon in self defence “at any time”. It added that the ceasefire could be extended by mutual consent. Netanyahu said that Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon within an “extensive” security zone and that he wanted Hezbollah “dismantled” as part of a future agreement with Lebanon.
Trump later said the Lebanese government would begin working with Hezbollah to achieve that goal. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said strikes killed nine people across the southern district of Tyre over the past two days, including a paramedic. At least eight people were killed and 33 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Ghaziyeh in the Zahrani area of southern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.
Salam also offered prayers for those killed and expressed hope that the more than one million people forced from their homes by Israel’s campaign would be able to return “as soon as possible”. Trump said he would invite Netanyahu and Aoun to direct talks, saying both sides wanted to resolve their differences and he believed “that will happen quickly”. He also said he had directed US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, to work towards a lasting settlement.
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