Israeli military and Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon, continued fierce clashes in southern Lebanon despite accepting a US plan for a partial ceasefire, as US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that both sides had “agreed to stop all shooting”, and amidst Iranian warnings that the IDF’s actions in Lebanon were a direct threat to the fragile US-Iran ceasefire.
Lebanon said Hezbollah had accepted the plan for it to halt attacks on Israel and for Israel not to attack the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Confirming the agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF would abide by the plan but would resume strikes on Beirut “if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians”, and that IDF forces would still operate in south Lebanon.
Though seemingly hanging by a thread, the ceasefire appears to be largely holding, though there was further confirmed violence overnight between the two groups.
According to the Iran-backed Islamist militant group, its fighters had targeted Israeli tanks in the southern Lebanese towns of Haddatha and Bayada with missiles and shells, though the IDF said it had intercepted two projectiles that had been fired from Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday. No injuries have been reported.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on several of its southern areas, and reported a “very violent” explosion from a large-scale demolition rocked the town of Debbine.
On Monday morning, the Israeli premier said he had ordered strikes against “terror targets” in Beirut’s southern suburbs in retaliation to rocket and drone attacks by the Islamist group.
The statement prompted a slew of warnings from Iranian officials, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying the US-Iran truce was “unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and that “its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts”.
Separately, Iran’s IRGC affiliated semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran could suspend all indirect negotiations with the US, if Israeli military actions in Lebanon continued, threatening to “activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait” at the entrance of the Red Sea, further disrupting global shipping and oil flows.
However, taking to Truth Social, Trump insisted that talks with Iran were continuing at a “rapid pace” and said he had spoken to both Netanyahu and representatives from Hezbollah.
“I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” the US president wrote.
“Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
As per estimates from the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 3,433 people have been killed in the country since the start of the parallel IDF-Hezbollah war started back in March 2, while Israel has confirmed that 26 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period on both sides of the border.
