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17-04-2026
BEIRUT/ JERUSALEM: Attention turned to Lebanon Thursday night to see if a new ceasefire, announced by President Trump, would pause the fighting by Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to the 10-day ceasefire, but Israel vowed to keep its forces in southern Lebanon, saying it would attack if threatened by Hezbollah.
Iran has said it would not engage in negotiations with the United States unless Israel entered into a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Trump sounded optimistic again about negotiations with Iran, and even told reporters he “might” go to Pakistan if there was a peace deal to sign.
“They’ve agreed to give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground because of the attack that we made with the B-2 bombers. So we have a lot of agreement with Iran and I think something is going to happen very positive,” Trump said.
The US continued enforcing a naval blockade on ships entering and exiting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel’s military said a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon went into effect Thursday night, after Israeli and Lebanese leaders had calls with President Trump and agreed to the temporary truce. It is supposed to pause the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
News images emerged of crowds celebrating in parts of Lebanon after more than a month of war left a heavy human toll in the country but there is uncertainty whether the ceasefire would hold.
Israel vowed to keep its troops in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah said the Lebanese people have “the right to resist” Israeli forces in the country, media reported.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli army shelling and gunfire in parts of southern Lebanon after the designated start time.
Hezbollah acknowledge the ceasefire in a statement but urged Lebanese who had to flee the violence in their villages in southern Lebanon to hold off going back to for their safety.
Hezbollah has both a political wing, with lawmakers in Lebanon’s national parliament and militia that operates largely independently of the Lebanese government and receives funding and direction from Iran.
Lebanon’s government has pushed for a ceasefire before entering bigger diplomatic negotiations with Israel. Hezbollah opposes the talks.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the ceasefire would take effect at 5 pm but warned that the Israeli military would take action if threatened.
“We will have to follow very carefully what’s happening on the ground and if we will feel threatened, we will react,” Danon told reporters at the State Department in Washington. “We are not going anywhere. We are holding our positions.”
“The problem is not with the Lebanese government. The problem is with Hezbollah and it will be challenging,” he said.
Celebrations have been reported in Lebanon, where a 10-day ceasefire has been announced to allow for negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese officials on a permanent security and peace agreement between the two countries, the US State Department said.
United States President Donald Trump has again said that a deal to end the war on Iran is “very close”, adding that talks may resume with Tehran in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad as early as this weekend.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has welcomed news of the ceasefire in Lebanon, according to Iranian state media, framing the truce as part of a broader agreement with the US to pause the regional conflict. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
