The meetings in Washington marked the fourth round of direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli diplomats since hostilities erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah renewed cross-border attacks against Israel in support of Iran, according to the joint statement. A previous truce agreed on April 17 was understood to have exempted only the Lebanese capital from attacks and failed to hold, with both sides citing the other’s alleged violations to justify continued operations.
The joint statement did not mention whether or when Israeli troops would withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israel occupies at least 608 square kilometers of land along the Lebanon-Israel border, according to The Guardian.
A Hezbollah official told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the group would “not accept a partial ceasefire,” and the group has not been party to the talks. The agreement’s substance resembles a 2024 ceasefire that saw Hezbollah agree to pull back from south of the Litani River, but full disarmament of the group was never achieved, and Israel conducted more than 10,000 strikes in violation of that ceasefire over the following 15 months, The Guardian reported.
Despite the joint commitment to a ceasefire, Israel carried out multiple drone strikes in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon on Thursday morning. Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops, and Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry said Israel targeted an ambulance in a strike in the south, killing two paramedics from the Risala Scouts Association, a civilian health service run by Hezbollah’s ally the Amal movement.
Among the Israeli strikes on Wednesday was one in the immediate vicinity of the public hospital in Tebnine, days after strikes next to the Hiram and Jabal Amel hospitals in Tyre. The attack next to Jabal Amel on Monday killed four people and injured 127, most of whom were medical staff, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The state-run National News Agency also reported strikes on more than 20 locations in the south, some after Israel’s military warned residents of several villages to evacuate.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wanted to separate talks on the conflict in Lebanon from those on the war with Iran. However, Tehran insists the conflicts are linked and this week threatened to suspend peace talks with the US in protest against Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, threatening the collapse of negotiations with Washington. Trump said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and had spoken to Netanyahu and representatives of Hezbollah who agreed that “all shooting will stop.” Trump confirmed reports that he had described Netanyahu as “crazy,” saying he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon was complicating US-led peace talks with Iran.
According to analysts cited by The Guardian, Israel wants to inflict as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a potential peace deal with Iran stops its offensive. Netanyahu told CNBC on Wednesday that he and Trump were aligned on the goal of disarming Hezbollah in order to achieve peace between Israel and Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives delivered a vote backing a move to force Trump to seek approval from Congress for the war or withdraw US forces. The vote’s impact was largely symbolic, as it is unclear whether the resolution carries the force of law, even if it were to pass the Senate.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Iran struck Kuwait, killing one person, damaging Kuwait International Airport and injuring dozens, while the US military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks sent oil prices up nearly 2%, as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the war was launched. Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said they did not fire at Kuwait’s airport and blamed the destruction on US interceptor missiles that failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media. The US military said that was not accurate, and that Iranian drones targeted the airport deliberately.