Israel and Lebanon Agree to 45-Day Ceasefire Extension, US Says

A fragile pause in the fighting between Israel and Lebanon is set to last a little longer after the two sides agreed to extend their ceasefire by 45 days, according to the US State Department.

“The 16 April cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said.

US officials described Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington over the past two days as “highly productive”, saying the two countries will return to the table for further negotiations on 2 June and 3 June.

The meetings marked the third round of talks since Israel stepped up airstrikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel on 2 March, three days into the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Running alongside the US-Iran conflict, Israel’s war in Lebanon has dragged on since US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on 16 April, although most of the violence has since been concentrated in southern Lebanon.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Tibnit

Despite the truce announced on 17 April, hundreds of people have been killed in Israeli strikes.

As negotiations in Washington were coming to a close, Israel continued to carry out attacks in Lebanon.

A strike in southern Lebanon killed three paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

In a statement, the ministry said an Israeli strike “directly targeted” the Islamic Health Committee’s centre in Haruf in south Lebanon, killing three paramedics and critically injuring a fourth.

The Israeli military also issued evacuation orders for the southern city of Tyre.

Several Israeli strikes were reported, including two near Tyre, while state media said another hit a centre operated by a local NGO close to a hospital.

Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes in the Tyre district wounded at least 37 people, among them six hospital workers, nine women and four children.

Hafez Ramadan, who lives near the building hit in the airstrike, said it had been sheltering people displaced from their towns by the war and stood next to a hotel housing others forced to flee.

“There are only women, children and the elderly here,” he said. “Because of this strike, people have been displaced again.”

The Israeli military said one more of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, raising the number of Israeli troops killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March to 19.

A civilian contractor was also killed.

Israeli attacks have killed 2,882 people in Lebanon since 2 March, Lebanese health authorities have said.

About 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been driven from their homes, many of them from the south.

Israel is still flattening villages in the south of the country.

Explosions were visible in the town of Kfar Tibnit today despite the ceasefire remaining in place on paper.

Seven killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza

The extension of the Lebanon ceasefire came as Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza, including a child, medics in the occupied territory said.

According to medics in Gaza, the first airstrike hit an apartment in Gaza City’s Rimal area, killing at least four people and injuring several others.

A short time later, a second Israeli strike hit a vehicle on a nearby street, killing three more people, the medics said.

Video from the scene showed flames tearing through an apartment in a largely destroyed building.

Palestinians were seen retrieving at least one body from the rubble, wrapped in a white plastic tarp.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, said hundreds of people had been staying in the building that was struck.

A fire at an apartment targeted by an Israeli attack in the Rimal neigbourhood in Gaza

“The missile was fired without any pre-warning or notification. We are talking about a number of (dead). We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families,” Mr Basal said.

Israel has intensified its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since ending its joint bombing campaign with the US in Iran, shifting military focus back to the devastated Palestinian enclave where it believes Hamas fighters are tightening their control.

Israel said the strike targeted the head of Hamas’ armed wing, though neither Israel nor Hamas said whether he had been killed or wounded.

Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the militant group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel killed commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025.

The agreement reached last October brought major fighting in Gaza to a halt after two years ‌of war ⁠between Israel and Hamas.

But efforts to secure a permanent settlement have stalled, including steps to withdraw Israeli troops, disarm the militants and begin rebuilding the shattered enclave.

Israeli forces still hold more than half of Gaza’s territory, where they have destroyed most of the remaining buildings and ordered residents to leave.

More than 2 million people are now confined to a narrow strip of coastal land, most of them living in damaged buildings or makeshift tents.

Since the October ceasefire, about 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.

During the same period, four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to figures from Gaza authorities that the UN considers reliable.

Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on Israeli killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.