Israeli security cabinet considers ceasefire in Lebanon

With diplomacy and battlefield rhetoric colliding, Israel’s security cabinet met tonight to weigh a possible ceasefire in Lebanon, according to a senior Israeli official, more than six weeks after a war with Hezbollah spun out of the wider US-Israeli confrontation with Iran.

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump suggested the war with Iran might be nearing an end, telling the public to brace for an “amazing two days”.

Another senior Israeli official said Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was facing intense pressure from Washington to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Yet even as the security cabinet was in session, Netanyahu released a video statement saying Israeli forces were still attacking Hezbollah positions and were close to “overcoming” the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.

Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to keep strengthening the security zone in southern Lebanon even as negotiations over a peace agreement with Lebanon continued.

Israel and Lebanon held uncommon talks between government envoys in Washington yesterday.

“These negotiations have not taken place for over 40 years. They are happening now because we are very strong, and countries are coming to us – not only Lebanon,” Netanyahu said.

A senior US administration official said today that President Trump would “welcome” an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, but stressed that such a deal is separate from the peace talks involving Iran.

“The president would welcome the end of hostilities in Lebanon as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The United States wants to see a durable peace but did not demand an immediate ceasefire,” and “negotiations between the US and Iran are not linked to ongoing peace talks between Israel and Lebanon,” according to the official.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes hit paramedic teams in southern Lebanon today, killing at least three members.

“The Israeli enemy targeted paramedic teams in the town of Mayfadoun, Nabatiyeh District, three consecutive times,” the ministry said in a statement.

“This resulted in the martyrdom of three paramedics and the injury of six others, while one paramedic remains missing.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio helped broker the talks yesterday

Earlier, Hezbollah condemned the Lebanese government’s decision to engage in talks with Israel as “a national sin”, warning that the move would deepen divisions inside Lebanon as the Iran-backed group continues its war with Israel.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said yesterday’s US-mediated meeting between Lebanon’s ambassador in Washington and her Israeli counterpart did not represent Lebanon’s national identity or “the choices of its people”.

The meeting, hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, marked the first direct contact of its kind in decades between the two countries, which have remained formally at war since Israel was founded in 1948.

Both sides described the talks as positive. But before the meeting, Israel had ruled out any discussion of Lebanon’s demand for a ⁠ceasefire in the war, which began on 2 March when Hezbollah opened fire in support of Tehran.

“Does the government not realise the danger of what it has undertaken? And does it understand that it has entered a wrong path that leads only to increasing the rift among the Lebanese?” Mr Fadlallah said.

“It has obtained ‌nothing from the enemy except praise without achieving any demand,” he said in a televised statement.

Yesterday’s meeting came at a pivotal moment ⁠in the Middle East crisis, one week into a fragile ceasefire involving the ‌United States, Israel and Iran.

The broader regional conflict began with ⁠US-Israeli strikes on ‌Iran on 28 February. Lebanon says Israel’s offensive has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced 1.2 million others from their homes.

Displaced civilians fight to get by in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, sheltering in makeshift tents

Mr Fadlallah said Hezbollah is seeking a full ceasefire, not a return to the near-daily ⁠Israeli strikes and assassinations that followed a previous ceasefire agreement with Israel in November ⁠2024.

The Israeli military said it struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours, even as Israel and Lebanon agreed to continue direct negotiations.

“In the past 24 hours, the IDF struck over 200 Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, including launchers and terrorists,” the military said.

Since the 2024 war, the Lebanese state has been trying to disarm Hezbollah through peaceful means. Any attempt to do so by force could trigger fresh conflict in a country still scarred by the 1975-1990 civil war.

Past efforts to curb Hezbollah have carried similar risks: moves against the group by a Western-backed government in 2008 set off a brief civil war.

The current government banned Hezbollah’s military wing after it opened fire on ‌Israel last month.

Meanwhile, United Nations refugee chief Barham Salih urged the international community to deliver emergency support to Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah war has displaced a fifth of the population.

“I call upon the international community to provide urgent support and relief to Lebanon,” he said after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

“The humanitarian consequences of this war are immense, and I emphasise the need to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure from the ravages of attack.

“Lebanon does not deserve to be trapped in a recurring cycle of violence, it deserves support and stability.”

Security forces guard the site of an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut

He added that UNHCR has received only “a portion” of the $61 million it appealed for during the war to help Lebanon cope with what it called an “unprecedented” displacement crisis, with more than a million people – roughly a fifth of the population – uprooted by the conflict.

More than 140,000 of those displaced are staying in government shelters.

The $61 million forms part of the Lebanon Flash Appeal, launched last month by UN chief Antonio Guterres to raise $308 million for the country.

Lebanon, already battered by a severe financial crisis since 2019, was still struggling to recover from the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war when the Iran-backed group pulled it back into the widening Middle East conflict last month.