Israeli strikes hit Lebanon after Trump announces de-escalation

Israeli strikes killed several people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, Lebanese authorities and state media reported, hours after President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop shooting in a bid to prevent the conflict from derailing talks with Iran.

The violence underscored the fragility of the reported understanding, which neither Israel nor Hezbollah has publicly accepted. Trump said Monday night that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, through representatives, with Hezbollah, and that both sides had agreed that “all shooting will stop.”

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that at least five people were killed Tuesday in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon. It said two Syrians working at a plant nursery were killed in Jebchit in Nabatieh governorate, while Israeli drone strikes killed two people in attacks on a motorcycle in Toul and a car in Ansar. A separate drone attack killed the driver of a car in Nabatieh, the agency said.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense agency said six people were killed in an Israeli strike Monday night in the village of Marwaniyeh in southern Lebanon, though it was not clear exactly when the strike was launched. The agency also said one of its centers in Nabatieh was subjected to “direct targeting as a result of a hostile Israeli airstrike,” damaging the building and equipment inside. The Lebanese Army later said two soldiers were moderately wounded after being targeted by an Israeli drone in Nabatieh.

The Israeli military told NBC News it had launched at least one strike in Nabatieh, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. It also said it intercepted at least two projectiles overnight that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with no injuries reported. Hours later, the military said sirens sounded in northern Israel and that it had identified a “suspicious aerial target” in an area where Israeli soldiers were operating in southern Lebanon.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had a “very productive” call with Netanyahu and that there would be “no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.” He said he also 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.”

Netanyahu said he told Trump that “if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our towns and our citizens, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut.” He had earlier said he ordered strikes on “terror targets” in Beirut’s southern suburbs in response to Hezbollah attacks, prompting panic in the Lebanese capital as people fled areas that had sheltered thousands displaced from southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese Embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted the terms of a U.S. proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks,” which would also block Israel from attacking Beirut. The office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the arrangement called for Hezbollah to stop firing into Israel while Israel would stop striking Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The escalation also threatened negotiations involving Iran. Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Monday that Tehran’s negotiating team would suspend “talks and the exchange of texts through mediators” after Israel’s declared plan to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri that if Israeli attacks continued, Iran would “not only suspend the negotiation process” but would “stand against the Zionist regime,” according to Iran’s state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency.

Trump told NBC News he had not been informed of any Iranian decision to suspend negotiations, adding, “I think it’s fine if they’re done talking.” In a later post, he said, “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Al Jazeera reported that Hezbollah had not claimed responsibility for cross-border attacks since Trump’s announcement, though it had claimed attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The outlet also reported that Israeli troops seized Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge on Saturday, and that the Israeli military said two soldiers were killed over the weekend, bringing Israeli military deaths since early March to 27. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health says Israeli attacks since March 2 have killed at least 3,433 people in Lebanon.