| Highlights from yesterday |
|
|
- Israeli forces continue military operations in Lebanon despite its inclusion in the US-Iran MoU.
- Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has hailed the agreement as a “big victory” and said Lebanon’s negotiations with Israel should solely focus on “mutual security”, with “domestic issues” such as its disarmament kept off the table.
|
|
Comments |
Anger in Israel after US-Iran MoU delivers none of its war goals
There is anger in Israel, which crosses all the political and ideological divides, about the memorandum of understanding.
Nothing in this memorandum is what Israel was willing to live with, what Israel was seeking out of this war that it convinced the United States to wage on Iran.
The memorandum of understanding doesn’t include the dismantling of the capacity of Iran to enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles. It doesn’t conclusively address Iran’s relationship with its allied groups in the region, and most importantly, it does not collapse the Iranian government, which is something that Netanyahu had promised the Israeli public would be an outcome of this war.
Right now, the Israeli prime minister has to balance between not upsetting Trump, who is increasingly frustrated with him, and also appeasing his partners and Israeli public opinion that refuses any talk of withdrawing from Lebanon, any talk of ending the war in Lebanon.
For now, there is chatter about a possible compromise, where Israel might scale back the presence of its occupying forces in southern Lebanon, but certainly nothing about a complete withdrawal, and nothing about ending all activities.
That balancing act will be extremely difficult in the coming days and weeks for Israel.
|
|
|
Trump to Netanyahu – Use a ‘softer’ touch on Lebanon
Trump has encouraged Netanyahu to use a “softer touch” in Lebanon.
Israeli air strikes have continued in southern Lebanon, despite a new agreement between the US and Iran to end the war on all fronts.
|
|
|
Conflict in Lebanon ‘far from over’ despite US-Iran MoU
So much has been destroyed in months of Israeli air strikes across southern Lebanon.
There’s still a lot of uncertainty, even though people have started to return to their towns and villages to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Israel is not happy with the fact that a Lebanon ceasefire has been included in an Iran-US memorandum of understanding. In fact, Israeli attacks continue in some areas in southern Lebanon, especially in the Nabatieh area.
Security sources are telling us that they believe the Israeli army wants to take more ground and to occupy more territory; territory that it was not able to take during weeks of fighting, strategic high grounds, like the Ali Tahar Hills.
Israeli strikes also killed four people on Tuesday, so people are concerned about whether Israel will adhere to the ceasefire this time around. It’s not the first time a ceasefire has been declared in Lebanon.
There’s also the question of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, where dozens of villages are no-go areas – civilians cannot return to them, tens of thousands of them – and Israel has really destroyed much of those villages, levelled them to the ground.
While there are efforts to freeze this conflict in one way or another, it is far from over.
|
|
|
US-Iran diplomatic breakthrough: key events in Lebanon
- US and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire on April 8, though hostilities continue in Lebanon as Israel launches devastating air strikes that kill more than 350 people.
- Lebanon and Israel hold their first diplomatic talks in decades on April 14, and announce a ceasefire on April 17. But Hezbollah is not party to the talks and fighting resumes.
- Israel bombs Beirut on June 7, prompting Iran to fire missiles towards Israeli territory. The following day, Israel bombs central and western Iran.
|
|
|
Any Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon ‘will take a while’
Rami Khouri, distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, says a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon remains a long way off.
US and Iranian negotiators will likely need four to five months, well beyond their 60-day timeline, to finalize their deal, he said. They will then have to “work out other regional and global dynamics” to allow all parties to “calm down and work out a way that they can all live together with their total rights guaranteed”.
“So it’s going to take a while. But my guess is that the Israelis will at some point very soon stop attacking militarily. They will pull out, symbolically, of a few areas here and there in south Lebanon. And they will claim, as they always have, that they have to defend themselves in south Lebanon, and everywhere else where they feel they’re being attacked,” he said.
“This is going to go on for some time until the United States forces Israel,” Khouri added. “The United States is the only power that can force Israel to change its policy. That hasn’t happened yet.”
|
|
|
Israelis believe Netanyahu’s decision to wage war on multiple fronts ‘was a failure’
Yossi Mekelberg, senior consulting fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, says Israel’s role in the upcoming negotiations with Iran will be dictated by Washington.
Referring to Trump’s earlier comments describing Netanyahu as “an amazing prime minister” and playing down their differences over Lebanon, Mekelberg said Trump had “got a bit soft on Netanyahu”, despite what had been “real disputes between them about how to continue the war”.
He said a debate will now begin in Israel about what the country has achieved ahead of its upcoming election season.
“Everyone will look at the last two and a half years and what Israel actually achieved by using almost maximum force on so many fronts without a decisive result,” he said. “The result was decided without Israel being involved in the negotiation and the memorandum of understanding. And in the 60 days of negotiation ahead, we have no idea how much Israel will be involved. Basically, it will be dictated to it by the Trump administration.”
The mood in Israel, across both the government and opposition, was that the war “was a failure”, he added. Not only has Israel been “sidelined”, but none of Netanyahu’s stated war objectives – regime change in Iran, ending its nuclear program, cutting off support for armed groups, and reducing its ballistic missile capability – has been achieved.
|
|
The headline is somewhat incorrect because private consideration had certainly played a clear role in waging war on Gaza, in Lebanon and on Iran.
In 2017, Netanyahu was embroiled in a media bribery scandal. When this scandal came under investigation, two more scandals came to light and are about corruption.
In 2019, Netanyahu was officially indicted, which opened the prosecution against him.
Since October 2023, Netanyahu managed numerous times to get the trial about bribery, corruption and breach of trust postponed.
We accuses him of resorting to tactics in an attempt to delay the trial by prolonging all his wars.
|
UN reports ‘extensive Israeli military activity’ in south Lebanon
The United Nations says its UNIFIL peacekeepers have observed continued “extensive” Israeli military activity in southern Lebanon despite a “reduction in the intensity of hostilities in the area of operations”.
“This includes high-density armored movements, large-scale engineering and demolition works, and sustained logistical traffic across the area,” the UN secretary-general’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
On Wednesday, between midnight and 4pm local time, UNIFIL recorded 26 Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace along with one air attack. The UN forces also reported a violation of “Lebanon’s maritime space by two [Israeli military] vessels conducting a patrol roughly 600 meters off the shores of Naqoura in southern Lebanon”.
|
|
|
‘We’ll know how to say no to the US,’ says Israeli minister
Amichai Chikli, a minister in the far-right government, says he doubts Israel will withdraw troops to the “Blue Line” – the UN-marked unofficial boundary separating Israel and Lebanon – even it faces pressure to do so from the US.
“If we return to the Blue Line it will be a failure,” Chikli was quoted by Israel’s Army Radio as saying. “I don’t think we’re going to withdraw. If necessary, we’ll know how to say no to the United States.”
Tension is rising between the United States and Israel after President Trump publicly scolded Prime Minister Netanyahu for his handling of Israel’s war on Lebanon and the killing of “too many people”.
Iran has insisted that any long-term deal must include the end of Israel’s occupation of the south.
|
|
|
Hezbollah sending ‘clear message it won’t accept one-sided ceasefire’
There’s been a reduction in violence in the sense that we are no longer seeing an intense Israel bombing campaign across southern Lebanon, but there have still been Israeli drone strikes over the past few days causing casualties.
Hezbollah has been responding to those strikes, sending a clear message that it is not going to accept a one-sided ceasefire. In fact, the Israeli army has acknowledged that one of its soldiers has been killed and others injured in two Hezbollah attacks in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah feels very empowered by this deal [between the US and Iran], believing that Iran has given it leverage. It is telling Israel that the only thing on the table is mutual security, and that it’s not ready to give anything more than that. Hezbollah is telling the Lebanese government it’s not going to accept disarmament.
|
|
|
Israel says troops will ‘continue to remove threats’ in south Lebanon
Israel’s military has released a map showing what it says are the current positions of its forces inside southern Lebanon, extending about 10km (6.2 miles) into Lebanese territory.
Soldiers “are stationed in the designated area of operation in southern Lebanon and will continue to remove threats”, a statement said.
As we’ve reported, the 14-point deal signed by the US and Iran declares “the immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”.
|
|
"to remove threats”
Netanyahu started in June 2025 a 12-day preemptive war on Iran without showing evidence, that Iran was accelerating its nuclear program.
On June 16, 2025, Netanyahu called on the United States for help in the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei Sr. knowing that Hezbollah would respond. The Israeli Mossad and the CIA prepared the assassination the following second half of that year.
The CIA legally requires explicit presidential approval to carry out covert operations. This means that Trump has knowledge, and may, like the CIA, have known that Hezbollah would respond.
In December 2025, Netanyahu vowed to attack Iran in 2026 again, and in February 28, 2026, Netanyahu assassinated the Iranian leader.
On March 1, 2026, Hezbollah reacted to the Israeli assassination by vowing to revenge, which it did the following day.
Both Netanyahu and Trump have dragged Hezbollah, not Lebanon in the Israeli war on Iran.
In relation to both wars, the Israelis have always been the threat.
|
Israel will continue to try to sabotage Iran deal
We’re not just writing about Iran, which the Israelis have been portraying as an existential threat, but we are writing also about Lebanon because the deal itself is about the stop of war on all fronts.
This is something that has been worrying Israelis. But they also fear that not only do they have to limit their military assault but that they have to withdraw from places in southern Lebanon that they have pushed deeper into since this war started – but now they fear that this deal would force them to withdraw and to be forced to go out of the places they have occupied in southern Lebanon.
Not only will Israel try to lobby to stay in southern Lebanon, citing security reasons, saying that Hezbollah has not been disarmed, but also Israel will be looking at potentially trying to sabotage this memorandum of understanding.
You may have seen already, even before the signing and the announcement of the memorandum of understanding, that Israel has hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying that they found a Hezbollah agent. Of course, that has been contested, and it has been talked about heavily by Trump, rebuking Israel, saying it’s continuing to sabotage the deal.
This is a very sensitive issue in Israel, particularly now, as we are heading towards elections, and every official wants to show defiance.
|
|
|
Israel holding ‘stubborn’ talks with US over war on Lebanon
Israel is conducting “stubborn negotiations” with the United States over the continued deployment of its troops in southern Lebanon.
An unnamed senior official “close” to Prime Minister Netanyahu told Reuters news agency Israel has no intention of backing down on its position regarding its occupation.
In separate comments, two Israeli politicians offered sharp critiques of the government’s approach to Iran.
Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister, said Iran retains its nuclear capabilities in part because of poor decision-making by Israel.
“Unfortunately, Iran has held onto its nuclear capabilities because of our own strategic miscalculations, and that is a serious danger,” Gallant said. “This deal has left us in a very bad position. Israel’s strategic goal was solely to halt the nuclear programme, and within that framework we have squandered opportunities that won’t come around again for a generation or two.”
Moshe Saada, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, urged the prime minister to take a harder line with the US over Lebanon.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu needs to tell Trump ‘enough’,” Saada said. “I am bound to defend Israelis, and withdrawing from Lebanon right now poses an existential threat to Israel. Duty demands that we strike Lebanon everywhere, around the clock, with maximum force and with no proportionality.”
|
|
|
Israel unlikely to exit Lebanon without US ‘putting the hammer down’
Whether Israel respects the interim agreement by pulling out of southern Lebanon and stops its attacks depends on how much pressure the US is prepared to exert on its ally, an analyst says.
“We see Trump responding to Iranian pressure. It therefore depends on how much Iran is going to use this as leverage during a negotiation,” Dan Perry, former chief of The Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, says.
Speaking from Tel Aviv, Perry said he doubts Israel will pull out “of the buffer zone in southern Lebanon without really having Trump putting the hammer down, as long as Hezbollah remains armed and potentially a threat for a cross-border incursion”.
“From Israel’s perspective, there’s a lot of concern because this is viewed as a capitulation that basically casts aside all of the war goals of Israel and America, both throwing not just Israel under the bus, but also Lebanon, which is aligned with Israel in its desire to see Hezbollah disarmed.”
|
|
|
Hezbollah says repelled Israeli advance in southern Lebanon
Hezbollah says it has held off against a four-day offensive by Israeli forces attempting to advance deeper into the country’s south.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops and tanks with drones, rockets and artillery and prevented their advance towards Kfar Tebnit, near Nabatieh.
“As a result, the enemy was forced to retreat and deploy helicopters under the cover of smoke screens and artillery fire during the night to evacuate its losses,” said Hezbollah.
|
|
|
No Israeli party supports troop pull-out from southern Lebanon
Netanyahu can certainly decide to abide by the interim agreement by pulling troops from southern Lebanon, but this move would be career suicide for him, says Dan Perry, former chief of the Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Pulling Israeli troops from the country “would be politically devastating for him from every direction”, Perry said.
“His [right-wing] base doesn’t want this, but even the left doesn’t want it. The centre doesn’t want it, and I would dare say the Israeli Arabs don’t want it,” Perry said from Tel Aviv, adding that it’s possible “parts of Lebanon don’t want it”.
Netanyahu is facing a real “quandary” with elections coming up in a few months, said Perry.
“Capitulation would make him look bad; non-capitulation, if the US is insisting enough, would be impossible at the end of the day.”
The problem, says the veteran journalist, is that Netanyahu has prioritized his relationship with Trump to the detriment of his relations with European allies and US Democrats.
If Netanyahu does decide to pull troops, says Perry, “we’ll have to see then if there’s any mechanism for the Lebanese armed forces to actually take over the border area and prevent Hezbollah from returning and once again threatening Israel”.
|
|
|
UK minister calls on Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon
Britain’s International Development Minister Jenny Chapman has called on Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon so tens of thousands of people displaced by three months of war can return to their homes.
“Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon, absolutely. Displacement, we know, anywhere in the world causes huge disruption,” she said while visiting a school where displaced families are sheltering.
“That is why we want to get the conditions right so that people can return home and be secure, be safe, and be confident they can stay in their homes for the long term.”
|
|
|
