Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire again on Thursday despite the announcement of a new ceasefire agreement with the government of Lebanon the day prior, further threatening the chances of a negotiated end to the U.S.-Iran war.
The Israeli air force launched airstrikes early in the day at Hezbollah installations in Tyre and Shaqra. Israeli ground troops also continued their assault north of the Litani River, exchanging fire with Hezbollah fighters.
The Israeli military warned residents of southern Lebanon against returning to their homes, insisting that despite the renewed ceasefire agreement, attacks on Hezbollah in the region would continue.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says more than 3,000 people have been killed since the start of Israel’s offensive in southern Lebanon, with more than 1 million displaced.
Hezbollah, for its part, launched several rockets near Kiryat Shmona in northeastern Israel, just a few miles from the country’s border with Lebanon. Drone warning sirens also sounded in several other northern Israeli communities, though authorities have reported no casualties.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March, when fighters in Lebanon launched rockets and drones into Israeli territory in response to the Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran.
Fighting continued Thursday despite the announcement of a revamped diplomatic agreement between Lebanon and Israel touted by the Trump administration.
Under the agreement, the Lebanese army will begin deploying pilot zones, free of Israeli and Hezbollah forces in the southern territories. The Lebanese military said Thursday that Israeli forces were withdrawing from some areas in southern Lebanon.
But Hezbollah has shown little willingness to uphold the ceasefire. Secretary-General Naim Qassem in a statement Thursday publicly rejected peace terms, insisting that Israeli troops must agree to completely retreat from Lebanon for any agreement to work.
“What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” Mr. Qassem said. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation.”
He added that Hezbollah demands that Israel allow for the return of displaced residents from Lebanon’s southern territories, the release of Lebanese prisoners and a plan for rebuilding destroyed buildings in the country.
Hezbollah’s rejection of the ceasefire’s terms could precede headwinds for the U.S. as it looks to broker a ceasefire agreement with Iran via Pakistani mediators.
Tehran has repeatedly insisted that any peace agreement with the U.S. must include a full ceasefire in Lebanon and withdrawal of Israeli forces there. Earlier this week, state-affiliated media sources in Iran said the negotiators stopped transmitting messages to mediators in retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon.
Mr. Trump on Thursday said the situations in Iran and Lebanon are somewhat “interconnected,” but he downplayed the idea that Hezbollah rejected the recent ceasefire deal.
“They didn’t reject me,” he said. “They said, ‘How about stopping [the bombardment]?’ I think you’re going to see things happening over there.”
“I would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re always like an underdog.”
Mr. Trump pointed to recent conversations he had with the Israeli side and Hezbollah leaders, and said that “progress has been made.”
Yet, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a statement Thursday, identified Israel’s operation in Lebanon as one of the primary obstacles to peace with the U.S.
“The enemy must immediately stop its attacks on the people of Lebanon and quickly withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories to internationally recognized borders,” the statement read.
The diplomatic setbacks come as President Trump experienced the most significant blow to the Iran war’s domestic standing on Wednesday, as a handful of Republicans joined Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives to successfully pass a war powers measure.
While the measure is largely symbolic, it could hurt the president’s leverage to negotiate a peace deal with Iran that says the regime cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Mr. Trump on Thursday lashed out at Democrats and Republicans for participating in what he called a “meaningless vote.”
“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing?” he wrote on Truth Social. “They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories.”
The Trump administration has been working for weeks with Pakistani mediators to reach what has been termed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that would create a ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin negotiations on Iran’s fledgling nuclear program.
“We’re going to win one way or another,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office. “We’re gonna win on paper, or we’re going to win militarily.”
Reopening the strait remains one of the administration’s main goals in negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told lawmakers this week that the U.S. would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports only once Tehran agrees to stop firing at ships trying to transit the waterway.
Iran has kept the strait effectively closed for more than three months in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks that began on Feb. 28. At least 20% of the world’s oil moves through the waterway each year, and its closure has driven up oil and gas prices worldwide.
The U.S. average cost of a gallon of gas sat at $4.24, down from $4.42 a week ago but up 42% since the war began, according to the AAA motor club.
Mr. Trump has urged Congress to suspend the federal gas tax to curb domestic prices. Lawmakers in both parties filed legislation to get it done, but historically Capitol Hill has been reluctant to suspend the tax because it would deplete funding for highways.
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel.
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