Hezbollah

In the latest example of ongoing hostilities despite repeated ceasefires and agreements, Israel launched a drone strike in Lebanon's south on Saturday

Secretary of State Marco Rubio along with Israel and Lebanon's ambassadors announced a framework agreement Friday that was described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The officials did not share details on the agreement that was signed by Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Nada Hamadeh, ambassador of Lebanon to the United States.

The Israeli officials said the Lebanese troops involved would undergo US training and vetting to ensure they are not linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah

Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed again, citing Israeli attacks in Lebanon and US "bad faith" and "its clear breach of its commitments" by failing to end the war. The statement on state television also warned that "if the aggression continues, subsequent steps have been planned." Ships had begun transiting the strait after the interim US-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week. Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 16 people, including two children, hours after reports emerged of a ceasefire agreement. The persistent fighting threatened an interim agreement between the US and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.

Iran postponed negotiations that were meant to begin in Switzerland on Friday because of the ongoing fighting

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire on Friday following an escalation in hostilities in Lebanon

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire after renewed fighting threatened wider US-Iran efforts to secure a lasting West Asia peace deal

Trump said he had been in contact with Israel earlier in the day and encouraged its leadership to support the ceasefire effort

Israel's military said Friday its forces struck targets throughout southern Lebanon overnight as Hezbollah reported intense fighting in the area. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported at least 16 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes. The attacks came as planned talks in Switzerland between Iran and the United States over their efforts to reach a permanent end to the Iran war were delayed. Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon and its continued attacks on the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah has been a key issue in the talks. Israel maintains it must continue to hold the territory and have a free hand to battle Hezbollah as it has been launching attacks into northern Israel. The talks being postponed trip comes after Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied with Hezbollah, reported that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over ongoing Israel's military campaign in Lebanon.

'The struggle has not ended,' a defiant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis

The remarks came after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) carried out what it described as a "precise strike" on a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut's Dahieh area on Sunday

The Israeli military said it launched strikes on Beirut on Sunday targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, despite ongoing efforts to negotiate an end to the US-Iran war. Smoke could be seen rising over the Lebanese capital. The strikes threatened to hamper negotiations over a deal, which in its current form is a deep disappointment to Israel's government. The last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, it set off the most serious escalation of fighting between Iran and Israel since the tenuous ceasefire took hold April 7. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on the north of the country. Israel's military said earlier in the day that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles into northern Israel, releasing footage where an audible boom was followed by a column of smoke rising above the tree line. An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Beirut said the building struck was a five-story apartment .

Israel's strike on Beirut's outskirts and Iran's retaliation threat have raised fresh doubts over efforts to secure a broader US-Iran peace agreement

Tehran links any US-brokered peace deal to a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, complicating regional truce efforts

Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and the Lebanese government, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal. The announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four people, according to local authorities, and a UN peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire. Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, said the agreement's demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean "surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals." "What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel's withdrawal," he said. "We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation," he added. The ongoing fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas whose closure has jolted the world economy. Iran has demanded tha

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of "pilot" security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militants would be banned. In a joint statement released after a fourth round of US-mediated talks at the State Department, the two sides said the ceasefire "is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives" from areas south of the Litani River. It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas. "These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement," the statement said. "All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon's future hostage." The latter is a reference to Iran, which supports

Perched above the Litani gorge, the 12th-century fortress played a key role during the Crusades and has remained strategically important through successive conflicts in southern Lebanon

According to a US official cited by Axios, Trump expressed immense frustration over what he perceived as a disproportionate military response to Hezbollah's strikes on Israel

Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no injuries were reported

The precise parameters of the tentative truce publicised by Trump continue to be shrouded in ambiguity, driven by contrasting signals emerging from Washington, Jerusalem, Hezbollah, and Beirut