Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire again Thursday, just one day after a new ceasefire agreement was announced with the Lebanese government, further complicating diplomatic efforts to end the regional conflict.
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. Despite the renewed ceasefire agreement, military officials said attacks on Hezbollah in the region would continue.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said more than 3,000 people had been killed since the start of Israel’s offensive in southern Lebanon and that more than 1 million had been displaced.
Hezbollah launched several rockets near Kiryat Shmona in northern 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 reported no casualties.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March, when Hezbollah fighters first launched rockets and drones into Israeli territory in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced a revamped diplomatic agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Under the agreement, the Lebanese army would begin establishing 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.
Hezbollah has shown little willingness to uphold the ceasefire. Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem publicly rejected the peace terms. In a statement Thursday, he insisted 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. Kassem said. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation.”
He said 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 Lebanon ceasefire’s terms could create headwinds for the U.S. as it seeks to broker a broader peace agreement with Iran through 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 Iranian negotiators stopped transmitting messages to Pakistani mediators in retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of southern Lebanon.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that the situations in Iran and Lebanon are somewhat “interconnected,” but he downplayed the idea that Hezbollah rejected the 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.”
“It would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re always like an underdog.”
Mr. Trump pointed to his recent conversations with Israeli and Lebanese officials and said “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 came after the most significant blow yet to domestic support for the conflict. On Wednesday, four Republicans joined Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives to pass a war powers resolution.
Although the measure is largely symbolic, it could hurt the president’s leverage to negotiate a peace deal with Iran that would bar the regime from possessing nuclear weapons.
Mr. Trump lashed out at Democrats and Republicans on Thursday for participating in what he called a “meaningless vote.”
“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing?” he posted 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 nuclear program.
“We’re going to win one way or another,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to win on paper, or we’re going to win militarily.”
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains one of the administration’s main goals in negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers this week that the U.S. would lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports only after Tehran agreed 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 Feb. 28. About 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade and 20% of its liquefied natural gas moved through the waterway before the war.
The closure has driven up energy prices worldwide. The U.S. average cost of a gallon of gas stood at $4.24, down from $4.42 a week ago but up 42% since the war began, according to AAA.
Mr. Trump has urged Congress to suspend the federal gas tax to curb domestic prices. Lawmakers in both parties filed legislation to suspend the tax, but historically, Capitol Hill has been reluctant to do so because it would deplete highway funding.
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel.
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