From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Hezbollah confirms rejection of truce, but Lebanon says forces readying to take ‘pilot zones’ anyway
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A Hezbollah official tells AFP that the group has informed Lebanese authorities that it rejects a ceasefire announced after Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington a day earlier.
The official says on condition of anonymity that the position was passed on “to parliament speaker Nabih Berri,” a Hezbollah ally acting as an intermediary who “shares this position.”
Though the truce was to be contingent on Hezbollah’s agreement, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam says that the army will begin deploying in “pilot zones” free of both Israeli forces and Hezbollah in the country’s south.
“The next step is practical and tangible: the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase,” Salam said, according to remarks read out by Information Minister Paul Morcos after a cabinet meeting, adding that “this does not prejudice our right to a full (Israeli) withdrawal, but brings us closer to it.”
According to a joint statement released after the Washington talks, Israel and Lebanon agreed to create “pilot zones” in south Lebanon where the Lebanese army forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors.”
The Times of Israel Community.