Lebanon: Israel won’t strike Beirut, ceasefire ‘to be expanded’ to rest of country

The Lebanese government says it has “received confirmation” of Hezbollah’s agreement to a new ceasefire with Israel.

“Under the proposed arrangement, Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs will cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from carrying out attacks against Israel, with the ceasefire framework to be expanded to encompass all Lebanese territories,” reads a statement from Beirut’s embassy in Washington.

The statement notably differentiates between Beirut’s southern suburbs — where Hezbollah has a major presence —and the rest of Lebanon, with only the former specified as an area where Israel has agreed not to strike.

As for the rest of Lebanon, the embassy statement merely says the ceasefire is “to be expanded” there, leaving the door open to the possibility that Israeli strikes in other parts of the country will continue.

This could replicate the dynamic of the previous ceasefires in Lebanon brokered by Washington, where the IDF has continued daily strikes on what it deems as Hezbollah threats in southern Lebanon, while largely refraining from targeting Beirut at the request of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Indeed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an earlier statement that “the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.”

This could, however, refer to the IDF buffer zone that Hezbollah officials have acknowledged will remain in place, at least for the time being, as part of the agreement.

For their part, Hezbollah officials have insisted that the ceasefire covers all of Lebanon and that they refused proposals that only required Israel to stop attacking Beirut.

The Lebanese embassy statement adds that Trump held a phone call earlier Monday with Beirut’s ambassador to Washington, Nada Hamadeh, in order to inform her that Netanyahu had accepted the ceasefire framework described in the statement.

Hamadeh then informed Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who in turn updated Hezbollah, the embassy says.

The diplomatic mission adds that Monday’s deal came together with the help of a call that took place last week between Aoun and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The embassy says another round of negotiations with Israel is set to take place tomorrow and Wednesday at the State Department in order to build off of the progress made today.

This will be the fifth round of talks between the sides, which began in April. During the third round last month, the sides agreed to separate the talks into political and security tracks, with the latter meeting for the first time last week. Tomorrow and Wednesday’s talks will be only for the political track.