Netanyahu says Israel has ‘historic’ opportunity for peace with Lebanon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has a “historic” opportunity to reach a peace agreement with Lebanon, as a 10-day ceasefire is set to take effect tonight at midnight.

“We have an opportunity to reach a historic peace agreement with Lebanon,” Netanyahu says in a prerecorded video statement, noting that US President Donald Trump intends to invite him and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House to advance talks.

He says the opening comes after Israel “changed the balance of power in Lebanon,” pointing to past operations such as the 2024 pager attack that targeted hundreds of Hezbollah operatives, the erosion of the group’s rocket and missile arsenal, and the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

He adds that Israel had received calls from Lebanon in the past month for direct talks “for the first time in over 40 years.”

“I answered that call,” Netanyahu says.

He says Israel agreed to a “temporary 10-day ceasefire” to try to move negotiations forward, but stressed that core demands remain unchanged: “The disarmament of Hezbollah” and “a sustainable peace – peace through strength.”

He says he rejected Hezbollah’s conditions for a ceasefire — “that Israel withdraw from all Lebanese territory up to the international border” and “a ceasefire in the format of ‘quiet for quiet'” — but that the group agreed to a truce anyway. He emphasizes that Israeli forces will remain in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening:

"We have an opportunity to forge a historic peace agreement with Lebanon. President @realDonaldTrump intends to invite me and the President of Lebanon in order to try to advance this agreement.

1/13 pic.twitter.com/lYMjAzm2Je

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 16, 2026

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“We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone… 10 kilometers wide much stronger, more powerful, more continuous, and more solid than what we had before,” he says, adding the deployment is meant to “block the threat of infiltration” and prevent anti-tank fire on northern communities.

Netanyahu acknowledges Hezbollah retains some capabilities, saying “there are still rockets that they have left. We will also need to address that as part of progress toward a security agreement and a lasting peace agreement.”

He also says that after speaking with Trump over the past two days, the American president is “strongly determined to continue both the naval blockade [on Iran] and efforts to dismantle what remains of Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” adding that joint steps could “remove this threat once and for all” and “fundamentally change our security and diplomatic situation for years to come.”