Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has expressed support for the United States’ decision to suspend strikes on Iran, but said the two-week truce will not extend to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Lebanon.
In a statement on X on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel backed US President Donald Trump’s efforts to ensure “Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbors and the world”.
But the two-week ceasefire “does not include Lebanon”, he said.
Netanyahu’s statement came after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the US, Iran and their allies “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere”.
Sharif said the move was “effective immediately”.
Lebanon’s National News Agency, meanwhile, said the Israeli military continued to carry out attacks on southern parts of the country. Israeli forces bombed the southern town of Srifa in Tyre region, and also issued an evacuation warning for a building near the town.
The Lebanese army on Wednesday warned people against returning to the country’s south.
“In light of regional developments and reports circulating about a ceasefire, [the army] urges citizens to wait before returning to southern villages and towns and to avoid approaching areas where Israeli occupation forces have advanced… since they may be exposing themselves to the ongoing Israeli attacks,” the army said in a statement.
Lebanon was drawn into the US and Israel’s war on Iran on March 2 after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah said the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, on February 28, as well as Israel’s near-daily violations of a ceasefire it agreed to in Lebanon in November 2024.
That truce was agreed after more than a year of cross-border fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters following Israel’s launch of its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 1,500 people since March 2 and displaced more than 1.2 million. The Israeli military has also launched an invasion of southern Lebanon and said it aims to seize more territory for what it calls a buffer zone.
There has been no immediate comment from Hezbollah or the Lebanese government on Netanyahu’s announcement.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, said Hezbollah’s entry into the US-Israel war on Iran expanded the conflict and bogged Israel down on multiple fronts.
“Hezbollah’s calculation is that it has more political leverage when it joins Iran in possible negotiations, because Hezbollah has been criticising the Lebanese government for failing to get Israel to agree to the terms of the last ceasefire back in 2024,” she said.
In addition to the near-daily attacks, Israel had refused to withdraw from southern Lebanon or release detainees or allow displaced people to return to their homes, Khodr noted.
The question now, she said, is whether the Israel-Hezbollah front will be discussed in the upcoming negotiations between Iran and the US.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam “himself says he believes that Iran has been running the military campaign that Hezbollah has launched in southern Lebanon and that’s why the negotiations over the next two weeks will be critical and crucial for Lebanon,” Khodr said.
“Because at the end of the day, Israel wants security guarantees. And that is something the Lebanese government, the Lebanese state cannot give,” she added.
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