Israel continued its military offensive in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, hours after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted fighting between the United States and Iran — with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting the truce does not extend to Israel’s ongoing campaign against Hezbollah.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on X that Israel backed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend strikes on Iran, but that the two-week ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.”
The announcement came in direct contradiction to a statement made by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had acted as a mediator in the conflict. Sharif wrote on X that the U.S., Iran, and their allies “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” A Lebanese official, however, told AFP that authorities “have not been informed” of Lebanon being included in the agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron, welcoming the broader ceasefire, said “our wish is to ensure that the ceasefire fully includes Lebanon.”
Strikes continued in the south as the diplomatic confusion unfolded. The Lebanese Health Ministry and Hezbollah-affiliated media reported that Israeli strikes killed at least ten people in Lebanon early Wednesday morning. Eight people were killed and 28 wounded in an Israeli strike on a café in Sidon, while two more were killed in a separate strike in the Ras el-Ayn area.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, issued evacuation warnings to residents of southern Lebanon staying south of the Zahrani River, stating that Israeli operations were continuing and that “the ceasefire does not apply to Lebanon.”
Lebanon’s Crisis Management Unit urged displaced residents not to attempt to return south. An AFP correspondent in southern Lebanon observed small numbers of people heading toward the south regardless, some in cars and others carrying their children on motorcycles.
The current hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah date to March 2, 2026, when Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, effectively breaking down a ceasefire that had been in place since November 2024.
The Israeli army launched full ground operations in southern Lebanon on March 16, 2026. During the initial weeks, Hezbollah fired drones and as many as 1,800 rockets into Israel, while Israel conducted hundreds of airstrikes across southern Lebanon, Beirut, and the Beqaa Valley.
According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,500 people since March 2 and displaced more than 1.2 million.
Iran had demanded, as part of its initial negotiating proposal, that Israel halt its strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, a condition that fueled speculation that the group would be included in any ceasefire arrangement. Reports from Lebanon’s MTV news channel, citing undisclosed Lebanese sources, had also suggested that Hezbollah’s inclusion in the deal was likely.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Hezbollah’s entry into the broader conflict had expanded the war and created new political calculations. “Hezbollah’s calculation is that it has more political leverage when it joins Iran in possible negotiations,” she noted, adding that the group had criticized the Lebanese government for failing to secure Israeli compliance with the 2024 ceasefire terms.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said he believes Iran has been directing Hezbollah’s military campaign, making the upcoming two weeks of U.S.-Iran negotiations critical for Lebanon’s future.
Israel’s Home Front Command announced it would not yet ease domestic security guidelines, noting that conditions on the Lebanon front were still being assessed before any recommendations would be put to political leadership.
Whether Lebanon will ultimately be drawn into the ceasefire framework remains the central diplomatic question. For now, Israeli forces show no sign of standing down.