WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has declared that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to stop fighting, offering hope to huge numbers of people in Lebanon who have been fleeing an Israeli onslaught. The US leader’s statement on social media came as Iranian officials had asserted that ceasefire talks could collapse due to Israel’s plan to escalate its invasion of Lebanon and increase strikes. Trump said he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pull his troops back from Lebanon’s capital Beirut. He also spoke with Hezbollah representatives, who “agreed to stop shooting” at Israeli forces. Trump said on social media on Monday that during a call, Netanyahu had pledged to halt a threatened invasion that would take troops to Beirut’s southern suburbs, while Hezbollah had also agreed to halt hostilities. "There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back," Trump said on his Truth Social network after a "very productive" call with Netanyahu. "Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel," he added. The speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, told the Trump administration on Sunday that Hezbollah was ready for a full and immediate ceasefire with Israel and pledged to guarantee its implementation, Berri's top adviser Ali Hamdan told Axios. Trump’s phone call with Netanyahu became heated as the he pressed Israel to scale back its Lebanon offensive, according to sources. Trump at points used expletives to convey his disapproval of Israel’s plans, which threatened to upend negotiations with Iran. The office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said shortly afterwards that under the proposed arrangement “Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from carrying out attacks against Israel”. The ceasefire is intended to be expanded to cover all of Lebanon, it said, adding that it had received confirmation from Hezbollah that the armed group had agreed to the proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks. However, Lebanon’s state news agency reported late on Monday that Israeli airstrikes were continuing across southern Lebanon, despite Trump’s ceasefire announcement. Netanyahu's office said later that the Israeli prime minister had told Trump that strikes on Beirut would take place if Hezbollah continued to fire “at our cities and citizens”. The Lebanese embassy in Washington said Monday that Hezbollah had accepted a US proposal to stop attacking Israel in exchange for Israel halting attacks on south Beirut, shortly after the American president said he had a "very good call" with the Iran-backed group. Under the arrangement, which Hezbollah has accepted according to a statement shared by the Lebanese presidency, "Israeli strikes on Dahiyeh would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from launching attacks against Israel," referring to Beirut's southern suburbs, which Israel had threatened to strike on Monday. The reversals come a day before Lebanon and Israel are to begin a fourth round of US-hosted direct negotiations on Tuesday. Earlier on Monday, Tehran said a Lebanon ceasefire remained a key condition for any deal with Washington, as Iran's Revolutionary Guards threatened to open "new fronts" over Israel's offensive in Lebanon. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on more than 40 locations in the country's south on Monday, including one that damaged a hospital in the city of Tyre. An AFP correspondent saw heavy damage in the area and first responders putting out a blaze at the Jabal Amel hospital's car park which had been hit. The health ministry shared videos showing damage inside a hospital ward, with rubble and debris on the ground, blown-out ceilings, blood on the floor and shattered glass. The Israeli military announced Monday that two of its soldiers had been killed in separate incidents in southern Lebanon, bringing to 27 the number of Israeli military deaths since early March. Before Trump's statement, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP on condition of anonymity that the group had "not committed to stop attacking" northern Israel. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu had ordered the military to attack targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, Reuters reported. “Following repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist group Hezbollah and the attacks against our cities and citizens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to attack terrorist targets in the Dahiyeh district in Beirut,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. Katz said there would be “no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah attacks continued and vowed to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon’s Litani River. “The Dahiyeh in Beirut is no different from the communities in northern Israel — if there is no calm in the north, there will be no calm in Beirut,” Katz said in a statement released by his office, referring to the Beirut southern suburb and Hezbollah stronghold where he had earlier Monday ordered strikes. On Monday, the IDF warned residents of Dahiyeh and called on them to evacuate to preserve their safety, adding: “If the terrorist (group) Hezbollah continues launching rockets toward Israeli cities and towns, the IDF will respond by targeting objectives in the southern Dahiyeh (area).” Israeli troops and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire since a mid-April ceasefire, with Hezbollah resorting to the use of cheap, easy-to-assemble kamikaze drones that are hard for air defenses to thwart and that have killed several Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel to back its ally Iran. The incursion has so far killed more than 3,370 people, according to the Lebanese government. Israel says 24 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period. Countries across the world have slammed Israel’s escalation of its offensive on Lebanon.The European Union on Monday urged Israel to halt its military operation in Lebanon, after Israel seized the strategic Beaufort Castle and said it would resume strikes on southern Beirut, AFP reported. “We call on Israel to stop its military escalation in Lebanon and to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” EU spokesman Anouar El-Anouni said. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that "we are deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond," urging all sides "to respect the cessation of hostilities and avoid further escalation". French President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies” it. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called on Israel to halt its military activity in Lebanon, saying its escalation had “eroded space for diplomacy”. Qatar condemned Israel’s continuing attacks on Lebanon and the expansion of its ground offensive in the south, describing the campaign as a serious escalation and violation of international law. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty affirmed Cairo’s solidarity with Lebanon in a phone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. He also called for Israel’s withdrawal from all Lebanese territory.
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