WASHINGTON — A 10-day cease-fire agreed to by Israel and Lebanon took effect at 5 p.m. ET Thursday, sparking celebratory gunshots and rocket-propelled grenade launches in the streets of Beirut.
Hours earlier, President Trump announced on Truth Social that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had settled on the pause “in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries.”
“On Tuesday, the two Countries met for the first time in 34 years here in Washington, D.C., with our Great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,” he added on Truth Social.
An Israeli airstrike in Nabatieh, Lebanon on April 16, 2026. Getty Images Sonogram images lying among the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli strike in Beirut seen on April 16, 2026. AP“I will be inviting the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, to the White House for the first meaningful talks between Israel and Lebanon since 1983, a very long time ago,” the president continued. “Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly!”
The cease-fire calls for Lebanon and Israel to engage “in good-faith direct negotiations, facilitated by the United States, with the objective of achieving a comprehensive agreement that ensures lasting security, stability, and peace between the two countries,” according to the State Department.
A Hezbollah official previously told NBC News Wednesday that “if Israel is fully committed to a complete cessation of hostilities … then this matter would be subject to consideration” by the terror group. Trump insisted to reporters Thursday that “they’re going to be having a ceasefire, and that will include Hezbollah.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the pact in a social media post, noting that the pause in fighting “is a central Lebanese demand we have pursued since the first day of the war.”
Netanyahu confirmed in a video statement that Israel had agreed to the cease-fire but isn’t withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon yet.
“We are remaining in Lebanon in an expanded security zone,” Netanyahu said, citing the “danger of an invasion.”
During trilateral cease-fire talks between Rubio, Lebanon’s ambassador to the US, and Israel’s ambassador to the US, Beruit acknowledged that Hezbollah is a mutual problem for both nations, a White House official said.
Hezbollah started firing on Israel right after the start of the Iran war Feb. 28. It kept up attacks focused on northern Israel communities ahead of the cease-fire taking effect, with at least eight people injured, including two seriously, according to Israel’s emergency services.
A funeral for Lebanese paramedic Mahdi Abu Zaid, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Nabatieh on April 16, 2026. REUTERSIsrael’s military also said late Thursday it was striking Hezbollah rocket launchers ahead of the midnight local time deadline.
The two sides have been engaged in on-again, off-again fighting for more than four decades.
Israel has dramatically degraded Hezbollah with a series of daring operations since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
Famously, Israeli intelligence killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and wounded thousands more in a 2024 attack in which it snuck explosives into pagers and walkie-talkies used by the terror group in Operation Grim Beeper.
That same year, Israel also took out Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had survived several prior assassination attempts and haunted the Jewish state for decades.
Concern about Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon grew after Trump announced a two-week cease-fire with Iran last week. Iran quickly complained about Israel’s ongoing attacks in Lebanon, which Trump stated was not part of the terms for the cease-fire.
Pakistan, which mediated talks between the US and Iran, claimed that halting the fighting in Lebanon was part of the cease-fire with Tehran, something Israel also disputed.
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