Netanyahu Says Israel Will Continue Lebanon Operations Despite Trump’s Stop-All-Shooting Claim

Donald Trump said Hezbollah and Israel agreed to “all shooting will stop,” after he posted that he spoke with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah, while a statement by Lebanon’s presidency said Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs if Hezbollah did not launch attacks against Israel.

The Guardian reported that European fashion retailers faced fresh questions over supply chain oversight after a fire at a factory that supplied them killed at least 33 garment workers in Bangladesh, a separate story not connected to Lebanon’s conflict.

Al Jazeera

Despite Trump’s statement, both Israeli officials and Hezbollah cast doubt on the durability of the agreement, and the Guardian said both sides continued attacking each other in south Lebanon after Trump’s statement.

The Guardian said Israel carried out airstrikes outside Nabatieh, while Hezbollah said it struck a group of Israeli soldiers outside Beaufort Castle.

The Guardian also said Trump’s statement came just hours after Netanyahu instructed the Israeli military to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut, sparking a mass exodus by the area’s residents.

France’s ambassador to the UN, Jerome Bonnafont, warned the UN Security Council that Israel’s expanding military operations in Lebanon risked becoming a “major strategic mistake,” as he urged all parties to recommit to the fragile ceasefire agreement.

Bonnafont told council members that “Nothing can justify the continuation and scale of its military operations in Lebanon, the thousands of civilian deaths and injuries, and the forced displacement of populations,” while he reiterated that “It is Hezbollah, supported by Iran, that bears responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities.”

Al-Jazeera Net

The Arab News PK reported that the conflict escalated significantly on Sunday when Netanyahu ordered the military to “deepen and expand” operations in southern Lebanon, and Israeli forces advanced north of the Litani River to capture Beaufort Castle.

The Arab News PK said Hezbollah launched rocket, missile and drone attacks against Israel, including strikes deeper into Israeli territory, and reiterated that it would not give up its weapons despite pressure from the Lebanese government.

The Arab News PK also said UN Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee told the Security Council that the conflict had undergone a “dangerous and alarming escalation.”

The BBC said Netanyahu called the capture of the Shuqayf Fortress a “decisive turning point” in the assault on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and Netanyahu said, “Today we returned to the Shuqayf Fortress in a different way; we returned unified, determined, and stronger than ever.”

The BBC reported that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, announced it was targeting Israeli army sites and infrastructure in Shlomi and Nahariya in northern Israel, as sirens sounded in the Acre region.

In parallel, the BBC said Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz linked the moment to the day of remembrance for the soldiers who fell in the First Lebanon War (1982), adding that the soldiers returned to the summit of the Shuqayf Fortress and raised the Israeli flag over it again.

The Arab News PK said Bonnafont warned that Israel’s actions threatened regional stability and undermined efforts to secure a lasting peace between Lebanon and Israel, while he said the April 17 ceasefire agreement remains the only viable framework for achieving a durable peace.

The Arab News PK added that France demanded Hezbollah immediately halts its attacks and surrenders its weapons to the Lebanese state, and it rejected any establishment of buffer zones between Israel and Lebanon, restrictions on the return of displaced residents to their homes, or acts of destruction affecting civilian infrastructure or cultural heritage sites including the ancient city of Tyre.