Netanyahu Says Israel Strikes on Beirut’s Southern Suburbs If Hezbollah Attacks Continue

Lebanon’s government said Hezbollah accepted a US plan for a reciprocal halt to attacks on Israel and for Israel not to attack Beirut, with the Lebanese embassy in the US saying it had "received confirmation of Hezbollah's acceptance of the US proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the agreement but warned that strikes on Beirut would go ahead "if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians".

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The statements came after US President Donald Trump said he had spoken to both Netanyahu and Hezbollah representatives and "they agreed that all shooting will stop", while Iran warned that Israeli military actions in Lebanon threatened the US-Iran ceasefire.

In a statement late on Monday, the Lebanese embassy said that under the proposed arrangement, "Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from attacks against Israel".

Netanyahu also said: "At the same time, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will continue to operate in southern Lebanon as planned," setting up a dispute over what restraint would cover.

Despite the ceasefire framework described by the BBC, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s Dahieh district, saying the move followed "repeated violations of the ceasefire".

In a post on X, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the US-Iran truce was "unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon," and said the US and Israel were responsible for the consequences of any violation.

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Trump said on Truth Social that Hezbollah agreed to stop all shooting after what he described as a "very good call" with senior representatives, and he added that "any troops that are on their way, have already been turned back".

The escalation also threatened diplomacy around the US-Iran talks, with Iran’s Tasnim news agency reporting that Tehran’s negotiating team was suspending indirect exchanges with the United States through mediators in protest of Israeli actions in Lebanon.

Netanyahu and Katz signaled further pressure by threatening strikes on Hezbollah’s "terrorist headquarters" in Beirut, while the IDF issued an Arabic-language warning urging residents of Dahieh to leave for their safety.

As fighting continued around the ceasefire talks, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 3,371 people and wounded 10,129 others by 30 May, while the New Arab described Israeli threats to expand attacks on Beirut’s southern suburb as fighting intensified across the south.

The New Arab reported that an Israeli strike on Deir al-Zahrani killed eight people, including three women, and wounded 19 others, among them five children, and it said the National News Agency later reported that six people were killed in Israeli strikes on Briqaa, Toul and Kfarsir.

In parallel, Reuters reported that Israel carried out intensive airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburb overnight and on Friday, and it said health ministry data indicated the death toll had risen above 200 amid ongoing fighting.

Reuters also quoted an Israeli military official saying several waves of airstrikes targeted Hezbollah in the southern suburb, striking about 115 sites, including residential buildings that the group uses as bases.

The stakes for diplomacy were explicit in French President Emmanuel Macron’s call that Lebanon must be "fully respected, including in Lebanon," after he said he had spoken with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, expressing "France's full solidarity" after Israeli strikes that caused "very many civilian victims" in Lebanon.