Trump Urges Israel And Iran To Stop Shooting As Israel Katz Links Beirut To Northern Attacks

Israel and Iran said they had halted attacks on each other after President Donald Trump urged them to immediately "stop 'shooting,'" but Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Katz hints at halting the targeting of Beirut's southern suburb and tying it to strikes on northern Israel”

Anadolu Ajansı

Iran said its strikes were retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut, and Israel said it struck a petrochemical plant in southwestern Iran used to produce ballistic missiles.

Anadolu Ajansı

In Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would strike Hezbollah's Dahiyeh stronghold in southern Beirut once more if there were attacks on northern Israel, while no deaths were reported by authorities on either side.

An Anadolu Ajansı report said Katz linked the fate of Beirut's southern suburb to attacks on northern Israel, warning: "Any attack on the northern towns will be met with an attack on the suburb."

The CBC account said the wave of attacks over the past 24 hours marked the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since an April ceasefire and threatened to wreck Washington's efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end the war.

Trump told reporters that negotiators were in the "final throes" of talks for a peace deal in the Middle East, and he said Iran and Israel were seeking an "immediate ceasefire" after the weekend flare-up began with Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon's capital of Beirut.

In an interview with Axios, Trump said he warned Netanyahu that if the Israeli leader went back to war with Iran, he might find himself fighting alone, quoting: "Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,".

CBC

Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter pushed back on reports that Trump pressured Netanyahu, telling Fox News program Special Report that "They have a deep friendship that goes back some 40 years" and accusing journalists of playing up a misleading narrative.

An Anadolu Ajansı report said Katz stressed that Israel "will continue to operate in Lebanon against Hezbollah" even after Israel agreed to halt attacks on Iran.

The CBC account quoted Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying its first wave of strikes on Israel was over, while also warning that if aggressions continued, "much more severe and crushing actions than before will follow."

The stakes in Lebanon remained tied to whether Israel would continue strikes on Hezbollah-linked areas, with the CBC reporting that Tehran said it would resume strikes if Israel continued to hit Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Anadolu Ajansı account said Katz warned that Israel would "also shell the suburb in Beirut's capital" if attacks on Israel's communities and civilians continued, while Channel 12 quoted an unnamed Israeli official saying the Israeli army would stop firing at Iran but not in southern Lebanon.

In parallel, El País described Dahiye as the Beirut suburb at the heart of the confrontation, saying residents expected Iran's attacks to halt the Israeli offensive while others left as bombings resumed.

El País reported that the Lebanese Ministry of Health recorded 3,637 deaths and 11,188 wounded, and it said the militia had killed 30 Israeli soldiers and two civilians.

The CBC framed the halt in attacks as a test of a fragile truce that threatened to widen into a broader regional confrontation, underscoring how easily the conflict could widen into a broader regional confrontation.