US President Donald Trump announced the 10-day ceasefire between the two countries.
Israel and Lebanon have announced a 10-day ceasefire to allow negotiations for a more permanent security and peace agreement to continue.
The truce was announced by United States President Donald Trump on Thursday and came into effect at 21:00 GMT.
The ceasefire follows six weeks of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Hezbollah. In its war on Lebanon, Israel has killed at least 2,196 people and displaced more than one million.
But on Friday morning, Lebanon’s army reported several ceasefire violations by Israeli forces.
Will the ceasefire last? What are its terms? Here’s what we know:
Announcing the ceasefire on Thursday, Trump called it a “historic day”.
In a post on Truth Social, he said, “May have been a historic day for Lebanon. Good things are happening.”
According to a statement released by the US State Department on Thursday, under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Israel will “preserve its right to take all necessary measures in self-defence”, while not carrying out “any offensive military operations”.
The statement suggested that Israel can also exercise this right “at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks”.
“This shall not be impeded by the cessation of hostilities,” it added.
Trump said that the 10-day truce includes Hezbollah.
“I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time. It will be an GREAT moment for them if they do,” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.
“No more killing. Must finally have PEACE!”
The direct negotiations to discuss a truce between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington on Tuesday did not include Hezbollah, however. The Lebanese armed group had opposed the ceasefire talks.
On Thursday, Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah politician, told Al Jazeera Arabic that the group will approach the newly announced ceasefire with “caution and vigilance” and any targeting of Lebanese sites by Israeli forces will constitute a breach of the truce.
“The next phase is thorny and fraught with pitfalls and challenges,” Fayyad said, adding that the “worst-case scenario” for Lebanon would be the resumption of civil strife.
Israel has demanded that the Lebanese government disarm Hezbollah, which refuses to give up its arms as long as Israeli forces remain on the ground in Lebanon and pose a threat to the country.
Late on Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government now has the opportunity to “make a historic deal” with Beirut.
He said that Israel had “agreed” to the temporary, 10-day ceasefire but its forces would remain in Lebanon with an “extensive” security zone up to the Syrian border.
He highlighted that Israel’s key demand remains the disarmament of Hezbollah and said that Israel would not agree to Hezbollah’s request that it withdraw troops beyond its border.
Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas dismissed the Israeli government’s framing of the deal, telling Al Jazeera: “Netanyahu says a lot of things. I wouldn’t take him at face value. He’s saying this because he was coerced into this by President Trump. This is not a ceasefire that he wanted.”
On Netanyahu’s suggestion that the truce could pave the way for a historic peace deal, Pinkas pointed to repeated failed efforts in the past.
“I think Netanyahu failed … he failed in his stated objective of disarming Hezbollah,” he said, adding: “I honestly cannot see any peace agreement being signed between Israel and Lebanon, with Hezbollah still armed.”
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, also slammed the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel announced by Trump.
“Not for the first time, all the promises of this [Netanyahu] government are crashing against the ground of reality. The confrontation in Lebanon can only end in one way: the permanent removal of the threat to the northern settlements,” Lapid said in a post on X.
“In this government, it will no longer happen; we will do it in the next government,” he added.
After the ceasefire was announced on Thursday, celebratory gunfire was heard in Beirut as the truce began.
But displaced people in downtown Beirut told Al Jazeera they didn’t trust the Israelis to uphold the ceasefire and would wait before returning to their homes – if they have homes to return to at all.
On Friday, the Lebanese military said there had already been a number of ceasefire violations, “with several Israeli attacks recorded, in addition to intermittent shelling targeting a number of villages”.
In a post on X, the Lebanese army also renewed its call for citizens to “exercise caution in returning to southern villages and towns” as the ceasefire takes effect in Lebanon.
The Lebanon 24 media outlet has reported that Israeli forces fired a machinegun and an artillery shell towards an ambulance team affiliated with the Islamic Health Authority in Kunin in the Nabatieh Governorate of Southern Lebanon. The news outlet said casualties have been reported.
Earlier, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued an “urgent message” to the residents of southern Lebanon , warning them to remain north of the Litani River despite the commencement of the ceasefire.
In a statement on X, Adraee said that while the ceasefire agreement has entered its implementation phase, Israeli forces are maintaining their current positions to counter what he described as “ongoing terrorist activities” by Hezbollah.
“Until further notice, you are requested not to move south of the Litani River,” he said.
In a statement carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency on Thursday, Hezbollah had also urged displaced people to remain cautious amid uncertainty over the truce.
“With the announcement of the ceasefire, and in the face of a treacherous enemy that is accustomed to breaking covenants and agreements, we call on you to be patient and not to head to the targeted areas in the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, until the course of events becomes fully clear,” it said.
Pinkas told Al Jazeera that despite a ceasefire, key details in the agreement remain unresolved, particularly in southern Lebanon.
“There is a Hezbollah kill zone in the south of Lebanon, and it’s not at all clear that the ceasefire will include that area. And once the ceasefire becomes partial, it ceases to be a ceasefire,” he said.
But people are eager to return to their homes in the south despite the ceasefire violations.
Reporting from Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said people returning don’t want to give up their land.
“There is a lot of anger. But at the same time, people here tell you that they have managed to remain steadfast,” she said.
On Thursday night, in the run-up to the ceasefire, Hezbollah said its fighters had launched 38 attacks on Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory and 37 attacks in northern Israel.
On Friday morning, however, sirens which sound before a missile strike remained silent across Israel.
But leaders of regional councils in northern Israeli regions, which include the worst-hit areas from the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, expressed unhappiness with the ceasefire.
Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council in the western Galilee of northern Israel, told local media in a statement that the ceasefire and the establishment of a security zone up to the Litani River “is not a diplomatic achievement” but risks further violence.
“The residents of the north are not mere statistics in a show of international public relations,” he added.
Shimon Guetta, head of the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council, also in northern Israel, rejected outside influence over Israel’s security policy, and demanded that any agreement must guarantee “complete disarmament of Hezbollah” and “absolute security” for northern communities, adding that “agreements on paper are meaningless” without clear enforcement.
Political commentator Abed Abou Sh
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