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What we know about the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire

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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

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/17/what-we-know-about-the-israel-lebanon-ceasefire?traffic_source=rss

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US Jewish leader, Israel advocate Abe Foxman dies at 86

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Israeli officials hail Foxman, who led the ADL advocacy group for nearly three decades, as warm and passionate.

Prominent Jewish American leader and Israel defender Abraham “Abe” Foxman has died at age 86.

The Anti-Defamation League, the advocacy group he led for 28 years, confirmed his death on Sunday, calling him an “outspoken, passionate, and tireless advocate for the Jewish people and Israel“.

A Holocaust survivor, Foxman helped shape the conversation around Israel and anti-Semitism in the US for decades.

ADL Board Chair Nicole Munchnik said Foxman helped build the “modern liberal era of America”, describing him as a “longtime adviser” to US presidents and world leaders.

“To those of us who knew him, Abe was a warm friend, adviser, spirited antagonist and hugger – all over lunch,” Munchnik said.

Foxman joined the ADL in 1965 and served as the group’s national director from 1987 to 2015.

Under his leadership, the group – which presents itself as an anti-hate watchdog – became one of the most influential advocacy organisations in the country.

Palestinian rights advocates have long condemned the ADL, accusing it of demonising pro-Palestine activists and conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

Since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza, the ADL – under Foxman’s successor Jonathan Greenblatt – has intensified its campaign against Israel’s critics.

Greenblatt, who has supported laws to penalise boycotts of Israel, compared the Palestinian keffiyeh to the Nazi swastika last year.

Foxman also remained a staunch supporter of Israel and defended its conduct during the genocidal war on Gaza.

“What is happening in Gaza is tragic. But it is not Genocide. And it is not illegal,” he wrote on X in July 2025 as Israel imposed a hunger crisis on the territory.

“War is hell and inhumane, destructive and ugly. And nations must take all possible care to avoid civilian harm. And Israel has and is doing that. Having said this, Israel still needs to act with all deliberate speed and skill to provide maximum humanitarian aid to lessen the loss of innocent civilian lives.”

Weeks before his death, Foxman backed the US-Israel war on Iran, voicing gratitude to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attacking the country.

“Thank you President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu for standing up to evil and jihadist extremism. The world hopefully will be a better and safer place in the future,” he said in a social media post on February 28 after the war broke out.

In March, Foxman warned about what he described as the rise of anti-Semitism on the right and left of the political spectrum in the US, hitting out at liberal politicians publicly distancing themselves from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“If a politician doesn’t want to take money from AIPAC, don’t take money from AIPAC, but don’t make taking money from AIPAC a morality test – because that continues to build the conspiracy theory that there is a Jewish lobby that controls America,” he told the Jewish Standard.

AIPAC, which backs the war on Iran, has been spending millions of dollars on ad campaigns to defeat Israel’s critics in US elections.

Last year, Foxman sounded the alarm about the dwindling support for Israel in the US, underscoring the importance of the alliance between the two countries for Israel.

“We’re in a propaganda war, and to an extent, we’re losing the propaganda war, and I worry about losing America,” Foxman told Times of Israel.

“It’s scary, looking at the polls, the Sunday television shows, the major newspapers – there is so much out there that is anti-Israel.”

Despite his assertion, rights advocates often decry the absence of Palestinian perspectives on TV shows in the US media.

In 2021, Foxman announced that he was cancelling his New York Times subscription after the newspaper published a front page featuring the photos of dozens of Palestinian children killed by Israel in Gaza.

“Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough,” he said at that time.

Tributes in Israel and the US poured in for Foxman on Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of Foxman.

“A towering voice against antisemitism, Abe devoted his life to defending the Jewish people and strengthening the bond between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide,” Saar said on X.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also called Foxman a “legendary leader of the Jewish people”.

“He was a passionate Zionist, a humanist, and an outspoken, wise friend,” Herzog said.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/10/us-jewish-leader-israel-advocate-abe-foxman-dies-at-86?traffic_source=rss

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Israeli weapon fires tiny metal cubes into people in Lebanon, like Gaza

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Israeli weapon fires tiny metal cubes into people in Lebanon, like Gaza

The same tiny tungsten cubes that spray out of Israeli bombs, causing devastating internal injuries to people in Gaza are being found in wounded civilians in Lebanon, war surgeon Dr Tahir Mohammed says. He draws parallels between what Israel is doing in both places and describes the weapons as “indiscriminate”.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/5/10/israeli-weapon-fires-tiny-metal-cubes-into-people-in-lebanon-like-gaza?traffic_source=rss

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Trump to discuss Iran with Xi Jinping during China visit: Officials

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Official says US president will likely ‘apply pressure’ on China over Beijing’s purchase of Iranian oil amid war.

Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening to discuss the Iran war and other issues with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said an opening ceremony and meeting will be on Thursday morning, and the trip will conclude on Friday. The US plans to host the Chinese leader during a reciprocal visit later this year.

Kelly said that this week’s trip would be of “tremendous symbolic significance” and focus on “rebalancing the relationship with China and prioritising reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence”.

Trump’s visit, initially scheduled for earlier this year but postponed in March due to the US-Israel war on Iran, comes as the US president struggles to contain the fallout from the war, both at home and abroad.

A senior administration official told news outlets in an anonymous briefing on Sunday that Trump could “apply pressure” to China on Iran in areas such as oil sales and Tehran’s purchase of potential dual-role military-civilian goods.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week accused China of “funding” Iran.

“Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, and China has been buying 90 percent of their energy, so they are funding the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Bessent told Fox News.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to US-Israeli attacks, restricting passage through a key artery of global energy transport.

China has said that it wants to see the war end and hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arraghchi last week. At the same time, Beijing has refused to recognise Washington’s “unilateral” sanctions on Iran’s oil sector.

Disruptions stemming from the war have disrupted the global economy, with Asian states that depend on imports from the Middle East especially hard hit.

Trump could also bring up China’s support for Russia during the talks, along with trade and rare earth minerals, a vital resource for the US tech sector. Business executives from aerospace manufacturer Boeing and a handful of agricultural companies are set to travel with the US delegation.

The anonymous administration official said that no change was expected regarding the US stance on Taiwan, a main sticking point in relations between Washington and Beijing. China considers the self-ruling island a part of its territory, but the US has deep security and economic commitments to Taiwan.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/10/trump-to-discuss-iran-with-xi-jinping-during-china-visit-officials?traffic_source=rss

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