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Signs of a possible ceasefire in Lebanon emerged again on Thursday after the US President Donald Trump said Lebanese and Israeli leaders would speak, even as Israel continued pounding villages and attacking civilian infrastructure.
A phone call between Mr Trump and the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also signalled renewed momentum for a truce, with Mr Aoun thanking the US for its efforts to halt the war and urging that a deal be struck as soon as possible.
Efforts to push for a ceasefire have been running in parallel with Pakistani mediation aimed at securing a new round of talks between the US and Iran, which has said that ending the war against Lebanon and its ally Hezbollah is essential for such diplomacy to succeed.
While Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir met Iran’s parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Tehran, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was in Qatar as part of a Gulf tour made with the intention of discussing the current ceasefire and the future of the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli media reported a ceasefire was set to begin on Thursday night. The National reached out to several Lebanese officials, all of whom declined to confirm if a ceasefire was imminent. “No one has spoken with anyone in the government,” a political source said, adding that either the President, the Prime Minister or the parliament Speaker would announce the ceasefire if it was confirmed.
Talk of a truce has intensified over the last 24 hours. The US President Donald Trump said that Israeli and Lebanese leaders would speak on Thursday, but the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has reportedly refused to speak with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu until a ceasefire takes effect. An official source said that Lebanon is “not aware” of any imminent contact with Israel.
The call would be the highest-level contact between the two enemy states in decades, after years of direct and indirect talks through mediators and ceasefire mechanisms.
“Trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social without specifying who will be involved or offering further details.
US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon took place in Washington on Tuesday. The meeting was a rare instance of direct engagement between diplomats from the two countries outside a formal ceasefire mechanism process.
The meeting was held at the US State Department. It was attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lebanese ambassador to the US Nada Moawad and Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter.
The State Department said the US had expressed hope that talks could exceed the scope of the 2024 ceasefire agreement, and that negotiations could “unlock significant reconstruction assistance and economic recovery for Lebanon and expand investment opportunities for both countries”.
On Thursday, President Aoun said a ceasefire would be the key to starting negotiations with Israel. He stressed that Lebanon is keen to halt escalation in the south and across all Lebanese regions.
“Negotiations will be conducted solely by Lebanese authorities, as this is a sovereign matter in which no other party can be involved,” Mr Aoun told Britain's Middle East minister Hamish Falconer.
Mr Aoun added that the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory is a “fundamental step to solidify the ceasefire and enable the Lebanese Armed Forces to redeploy along the international border, fully extending state authority and ending all armed presence”.
In a post on X, he later said that he has spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and affirmed during the phone call that he will continue efforts to "achieve a ceasefire in Lebanon as a prelude to establishing peace, security and stability in the country".
Lebanon, which is experiencing heavy fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and relentless Israeli strikes, had expected to be included in the current ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran. But both Israel and the US have said it is not.
Israel's cabinet met on Wednesday to discuss a possible ceasefire, Reuters reported, quoting a senior Israeli official, more than six weeks into its war with Hezbollah. There was no decision following the meeting.
Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire after fighting a devastating war for more than a year, following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Fighting resumed on March 2 this year after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel. The group said it was avenging the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Israel-US strikes, and responding to more than a year of ceasefire breaches, with near-daily Israeli violations recorded.
Israel retaliated with force that was described as “disproportionate” by EU and western officials, and civilians in Lebanon paid the heaviest toll. At least 2,167 people, including 172 children, have been killed since then, according to Lebanese authorities, as Israel hit civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
More than 300 people were killed in 10 minutes when Israel launched more than 100 strikes across the country last week, in what Mr Aoun described as a “massacre”. The mass attack coincided with the first day of a US-Iran ceasefire.
On Thursday, an Israeli strike destroyed the last bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, Lebanese state media said. “The enemy warplanes launched two successive raids targeting the Qasmiya Bridge, the remaining crossing that connects the Tyre area to the city of Sidon, which led to its complete destruction,” the National News Agency reported.
It came amid heavy strikes across southern Lebanese villages.
Israeli forces also struck the only operational hospital in southern Lebanon, as Lebanese authorities accuse Israel of targeting the country's healthcare sector. Staff at the Tibnin Governmental Hospital were wounded in the attack on Wednesday night, which caused significant damage to the emergency department, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Lebanon said.
