Live updates: Trump announces 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon; US-Iran diplomacy continues

Trump declares 10-day Lebanon ceasefire after late-night phone call with Netanyahu

President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that Israel and Lebanon will observe a 10-day ceasefire starting Friday, following what he called “intensive” discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The agreement halts nearly three weeks of Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon that have killed at least 137 people and displaced thousands.

Netanyahu signed off on the deal during a 90-minute call with the US president, Trump told reporters at the White House. The Israeli leader had arrived in Washington earlier this week seeking continued American support for the widening air campaign against Hezbollah targets.

“He’s ready for peace. Ten days, and we’ll see where it goes,” Trump said, standing alone at a hastily arranged podium in the Rose Garden after midnight.

The ceasefire pauses Israel’s largest cross-border operation since its 2006 war with Hezbollah. Israeli jets have flown more than 480 sorties since March 26, striking what the army calls “Hezbollah infrastructure” in 83 locations south of the Litani River. The Iranian-backed militia responded with daily rocket salvos that killed 7 civilians in northern Israel and wounded 112, according to Israeli paramedic service Magen David Adom.

Tehran cautiously welcomed the pause. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that Iran “supports any initiative that ends bloodshed and paves the way for diplomatic talks.” Earlier in the day Araghchi met Deputy US Secretary of State Lisa Dennon in Muscat, marking the highest-level bilateral contact between the two countries since Trump returned to office.

A State Department official traveling with Dennon said the pair discussed “a framework” for indirect nuclear negotiations. The official, who insisted on anonymity under ground rules set by the department, said no date has been set for a return to the Vienna format but that “exploratory” exchanges would continue through Omani mediators.

Markets reacted immediately. Brent crude dropped $3.42 to $71.80 a barrel on the London ICE exchange in early electronic trade, while the Israeli shekel strengthened 1.4 percent against the dollar to its highest level in two weeks. Energy analysts at Goldman Sachs noted that the ceasefire “removes the immediate risk” to transit through the nearby Suez Canal, through which 12 percent of global seaborne oil passes daily.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati praised the agreement but demanded Israel compensate families whose homes were bombed. “We will count every damaged rooftop and will pursue reparations through all legal avenues,” Mikati said in a televised address at 2:15 a.m. local time. More than 2,300 residential units have been partially or fully destroyed since late March, according to preliminary estimates by Lebanon’s Council for Development and Reconstruction.

Hezbollah remained silent. The group’s media office did not answer repeated calls, and its Al-Manar television channel carried Trump’s announcement without commentary. A Lebanese political source close to the movement said Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was expected to speak Friday afternoon “to outline the resistance’s position.” The source spoke on condition he not be named because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Israel’s security cabinet convened in Washington at Blair House and voted 7-3 to accept the pause, according to a participant who requested anonymity. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir opposed the deal, arguing on X that “stopping now equals surrender to Iran’s terror axis.” His Jewish Power party released a statement calling the ceasefire “a stain that will encourage further aggression.”

Pentagon officials said the Israel Defense Forces will halt offensive operations at 06:00 local time and maintain defensive positions along the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, confirmed that “aerial reconnaissance will continue but attack sorties will cease.” Two Iron Dome batteries that had been rushed to Haifa will remain in place “as insurance,” Hagari added.

United Nations peacekeepers reported relative quiet at dawn. “So far so good — no outgoing, no incoming,” a Philippine officer with UNIFIL told GlobalBeat by phone from the border enclave of Marjayoun. The UN mission said it had repositioned 60 armored vehicles to observe both sides of the frontier. Secretary-General António Guterres urged “maximum restraint” and announced he will dispatch a technical team to Beirut next week to discuss long-term arrangements.

The ceasefire ends but does not resolve a crisis that began with an Iranian drone strike on an Israeli intelligence facility in the Golan Heights on March 22. Israel retaliated with an April 1 missile attack that killed Iranian general Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus. Tehran vowed revenge, and Hezbollah accelerated rocket fire, prompting Israeli escalation.

More than 41,000 people have fled southern Lebanon since the bombing intensified, according to the International Organization for Migration. Most sought shelter in cramped schools and mosques in Sidon and Tyre. Aid agencies warn of dwindling medical supplies; Tyre’s Government Hospital said it had only 3 days of blood bags left.

Background

Lebanon and Israel technically remain at war since 1948, with no diplomatic relations and a litany of cross-border clashes. The 2006 war killed 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 165 Israelis, mostly soldiers, after Hezbollah captured two Israeli troops. A UN-brokered tracement installed UNIFIL peacekeepers and called for Hezbollah’s disarmament south of the Litani River, but the group has expanded its arsenal to an estimated 150,000 rockets, according to Israeli intelligence.

Successive US administrations have tried to contain the flashpoint. President Joe Biden mediated a maritime border deal in 2022 that opened offshore gas fields for both countries, yet that agreement excluded broader security issues. Trump’s first-term “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran deepened Tehran’s reliance on proxies such as Hezbollah, funding that Washington estimates exceeds $700 million annually.

What’s Next

All parties now face an April 29 deadline when the ceasefire is set to expire. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff plans to shuttle between Jerusalem and Beirut next week to press for an extension tied to limits on Hezbollah’s missile activity. Iranian officials have signaled willingness to discuss the issue inside wider nuclear talks, but insist any curbs must be reciprocal with an end to Israeli overflights of Lebanese airspace.

Whether the pause becomes a durable calm will hinge on those negotiations and on Hezbollah’s calculation that it can claim a deterrent victory without inviting deeper Israeli strikes. Trump, eager for a foreign-policy win ahead of the 2026 midterms, told donors Thursday night that “if we can pull this off, we’ll have peace for a decade.” For now, residents on both sides of the border are watching the sky, counting the days until April 29 arrives.