BEIRUT — A tentative 10-day ceasefire was greeted with celebratory gunfire after the clocks hit midnight in Lebanon, as the U.S.-brokered deal that promised to halt Israeli strikes in the country went into force.
The ceasefire was announced early Thursday by President Donald Trump and confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a later video, Netanyahu said that Israel had an “opportunity to forge a historic peace agreement with Lebanon” but that Israeli forces would remain inside Lebanese territory in a “reinforced security buffer zone.”
The agreement was not negotiated by Hezbollah, the group that Israel had been targeting and which gave ambiguous statements about whether they would recognize it. “A ceasefire must include a comprehensive halt to attacks across all Lebanese territory, with no freedom of movement for Israeli forces, and a return to the situation prior to March 2,” when the current round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began, the group said in a statement.
There was a flurry of strikes ahead of the start of the ceasefire. The Israeli military said there were at least 40 strikes from Lebanon after Trump announced the pause, and Lebanese state media reported “heavy airstrikes” in several regions.
The announcement came amid a wider push in the region to end the war in Iran, as U.S. and Iranian negotiators continue to exchange messages, without yet agreeing to a second round of talks.
The Trump administration ramped up pressure in recent days on Israel and Lebanon to agree to a truce, after continued violence there threatened to upend the administration’s ceasefire with Iran. Hezbollah is closely allied with Iran and restarted attacks on Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This prompted large-scale Israeli attacks across the country.
Israel insisted that Lebanon and Hezbollah were not covered by the ceasefire announced earlier this month — which Iran and Pakistan, which mediated the ceasefire, disputed.
Lebanon and Israel have “agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10 Day CEASEFIRE,” Trump said in his post giving word of Thursday’s agreement. Speaking to reporters later, he said the ceasefire would include Hezbollah and spoke optimistically of a separate deal with Iran. He said Thursday that Iran had agreed to hand over “nuclear dust,” in what would be a major step in the U.S. effort to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capabilities. Iran has not confirmed such a concession.
Trump said that Israel and Lebanon would meet within a week or two, “probably” at the White House, and that he would go to Lebanon “at the right time.”
The State Department said that the Lebanon ceasefire would start at 5 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday and initially last 10 days but could be extended if both countries agreed to continue “good-faith negotiations toward a permanent security and peace agreement.”
The ceasefire was a “gesture of goodwill” by Israel, the State Department said, which would retain the “right to take all necessary measures in self-defense.” The Lebanese government would be expected to take steps to stop Hezbollah and other groups from launching strikes toward Israel.
The ceasefire came after a flurry of U.S. diplomatic activity, which began with Secretary of State Marco Rubio holding a meeting with the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington on Tuesday.
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the sequence of events, said Trump had called Netanyahu on Wednesday. This was followed by an overnight call from Rubio to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.
Trump called Aoun on Thursday, in which he expressed “his commitment to fulfilling the Lebanese request for a ceasefire as soon as possible,” according to a statement from Aoun’s office.
The lack of involvement of Hezbollah in the ceasefire worried some in the region. “There is no war between Israel and Lebanon! There is a war between Israel and Hezbollah!” Natan Eshel, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, wrote in a WhatsApp message. He argued that the group would use a pause in fighting to reorganize and rearm.
The Lebanese government “doesn’t look good in front of its opponents because Israel still has physical presence on the ground,” said a former regional security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks. “It leaves them in a very weak position.”
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting on and off since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. A heavy Israeli air campaign has destroyed many villages in southern Lebanon and heavily damaged Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israeli ground forces have pushed into Lebanon, taking control of a stretch of territory roughly 18 miles wide along the border.
Israel and Hezbollah initially agreed to a ceasefire in November 2024, and the truce prevented an immediate return to all-out war. But Israel continued to launch strikes on Lebanese territory in the interim. War resumed in early March after Hezbollah attacked Israel in the wake of Khamenei’s killing in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Since then, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says, more than 2,100 people have been killed. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it said 172 children are among the dead.
The Lebanese army and Hezbollah both issued statements after the announcement of the ceasefire, warning citizens against returning to their homes because of the potential for a resumption of fighting and the risk of unexploded ordnances.
The United Nations has estimated that more than a million people have been displaced in Lebanon during this round of conflict. Haneen Sayed, Lebanon’s minister for social affairs, visited Washington this week to push for the United States and other donors to provide more humanitarian assistance to the country.
“For this current number of 1 million people [displaced], we need $88 million a month,” Sayed said in an interview before the ceasefire was announced, noting that people would probably remain displaced even after the fighting stopped. The current U.S. pledge for new humanitarian funding, $60 million, was “not enough,” Sayed added.
George reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Taylor from Washington. Dan Lamothe in Washington, Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Mohamad El Chamaa in Beirut and Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report.
correctionA headline with a previous version of this article incorrectly said that President Donald Trump said leaders of Israel and Lebanon would meet. Trump said they would speak. The article also previously misstated the first name of a member of Israel’s security cabinet. She is Gila Gamliel.
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