A ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has come into effect on Friday, April 17 after being announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, with the Lebanese army also reporting violations by Israel in the southern part of the country.
The ceasefire began at midnight local time in both countries, following a month and a half of conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Gunfire celebrations were heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement.
Footage from AFPTV showed people returning to the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, particularly targeted in recent weeks, with some waving the yellow flag of Hezbollah or carrying portraits of its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel in 2024.
Number of Violations
However, a few hours later, the Lebanese army referred to “a number of violations of the agreement, several Israeli aggression acts having been recorded, not to mention the sporadic bombardments that hit several villages.” They urged those displaced by the fighting to refrain from immediately returning to southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army warned that it was maintaining its ground deployment in the region and asked the population not to return to the southern bank of the Litani River. Despite these warnings, AFP journalists saw massive traffic jams forming north of the Litani, with drivers waiting for hours to cross the only remaining bridge leading to southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.
On the other hand, Hezbollah announced that they “bombed a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the town of Khiam” in southern Lebanon, “in response to the ceasefire violation by the occupying army.”
The National News Agency (Ani, official) reported bombings against the town of Khiam (southeast) and the neighboring village of Debbine, as well as “intense drone activities” in the same region.
10-day Ceasefire
On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a ten-day ceasefire, adding that he was working to organize the very first meeting at the White House between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ibrahim Moussaoui, a Hezbollah member of parliament, told AFP that the movement would observe the truce “on condition that it is a comprehensive cessation of hostilities against us and that Israel does not exploit it for assassinations.”
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war at the beginning of March when Hezbollah targeted Israel to support Iran against the large-scale Israeli-American offensive. Despite the two-week ceasefire agreed on April 8 with the Islamic Republic, Israel continued its military operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, armed and financed by Tehran. According to authorities, these strikes resulted in over 2,000 deaths. One million people, a fifth of the country’s population, have been displaced, according to the UN.
