The truce began at midnight local time on Friday, April 17, 2026 in Lebanon and Israel, after a month and a half of conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Many celebratory gunshots were heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, according to AFP journalists. AFPTV images showed people returning to the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, which had been heavily targeted in recent weeks, some waving the yellow flag of Hezbollah or carrying portraits of its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel in 2024. “We are tired of war and we want security and peace,” said 61-year-old housewife Jamal Chehab in Beirut to AFP, welcoming the ceasefire agreement.
But a few hours later, the Lebanese army on X mentioned “a number of violations of the agreement, several acts of Israeli aggression being recorded, not to mention the sporadic bombings that have hit several villages.” They urged people displaced by the fighting not to return immediately 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 witnessed massive traffic jams forming north of the Litani, with motorists waiting for hours to cross the only remaining bridge to access southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.
Hezbollah, for its part, announced that it had “bombarded a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the town of Khiam” in southern Lebanon, “in response to the ceasefire violation by the occupying army.” The official National News Agency (Ani) reported bombings in the town of Khiam (southeast) and the neighboring village of Debbine, as well as “intense drone activity” in the same region.
Donald Trump: “I hope Hezbollah will behave well during this important period”
Donald Trump announced on Thursday 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. “I hope that Hezbollah will behave well during this important period. It will be a GREAT moment for them if they do so,” he later wrote.
Ibrahim Moussaoui, a Hezbollah MP, told AFP that the movement would observe the truce “on the condition that it is a comprehensive halt to hostilities against us and that Israel does not exploit it to carry out assassinations.”
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when Hezbollah targeted Israel to support Iran against the extensive Israeli-American offensive. Despite the two-week truce 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 have killed more than 2,000 people. One million people, a fifth of the country’s population, have been displaced, according to the UN.
