{"id":8164,"date":"2026-04-24T23:33:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/trump-says-lebanon-and-israel-agree-to-extend-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-by-3-weeks\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:33:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:03:38","slug":"trump-says-lebanon-and-israel-agree-to-extend-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-by-3-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/trump-says-lebanon-and-israel-agree-to-extend-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-by-3-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Lebanon and Israel agree to extend Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire by 3 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_1Po8xtjp3pQ?client=wp&amp;client_version=2.7.1\" width=\"100%\" height=\"136px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Washington (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, the second in the past week, went \u201cvery well,\u201d but during an Oval Office gathering he acknowledged that \u201cthey do have Hezbollah to think about.\u201d The Iranian-backed group has opposed the talks, and since the initial ceasefire went into effect last Friday, there have been multiple violations by both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, these were the first direct diplomatic talks in decades between Israel and Lebanon and represented a major step for neighboring countries that officially have been at war since Israel\u2019s inception in 1948. The initial 10-day ceasefire had been due to expire Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,\u201d Trump said in a social media post. He added later in the Oval Office that he expects to meet in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Trump told reporters, while surrounded by the ambassadors as well as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that Israel has a right to defend itself \u201cif they\u2019re shot at, and they will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that together, under your leadership, we can formalize peace between Israel and Lebanon in the very near future,\u201d Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said.<\/p>\n<p>Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad thanked Trump \u201cfor all your effort to help and to support Lebanon.\u201d She referenced his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan when she said, \u201cAnd I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lebanon presses wider-reaching negotiations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aoun, the Lebanese president, said a day earlier that during the talks Hamadeh would ask for an end to Israeli <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-home-demolitions-8ae2161e4f531760ad829279d65b1133\">home demolitions<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-war-incursion-416347699f12430c471f3f26b07821cf\">villages and towns occupied<\/a> by Israel after the latest war broke out on March 2.<\/p>\n<p>Preparations were being made for wider-reaching negotiations. The aim of the future talks is to \u201cfully\u201d stop Israeli attacks, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the border and beginning the reconstruction process, Aoun said in comments released by his office.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on Lebanon to work with Israel to disarm Hezbollah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have any serious disagreements with Lebanon. There are a few minor border disputes that can be solved,\u201d Saar said during Independence Day remarks to Israel\u2019s ambassadors and diplomatic corps. He described the neighboring country as a \u201cfailed state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe obstacle to peace and normalization between the countries is one: Hezbollah,\u201d he said, adding that Lebanon could have \u201ca future of sovereignty, independence and freedom from the Iranian occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Renewed fighting in Lebanon was tied to Iran war<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The latest war started when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran. Israel responded with widespread bombardment of Lebanon and a ground invasion, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s military occupies a buffer zone stretching as far as 6 miles (10 kilometers) into southern Lebanon. Israel says it aims to remove the threat of short-range rockets and anti-tank missiles being fired toward northern Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah has not been a participant in the diplomacy. <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hezbollah-lebanon-israel-wafiq-safa-a7af20b76ace9a34d8f641bca91e0b23\">Wafiq Safa<\/a>, a high-ranking member of the militant group\u2019s political council, has told The Associated Press that it will not abide by any agreements made during the direct talks.<\/p>\n<p>The Lebanese government hopes the talks will pave the way to a permanent end to the war. While Iran has set ending the wars in Lebanon and the region as a condition for negotiations with the U.S., Lebanon insists on representing itself.<\/p>\n<p>The talks last week were the first between Israel and Lebanon since 1993. Both countries have relied on indirect communication, often brokered by the U.S. or UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>Lebanon\u2019s top political authorities, critical of Hezbollah\u2019s decision to fire rockets toward Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, quickly proposed direct talks in a bid to stop the escalation, hoping Israel would not launch its ground invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ceasefire that was later reached, an Israeli strike Wednesday killed Amal Khalil, a well-known Lebanese journalist covering southern Lebanon. Lebanese health officials said the Israeli military opened fire on an ambulance that responded, preventing rescuers from reaching her. Her body was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building several hours later.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli military denied that it had deliberately targeted journalists or fired on rescuers, but the case sparked widespread anger in Lebanon ahead of the Washington talks.<\/p>\n<p>After a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Lebanon\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said the government is working on a report documenting alleged war crimes by Israel and that ministers had discussed joining the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n<p>The latest Israel-Hezbollah war has killed around 2,300 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of women and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/lebanon-children-killed-israel-war-hezbollah-beirut-49b7e5a3aa477368c099f9bf6d88c005\">children<\/a>, and displaced over <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/photo-gallery\/lebanon-shelter-hezbollah-israel-war-487792d7f62cfc2c5d9d20a2fd62fea1\">1 million people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Mroue reported from Beirut. AP writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Aamer Madhani and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n        <\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2026\/04\/24\/trump-says-lebanon-and-israel-agree-to-extend-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-by-3-weeks\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday. Trump said the meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States, the second in the past week, went [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}