The US embassy in Lebanon on Thursday urged a meeting between Lebanese and Israeli leaders as the health ministry of Lebanon said that Israeli strikes on the country’s south killed at least 17 people despite an ongoing cease-fire.
Israeli and Lebanese representatives met twice in Washington in April, the first such meetings in decades, after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on 02 March, sparking heavy Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
After the first talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon that began on 17 April and a three-week extension after the second round.
Trump has said that he hopes to host Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the next couple of weeks as the two countries are preparing for direct negotiations.
The planned negotiations have caused a rift in Lebanon, with Hezbollah rejecting direct negotiations as well as Beirut’s previous commitment to disarm it.
“Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Its people have a historic opportunity to reclaim their country and shape their future as a truly sovereign, independent nation,” the embassy said.
“The time for hesitation is over,” it added.
“A direct meeting between Aoun and Netanyahu, facilitated by President Trump, would give Lebanon the chance to secure concrete guarantees on full sovereignty, territorial integrity, secure borders, humanitarian and reconstruction support, and the complete restoration of Lebanese state authority over every inch of its territory, guaranteed by the United States,” the statement added.
On Wednesday, Aoun said that Israel must first fully implement the ceasefire in order to move on to negotiations, Israeli attacks cannot continue as they are.
“We are now waiting for the United States to set a date to begin direct negotiations with Israel," he also said.
Israel has continued its deadly strikes on Lebanon despite the truce, and its soldiers are operating inside a ‘Yellow Line’ running some 10 kilometres deep inside Lebanon along the border.
Lebanon’s health ministry stated that Israeli strikes in the south killed 17 people on Thursday, including five women and two children, while the army said another strike killed one of its soldiers.
Israel’s army also claimed that one of its soldiers had been killed in south Lebanon.
Aoun on Thursday slammed continuing Israeli violations in the country’s south.
“Pressure must be exerted on Israel to ensure that it respects international laws and conventions and ceases targeting civilians, paramedics, civil defence, and humanitarian health and relief organisations,” Aoun said on a day when three civil defence personnel killed by Israel were buried.
The NNA reported multiple Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday, while an Israeli army spokesperson called for the evacuation of more than 20 southern villages.
Hezbollah claimed 10 attacks on Israeli army targets in south Lebanon, including tanks and soldiers.
In Beirut, dozens of southern Lebanon residents and local officials gathered to protest Israel’s ongoing destruction of their villages.
Protester Hanaa Ibrahim, 48, told AFP that we will not surrender and will not normalise relations with Israel.
The text of the ceasefire, published by the US State Department, grants Israel the right to act against planned, imminent or ongoing attacks.
Hezbollah rejects that language, saying Lebanon’s cabinet never presented it, even though members of the group are represented there.
On Wednesday, Aoun had said the wording is the same text that was adopted in November 2024 as part of the ceasefire agreement ending the last war, adding that all parties at the time had agreed to the text.
