{"id":112619,"date":"2026-06-20T07:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/112619\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T07:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T07:10:10","slug":"israel-and-hezbollah-agree-new-ceasefire-after-deadly-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/112619\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel and Hezbollah agree new ceasefire after deadly strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire following a day of heavy fighting in southern Lebanon, where Israeli strikes killed dozens of people.<\/p>\n

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A senior United States official told Reuters<\/a> that the ceasefire was due to begin at 4pm local time on Friday after negotiations involving the United States, Qatar and Iran.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,\u201d the official told Reuters, adding that the two sides had halted hostilities following exchanges of fire earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

The agreement was announced after a day of deadly Israeli attacks in Lebanon, two days after the signing of a broader United States-Iran memorandum<\/a> of understanding.<\/p>\n

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Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that Israeli strikes launched overnight and during Friday killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 30 others. Other Lebanese reports put the death toll above 20.<\/p>\n

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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned what he described as a dangerous escalation. He said the attacks had killed civilians, including women and children, and risked undermining efforts to secure a wider end to the conflict.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese attacks undermine all ongoing efforts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war,\u201d Aoun said in remarks carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency.<\/p>\n

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The Israeli military said it had struck more than 150 Hezbollah targets since midnight, including command centres, launch positions and infrastructure in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Israeli officials said the attacks were a response to alleged ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. The military claimed dozens of Hezbollah fighters had been killed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The fighting also caused losses on the Israeli side. The Israel Defense Forces said four soldiers were killed during combat in southern Lebanon, including a battalion commander.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hezbollah said its fighters had targeted Israeli forces operating near the Ali al-Tahir area, claiming to have destroyed three Merkava tanks and struck additional units attempting to recover casualties.<\/p>\n

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to maintain its illegal occupation in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary,\u201d Netanyahu said in a statement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Israel Katz echoed that position, saying Israeli forces would stay in what he described as a security zone stretching from the coast to the Beaufort area.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Far-right ministers called for even more aggressive military action. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said \u201call of Lebanon should burn\u201d, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Israel to \u201copen the gates of hell\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The violence had already begun to affect wider diplomatic efforts linked to the US-Iran agreement signed earlier this week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Planned talks between American and Iranian officials in Switzerland were postponed after the latest escalation in Lebanon. According to reporting by Middle East Eye<\/a>, Iranian officials informed Hezbollah that negotiations with Washington could not continue without the implementation of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swiss authorities later confirmed that the scheduled talks would not take place on Friday.<\/p>\n

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US Vice President JD Vance also publicly urged Israel to support the diplomatic process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking at a White House briefing, Vance said Israeli leaders should recognise that the peace effort required cooperation from all parties.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIsraelis, like everybody else, have to respect this peace process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the ceasefire announcement, reports from southern Lebanon suggested hostilities had not fully stopped. Journalists on the ground reported additional Israeli air strikes and artillery fire after the ceasefire was scheduled to take effect.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An Israeli military spokesman said the army retained operational freedom to respond to threats and continue action against Hezbollah when deemed necessary.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hezbollah sources told Reuters that the group had implemented the ceasefire immediately.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sources: Reuters, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera<\/p>\n

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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire following a day of heavy fighting in southern Lebanon, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[3076,158,113,28219,2271,56589,34673,17962,2058,4344,56590,76],"class_list":["post-112619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-finland","tag-helsinki","tag-hezbollah","tag-iran","tag-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire","tag-lebanon-conflict","tag-middle-east-conflict","tag-qatar","tag-reuters","tag-southern-lebanon","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116781189102782545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}