Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire US President Donald Trump declared on 16 April, the US State Department has said.
“The 16 April cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said.
The State Department cast Israel-Lebanon talks, held in Washington yesterday and today, as “highly productive” and said the countries would reconvene negotiations on 2 June and 3 June.
This week’s talks were the sides’ third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on 2 March, three days into the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Israel had widened its ground invasion into Lebanon’s south last month.
Fought in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, Israel’s war in Lebanon has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on 16 April, though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Tibnit
Hundreds of people have been killed in Israeli attacks despite the truce announced on 17 April.
Even as talks were wrapping up in Washington, Israel’s continued its attacks on Lebanon.
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed three paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee, the Lebanese health ministry said.
In a statement, the ministry said an Israeli strike “directly targeted” the Islamic Health Committee’s centre in Haruf, south Lebanon, killing three paramedics and critically wounding a fourth.
The Israeli military also issued evacuation orders for the southern city of Tyre.
A series of Israeli strikes were reported, two of them near Tyre, while state media said another targeted a center run by a local NGO near a hospital.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes on the Tyre district wounded at least 37 people, including six hospital personnel, nine women and four children.
Hafez Ramadan, a resident near the building targeted by the airstrike, said it had housed people who had fled their towns due to the war, and was adjacent to a hotel where more displaced were staying.
“There are only women, children and the elderly here,” he said. “Because of this strike, people have been displaced again.”
The Israeli military said another of its soldiers was killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March to 19.
A civilian contractor was also killed.
Israeli attacks have killed 2,882 people in Lebanon since 2 March, Lebanese health authorities have said.
Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south.
Israel continues to raze villages in the south of the country.
Explosions could be seen in the town of Kfar Tibnit today despite the ongoing ceasefire agreement.
Seven killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza
The ceasefire extension in Lebanon comes as Israeli attacks killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza, including a child, according to medics in the occupied territory.
Medics in Gaza said the first airstrike targeted an apartment in the Gaza City area of Rimal, killing at least four and wounding several others.
A second Israeli airstrike soon after targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, killing three, the medics said.
Video footage from the scene showed flames engulfing an apartment in a mostly bombed-out building.
Palestinians could be seen pulling at least one body from the wreckage, wrapped in a white plastic tarp.
Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, said hundreds of people had been living inside the building that was targeted.
A fire at an apartment targeted by an Israeli attack in the Rimal neigbourhood in Gaza
“The missile was fired without any pre-warning or notification. We are talking about a number of (dead). We are talking about a big number of wounded, among them families,” Mr Basal said.
Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran, redirecting its fire back on the ruined Palestinian enclave where the military thinks Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.
Israel said it targeted Hamas’ armed wing chief, though neither Israel nor Hamas said whether he had been killed or wounded.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the militant group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025.
The agreement reached last October halted major fighting in Gaza after two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
But steps have faltered to reach a permanent settlement that would withdraw Israeli troops, disarm the militants and allow the ruined enclave to be rebuilt.
Israeli forces still occupy more than half of Gaza’s territory, where they have demolished most remaining buildings and ordered all residents out.
More than 2 million people now live in a tiny strip of territory along the coast, mainly in damaged structures or makeshift tents.
Some 850 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the October ceasefire.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed by militants during the same period.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza since October 2023, according to figures from Gaza authorities, deemed reliable by the UN.
Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on Israeli killed over 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.