Hezbollah rejects Lebanon ceasefire brokered by U.S., Israeli military says it will continue attacks

UN peacekeeper among at least 6 people reportedly killed in Lebanon on Thursday

The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah rejected a new ceasefire in Lebanon on Thursday and Israel said it would not withdraw troops from the country, undermining U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts again to halt fighting there to forge peace with Tehran.

Iran has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with Washington, and has ‌suggested in recent days that it could intervene directly in support of its proxy Hezbollah if Israel keeps up or escalates attacks there.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the ceasefire would come into force within 24 hours of all concerned parties approving it. However, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the Washington declaration, insisting "resistance will continue."

There was no immediate response from Israel, Lebanon or the U.S. to Qassem's remarks. Hezbollah is not a party to the U.S.-brokered agreement reached between Israel and the Lebanese government on Wednesday, but would be required to halt attacks.

Israel kept up strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would not be withdrawing from the area or halting operations in the country, which they invaded in March in parallel with the war in Iran.

Earlier, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which established Hezbollah in 1982, said "the minimum demand of the resistance" is Israel's withdrawal to positions it held before the war began and Israeli forces invaded the south.

Israel carried out numerous airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, security sources said. Lebanon's National News Agency reported five people killed in airstrikes in the town of Sohmor.

The Israeli military, in a warning to residents of the south, said it was continuing to target Hezbollah facilities.

Peacekeeper killed, 2 others injured

The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL said a UN peacekeeper died Thursday after mortar shells hit his position near Marjayoun in southeastern Lebanon. UNIFIL, which did not say where the shells originated, said two other peacekeepers were wounded and it had opened an investigation into the incident.

The war has continued despite several ceasefires declared from Washington since April. Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel reignited March 2, when the group opened fire in support of Tehran as it came under U.S.-Israeli attack.

A statement released by the U.S. State Department said the Israel-Lebanon ‌ceasefire was contingent on Hezbollah completely halting fire, and the evacuation of all its operatives from the area between the border and the Litani River.

In his statement, Katz said Israeli forces would remain in the security zone, including the area of Beaufort castle, seized by Israeli forces at ⁠the weekend, "and without the return of the population," Katz added. Israel "will, for the time being, continue its fire and operations on the ground."

Israel's campaign has forced some 1.2 million people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands from southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities and UN agencies say.

What it will take to disarm Hezbollah

Netanyahu's security minister criticizes deal

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the ceasefire a "serious mistake" and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ⁠should bring it to the cabinet for a vote.

Ben-Gvir said Hezbollah would not withdraw its fighters from the area south of the Litani River and Lebanon's Armed ⁠Forces were incapable of forcing Hezbollah to comply.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel would not carry out attacks on Beirut after Netanyahu had said he'd ordered strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.

That announcement prompted criticism from Netanyahu's political opponents, and some allies, that the prime ⁠minister had ceded sovereignty.

Katz said Israel would continue to "dismantle terrorist infrastructure in the area" while Israel had "freedom of action, backed by the United States, to strike in Beirut in response to attacks on Israeli communities and territory."

Lebanese ambassador to Washington Nada Hamadeh Moawad called the deal brokered by the U.S. "a very historic moment for Lebanon."

The joint statement said Lebanon and Israel ‌agreed "to swiftly advance the creation of pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors."

Lebanon's army deployed into the south as part of a ceasefire agreed in November 2024 to end the last Hezbollah-Israel war, and declared in January that it had established control over the area between the border and the Litani.

Last week, Iran and the U.S. signalled progress ⁠toward a tentative ⁠initial agreement to halt the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but the two sides have yet to sign off on the deal, which would leave more complex negotiations for later.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that Iran's enemies had already been defeated on the battlefield and were now seeking to sow internal divisions.

Khamenei has not ⁠been seen in public since he succeeded his father, who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the war.

In addition to Tehran conditioning a deal on an end to fighting in Lebanon, it also wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, a lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the strait.

Trump has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.