Israel bombards Lebanon after US-Iran truce, rejecting ceasefire terms and straining ties with Washington

A fragile deal

A memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, brokered by Pakistan, was announced on Sunday, 14 June, with a formal ratification ceremony scheduled for Friday in Geneva. The text calls for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz, and a sixty-day negotiation on Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions relief. Trump confirmed the deal in a social-media post, calling it "the beginning of a long and beautiful peace."

Israel's immediate defiance

Within hours, Israeli forces struck the Beirut suburb of Dahie, killing three people and wounding fifteen, according to Lebanon's National News Agency. On Monday, a drone hit a vehicle near Kafr Tebnet in the south, killing its driver. The UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) recorded 133 projectiles and two airstrikes attributed to the Israel Defense Forces between midnight and 16:00 local time, with no projectiles launched by Hezbollah. Israel's security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared: "Trump's agreement does not bind us. We are not a party to this agreement."

We must accept nothing short of dismantling Hezbollah. We will not withdraw a single centimetre from territories conquered by our soldiers.

Washington's pushback

A senior Trump administration official, speaking anonymously, told reporters on Monday that an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon "is not a condition of the agreement." The official framed the deal as a bilateral ceasefire: if Hezbollah attacks Israel, "Israel will have the right to defend itself and to respond." This stance contradicted Iran's insistence, and Pakistan's understanding, that the Lebanese front was covered. Trump himself vented frustration after Sunday's Beirut raid, writing on Truth Social that the attack "should not have happened" and that Israel must refrain from further strikes.

Israel has a right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was of little importance and without consequence; no one was hurt or killed, and it should not disrupt this vital process.

Netanyahu's calculations

Prime Minister Netanyahu, facing elections in four months and trailing former army chief Gadi Eisenkot in polls, signalled that Israeli troops would remain in occupied areas of Gaza, Syria and Lebanon "for as long as necessary." His finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called the deal "bad for Israel and for the entire free world," while opposition figures pounced. Eisenkot labelled it "the depressing result of a failed government," and Naftali Bennet warned of "a dangerous turn for Israel's security." The personal rift between Trump and Netanyahu deepened, with the US president reportedly calling the Israeli leader a "man without judgment" and "fucking crazy," saying that without him, Netanyahu would be in prison.

What comes next

Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, confirmed on Monday that the military would not leave its positions in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has stated it will continue firing as long as Israeli soldiers remain on Lebanese soil. Trump's aides insist the sixty-day negotiating window can absorb the turbulence, but the first twenty-four hours have exposed the gap between the agreement's text and the reality on the ground.