Israel, Hezbollah launch fresh attacks despite Trump’s limited ceasefire

Israel and Hezbollah continued to clash Tuesday as Israeli strikes killed at least eight people in Lebanon, undercutting US President Donald Trump’s claim less than 24 hours earlier that the two sides had agreed to a new limited ceasefire.

The clashes resumed Tuesday after the Israeli military said its air defenses intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, in what it described as a violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported fresh Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon.

Lebanese civil defense said six bodies were recovered and three injured people rescued from the rubble of a residential building hit in Marwaniyah, in the Sidon district in the south. The Lebanese military said two soldiers were injured by an Israeli drone strike on the road between Habbouch and Deir ez-Zahrani, according to Lebanon’s NNA.

The renewed fire came after Trump said Monday that Israel and Hezbollah would stop fighting “for ETERNITY!” following his phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also said he had held “a very good call with Hezbollah” through “highly placed representatives” and that the militant group had agreed “all shooting will stop.”

Behind the scenes, Trump’s intervention appeared far more heated. On the call, Trump called Netanyahu “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude, Axios reported. He also instructed Netanyahu to suspend planned strikes on Dahiyeh in south Beirut, a well-placed Israeli source told Al-Monitor.

The flare-up clouded US-Iran talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Monday that the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington should be understood as covering “all fronts.”

Despite the escalation, however, direct Lebanon-Israel talks were set to resume in Washington on Tuesday.