Hezbollah Rejects Latest Ceasefire Plan06/05 06:14

   

   BEIRUT (AP) -- Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement 
between Israel and the Lebanese government, and the militant group demanded a 
complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as more fighting there hampered 
efforts to end the Iran war.

   The Hezbollah announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four 
people, according to local authorities, and a U.N. peacekeeper was killed in 
the crossfire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in combat in southern Lebanon.

   Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, called the 
negotiations "absurd, humiliating and insulting." He said the agreement's 
demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean 
"surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals."

   "What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and 
Israel's withdrawal," he said, underscoring that Hezbollah has not made any 
commitment to stop fighting. "So long as our villages are not safe and are 
being bombed and destroyed and our people are killed," he said, northern Israel 
"will not be safe."

   Sirens sound after Netanyahu visit

   Following Kassem's statement, drone alert sirens sounded in several border 
communities in northern Israel, including Shlomi, a town where Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers had been meeting with local officials, 
his office said. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu left a short time before 
the alerts sounded.

   The Israeli military later said the sirens were triggered by attempts to 
intercept several drones that hit near soldiers in southern Lebanon. No 
injuries were reported.

   Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military's chief of staff, acknowledged 
Thursday that the ongoing war was straining northern Israeli towns living under 
the threat of Hezbollah fire. He said Israel's operations in Iran and Lebanon 
had "created a new security reality," by weakening Iran and Hezbollah "to an 
unprecedented degree."

   Lebanese troops began moving Thursday afternoon into the southern village of 
Dibbine, in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, after Israeli forces left the 
area, which saw intense clashes in recent days, state-run media reported. It 
was the first time Israeli troops withdrew from an area in southern Lebanon 
since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began about three months ago.

   The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of 
the south, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of 
Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has jolted the world 
economy.

   Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to 
press ahead with Israel's offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

   U.S. President Donald Trump, who faced a rare rebuke from Congress on 
Wednesday, has sought to downplay the diplomatic deadlock and the failure of 
declared ceasefires to end the fighting. He told reporters that in the Middle 
East, "a ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner."

   Serbian peacekeeper and Israeli soldier killed

   A Serbian peacekeeper was killed and two others were wounded when a mortar 
struck their location near Marjayoun, a Christian-majority town that has seen 
intense fighting, according to the U.N. mission in southern Lebanon, known as 
UNIFIL, and the Serbian Defense Ministry.

   Israel blamed Hezbollah for the firing that killed the U.N. peacekeeper, 
without offering evidence. Hezbollah and the U.N. did not immediately comment 
on who launched the shells.

   Also Thursday, the Israeli military announced that a 21-year-old captain in 
the armored corps was killed in southern Lebanon.

   Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said a drone strike killed a 
motorcyclist and wounded four people in the village of Maaroub. The Israeli 
military said soldiers killed an armed militant and later found a Hezbollah 
cache of guns, grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other combat gear in the 
area.

   The military also said it conducted strikes near the coastal city of Tyre 
and around Shaqra, another community in southern Lebanon.

   The Lebanese news agency reported airstrikes in the south and said a strike 
on the village of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, killed three 
people and wounded others.

   Israel has warned people not to go into parts of southern Lebanon where it 
says it is striking Hezbollah facilities.

   Fighting has raged despite declared ceasefires

   Hezbollah resumed rocket fire days after Israel and the United States 
launched their surprise Feb. 28 attack on Iran, which backs Hezbollah. Before 
then, Israel had regularly carried out strikes in Lebanon against what it said 
were militant targets, often killing civilians, despite an earlier truce 
reached in 2024.

   After Hezbollah's rocket and drone attacks resumed, Israeli troops seized 
around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country's south than at any 
time since the end of Israel's 1982-2000 occupation.

   In the southern city of Sidon, residents reacted to Wednesday's ceasefire 
announcement with skepticism, saying previous agreements had failed to stop the 
violence.

   "Every few days a ceasefire is announced, but people keep getting killed," 
said Mayada Hijazi.

   "It's all talk and no action," said Salah Nassab. "We keep going back to our 
homes, and then we get displaced again, back and forth. We're very tired."

   More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and over 1.2 million 
have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 28 Israeli soldiers and 
three civilians.

   Latest ceasefire came from ongoing Israeli-Lebanese talks

   The latest declared ceasefire came about through U.S.-brokered talks between 
Israel and Lebanon's government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the 
country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest 
hostilities.

   The ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanon's armed forces to take control of 
security zones in Lebanon from which the militants would be banned.

   Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called the new agreement "the 
last chance to enter a final and comprehensive ceasefire." He said Lebanon was 
ready to implement the deal once he receives responses from relevant factions 
in Lebanon, including Hezbollah. The United States -- and Trump himself -- 
would determine how and when the deal is implemented, Aoun told journalists.

   The agreement terms Hezbollah "an enemy" of Israel, the U.S. and Lebanon and 
calls for dismantling it. The government has promised to do so in the past but 
does not have the capabilities to disarm Hezbollah by force.

   The latest agreement did not say when Israel would withdraw from southern 
Lebanon but said the U.S. would support the Lebanese army as it works to assert 
control in areas where Hezbollah has long wielded power.