Israel Strikes Beirut Days After US-Supported Ceasefire Announcement

Israeli’s government confirmed it launched new strikes in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sunday, just days after the Trump administration announced a new ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, in a statement posted to X on Sunday, said Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz authorized the military to strike “terrorist headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut, in response to Hezbollah’s firing at Israeli territory.”

“We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. Israel’s military also stated that “steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians” including aerial surveillance.

Lebanon’s state-run national news agency also said that two people were killed and 11 wounded in the strikes.

Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would renew full-scale war across the Middle East, even as Pakistan tries to restart talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran wants a deal to include ending the war in Lebanon.

Iran’s parliament speaker hinted on Sunday there would be retaliation for the Israeli strikes. “The (U.S.) naval blockade against the Iranian nation and America’s green light today to the [Israeli] regime turn American and regime bases and assets in the region into legitimate targets,” the speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X.

Days after the U.S. military launched strikes in Iran in February, new fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by the Iranian regime. But Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week that he believed progress was being made in talks between Hezbollah and Israel, adding that he rejected an argument that Hezbollah rebuffed calls for a ceasefire.

“Yeah, they weren’t [rejecting] me. They didn’t reject me. Look, they’re looking. I think Hezbollah—I will tell you, they called us, and they said, ‘How about stopping?’” he said. “And I think you’re going to see things happen over there. That’s been a little bit of a different world, but it’s interconnected with Iran.”

Trump then said that it “would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace,” noting decades of on-again, off-again fighting.

Israel and Lebanon announced on June 3 that the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire. But Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said a day later that the terrorist group would not abandon fighting in the southern part of Lebanon, according to Hezbollah broadcaster Al Manar.

“We have not given anyone a commitment not to resist aggression and respond to it. As long as the aggression continues, [Hezbollah will] confront it with all the strength we possess,” he said in comments carried by the broadcaster on June 4.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said on Saturday it had shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that it said threatened international maritime traffic. The U.S. military has kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

There was no immediate comment from the Trump administration on the flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.