After two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Rome, Lebanon and Israel took steps toward implementing “pilot zones” in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces would withdraw and turn over control to the Lebanese army, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday (July 15, 2026).

The State Department said in a statement that the talks were “productive” and the parties “agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalised and implemented in the coming days.”

There was no immediate statement from Lebanon or Israel on the outcome of the negotiations.

Lebanon and Israel announced a “framework agreement” on June 26 laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from the large swathes of southern Lebanon they are occupying, in exchange for disarmament of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

The deal was supposed to begin with two “pilot zones” where the Israeli military is to turn over control to the Lebanese army, which would clear the areas of any Hezbollah presence.

However, implementation on the ground had stalled ahead of this week’s talks in Rome.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who is slated to visit Washington on July 21, said in a statement ahead of the Rome talks that instructions had been given to the Lebanese delegation “to demand the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the two pilot zones before any further discussions.”

Wednesday’s statement did not specify where the pilot zones would be, but Lebanese and Israeli officials previously said they would include the towns of Froun, Ghandouriyeh and Zawtar.

The designated zones generated some controversy in Lebanon, because Israeli troops were not present in most of the selected area to begin with, raising questions about how a withdrawal could take place. The Lebanese army had pushed for pilot zones that were larger and included more area occupied by Israeli forces.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when Hezbollah fired missiles across the border on March 2, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.

Hezbollah and Iran had sought to link the end of the war in Lebanon to the outcome of broader US-Iran talks. The Lebanese government, trying to minimize Iran’s influence, aimed to keep the two tracks separate and negotiate a ceasefire directly with Israel.

The June 26 Lebanon-Israel deal also envisions steps toward an eventual peace agreement between the two countries — which technically remain in a state of war nearly 80 years after Israel’s establishment.

The State Department said that following implementation of the pilot zones, “We will move to expanded technical talks … with the aim of reaching a comprehensive agreement between Israel and Lebanon.”

Hezbollah has been vehemently opposed to the direct Lebanon-Israel talks and has said it will not abide by the agreement and has no plans to disarm. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have said publicly that they plan an extended occupation of southern Lebanon.

Four people were killed by an Israeli ‌drone strike on a vehicle in Nabatieh ⁠in southern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, in ‌what Lebanese security sources said marked the deadliest ‌such attack in several ‌weeks.

The ⁠Israeli military said ⁠it was checking the report.

Israel has occupied a swathe of southern Lebanon ‌in a war with Hezbollah that began on March 2, when the Tehran-backed group opened ‌fire in Israel after Iran came under U.S.-Israeli attack.

The intensity ⁠of hostilities abated last month, as Iran insisted on its ‌demand for a Lebanon ceasefire in talks with the U.S., and as Israel scaled back attacks in Lebanon at Washington’s ‌behest.

An interim agreement between the United States and Iran signed last month requires both ⁠countries and their allies ⁠to end military operations on all fronts, including ‌Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Friday (June 26, 2026) said Israel has “no option” but to withdraw from Lebanese areas it occupies, adding that the Iran-U.S. deal that reduced fighting with Israel was an American-Israeli defeat.

His televised speech was made as Shia Muslims across the country were marking Ashura, a day of mourning for the death of Hussein, a key figure in Shia Islam.

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Tens of thousands of supporters participated in a ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburbs, waving Hezbollah and Iranian flags in the largest gathering organised by the pro-Iran group since the outbreak of war in March.

“Israel has no option but to withdraw completely from every inch of our Lebanese land… Israel must leave unconditionally,” Mr. Qassem said.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the regional war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with airstrikes and an invasion that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,200 people.

Under U.S. pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks in April with Israel in Washington, and a truce was announced on April 17 but failed to stop the fighting.

A new ceasefire was declared this month as Tehran insists that its deal with the U.S. to end the West Asia war must include Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities reported six deaths in Israeli attacks this week.

As Lebanon and Israel hold their fifth round of talks in Washington, Mr. Qassem said his group would accept “no normalisation, no cancellation of the state of hostility, no gains for Israel”.

The leader also thanked Iran for its support, considering the deal with Washington “an official declaration of the defeat of America and Israel”.

Since the start of the war, Lebanese authorities have been trying to separate their negotiation track from the Iran war talks.

Abeer Ayash, a 48-year-old who lost her home and several family members to Israeli strikes, told AFP she is “here today… for the resistance fighters in the south who are sacrificing for us and for the entire nation”.

“We renew our pledge to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” the Hezbollah leader killed by Israel in 2024, “to Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and to Sayyed Mojtaba,” the former and current Iranian supreme leaders.

“We will not abandon this path, even if we all become martyrs.”

Lebanese official media said fresh Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday (June 20, 2026) killed five people, despite a new ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group announced a day earlier.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on more than a dozen south Lebanon locations after midnight and into Saturday (June 20) morning, many in and around the Nabatieh area.

It also reported Israeli artillery shelling on Nabatieh city and its outskirts, a region where fighting has been focused in recent days.

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The NNA said three people were killed in airstrikes on the town of Arab Salim, while one person was killed in Deir Zahrani, and another after “an enemy drone launched a strike on a motorbike” at the entrance of the town of Dweir.

On Friday (June 19), a U.S. official told AFP an immediate truce between Israel and Hezbollah had been brokered by U.S. and Qatari mediators following talks with Israel and Iran. A Gulf diplomat confirmed the ceasefire.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. said his country would commit to the ceasefire if Hezbollah respected it.

Previous truce announcements have done little to stop attacks from either side.

The announcement came as Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on the country’s south and east killed 47 people on Friday, the worst violence since Washington and Tehran this week sealed a deal to halt the wider war in West Asia.

That agreement was supposed to also halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel’s military on Friday (June 19) said four of its soldiers were killed, and reported more than 150 strikes on Lebanon, killing “dozens of Hezbollah terrorists”.

Also on Friday(June 19), Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a comprehensive ceasefire was needed in order for talks with Israel to progress.

Under U.S. pressure, Lebanon in April began direct talks with Israel in Washington aimed at ending the hostilities and separating the Israel-Hezbollah conflict from the regional war.

A fifth round of talks is due to begin on Tuesday (June 23), according to the State Department.

U.S. officials including President Donald Trump have expressed frustration at Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday (June 19) reiterated that Israeli troops would stay in south Lebanon “as long as necessary”.

An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Saturday (June 6, 2026) killed several members of the Lebanese military, including a senior officer, the Lebanese army said, days after the two sides reached a new ceasefire deal.

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An airstrike on the road linking the city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun occurred in the morning, killing a brigadier general, a captain, and another soldier, the army said without immediately releasing their names.

Another airstrike on the southern village of Saksakiyah killed six people and wounded four, state-run National News Agency said.

“The continued, deliberate, and repeated Israeli aggression against Lebanon, its people and its army only strengthens our resolve, faith and determination,” the army said in its statement.

It said Israel’s attacks aim to thwart all efforts “to reach a solution that would restore stability, establish a comprehensive ceasefire and lead to the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Lebanese territories.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the airstrike that killed the troops.

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 Lebanese militant group has refused the truce.

The airstrikes came a day after Lebanon’s President and Prime Minister criticized Iran for opposing the latest ceasefire deal between the Lebanese government and Israel, saying their country should not be used by Tehran as a “bargaining chip” in its talks with Washington.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded in a post on X on Saturday (June 6, 2026) by saying that after President Joseph Aoun’s comments, “one would think it’s Iran that has occupied a fifth of Lebanon, displaced a quarter of Lebanese and is bombing his country on daily basis.”

“Had Lebanon been a bargaining chip for Iran, we’d have a deal long ago. Save Lebanon from your real foe, Mr. President,” Araghchi said in reference to Israel.

The war began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began their attacks on Iran. Israel has since launched a ground invasion of Lebanon and carried out wide attacks that have displaced more than 1 million people.

Israeli troops have 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.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began. The fighting has killed at least 29 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

The new ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon could help remove a major obstacle to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure a preliminary agreement with Iran to end the war. Last week, Iran suspended talks with the U.S. in protest against Israel’s escalating war in Lebanon. In April, when Mr. Trump announced an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, he had said that Israel was “prevented” from attacking the country any longer. But Tel Aviv continued air strikes and expanded ground operations in southern Lebanon. Iran has maintained that in its April 8 ceasefire with the U.S., Washington had promised that the ceasefire would come into force on all fronts, including Lebanon. Now, after Iran paused talks with the U.S., Mr. Trump swung into action. He claimed that he had talked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of his plans to bomb Beirut and had a conversation with Hezbollah’s representatives, who agreed “not to shoot”. The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire statement followed Mr. Trump’s announcement. Mr. Trump’s firm diplomatic intervention, which reportedly included an expletive-laden call with Mr. Netanyahu, points to the importance he gives to the diplomatic process. Before the Lebanon crisis flared up, the U.S. and Iran were negotiating a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and remove the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, which would set the stage for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.

While the ceasefire agreement is welcome, it remains fragile and incomplete, leaving the conflict’s key problems unaddressed. The actual fighting in Lebanon is between Israel and Hezbollah. The Lebanese government is not a party to the conflict and Hezbollah does not report to the Lebanese army. But Hezbollah was not part of the negotiations. The ceasefire agreement requires Hezbollah to unilaterally cease attacks, but it does not ask Israel to make concessions. Hezbollah says it would stop fighting only if Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon. Israel, which has made its deepest incursions into southern Lebanon since its 2000 withdrawal, is not talking about any withdrawal plan. Israel has also broken all its ceasefire agreements in recent years. Despite a truce deal, it continues to bomb Gaza. Mr. Trump’s announcement of a new ceasefire despite an existing one highlights the fragility of the truce. What he is trying to do is to bring in a stop-gap arrangement in Lebanon to push his planned deal with Iran. But for this to work, he should get firm commitments from Israel that it would not break the terms. For a lasting truce in Lebanon, Israel has to end its illegal occupation of the south and pull back its troops.

Israeli strikes overnight in the historic south Lebanon city of Tyre killed seven people, a source from the civil defence told AFP on Friday (June 5, 2026), despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

One strike near Jabal Amel hospital killed four people, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another in a residential area killed three and wounded five, including two children.

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Later on Friday (June 5, 2026) the Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings for nine southern Lebanese towns and villages, with Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reporting people were fleeing.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

A conditional truce was announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys this week that would require Hezbollah to stop firing, withdraw from near the border and would see Lebanon’s army deploy to new “pilot zones” in the area.

But Hezbollah has rejected the agreement, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

On Friday an AFP correspondent saw a bank heavily damaged near the Jabal Amel medical facility, one of three hospitals in Tyre.

The hospital has been damaged by strikes on several occasions during the war, most recently in a major attack on Monday that killed four people and wounded 127, including 39 staff.

Following Israeli orders for residents to leave most of Tyre, many people have sought shelter in its small Old City, which has so far been spared evacuation warnings and strikes. It is where the Christian quarter is located.

With shelters full, displaced people have been sleeping in cars or tents, but many have left since the Israeli army claimed on Tuesday that Hezbollah members were operating in the area, according to the AFP correspondent.

On Wednesday night, a drone strike landed near a park in Tyre where dozens of displaced Syrians were sheltering in tents, the correspondent reported.

Locals have organised a petition calling for Tyre to be declared an “open city” free of any armed presence except Lebanon’s military. It has so far garnered around 250 signatures, including local lawyers and intellectuals.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in Tyre, and some signatories have faced online attacks over their stance.

More than 500 people have also signed a similar petition for Nabatieh, another large south Lebanon city that has come under Israeli attack.

Since the war began on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,526 people, Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday (June 4, 2026).