U.S. Secretary of ​State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President ‌Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ​Netanyahu on the diplomatic ⁠negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for “gradual de-escalation,” a U.S. ‌official said on Sunday (May 31, 2026).

West Asia war: Follow LIVE updates on June 1, 2026

The U.S. has proposed that as a ‌first step, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group ‌would ⁠stop all attacks on Israel and ⁠in return Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut, the official said.

“This would create space for gradual ​de-escalation and an effective ‌cessation of hostilities,” according to the official.

The official added that Mr. Aoun tried to advance the proposal and secure an agreement. ‌However, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who ​claimed to “guarantee” Hezbollah’s commitment to a ceasefire, placed the burden on ⁠Israel to stop “shooting first.”

Mr. Netanyahu had said on Sunday (May 31, 2026) that he ordered troops to ‌move further into Lebanon in the battle against Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire announced more than six weeks ago.

In the latest advance, Israeli troops seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in ‌southern Lebanon, the military said earlier on Sunday (May 31, 2026), a ​day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern ⁠Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures ⁠and restrictions.

The U.S. official said that the U.S. did not ‌expect Israel to absorb ongoing attacks on its civilians from Hezbollah.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday (May 25, 2026) called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‌to resume bombing Beirut in response to increased explosive drone attacks by ​Hezbollah on Israeli troops and northern Israel towns. Mr. Smotrich’s comments came after an ⁠Israeli soldier was killed by a Hezbollah drone attack on Sunday (May 24, 2026). Israeli media reported that Mr. Smotrich made similar remarks at a cabinet meeting on Sunday (May 24, 2026).

“The explosive drones harming our fighters are not ‌a decree of fate,” he said in a statement. “For every explosive drone, 10 buildings should fall in Beirut.” Israeli media reported that Mr. Netanyahu rejected Mr. Smotrich’s demands and ‌preferred defensive measures. A Netanyahu spokesperson declined to comment.

Mr. Smotrich, leader of a small ‌far-right ⁠party in Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet, has frequently made comments that go beyond official Israeli ⁠policy, including that Israel must annex southern Lebanon and Gaza.

Another ultranationalist minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said Israel must not normalise the reality of explosive drones. “It is time for the Prime Minister to bang on (President Donald) Trump’s desk ​and tell him that we ‌are returning to war in Lebanon,” Mr. Ben Gvir said.

Drones used for attacks

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has used cheap, easy-to-assemble First Person View kamikaze drones to transform the war it has been fighting since it began firing on Israel on March 2, ‌days after the U.S.-Israeli forces began their attacks on Iran.

Controlled with fiber-optic cables, ​the FPV drones can evade Israel’s high-tech jamming technologies to target its troops occupying southern Lebanon during a shaky ceasefire announced on April 16, a ⁠week after the truce in the wider Iran war began. Except for a strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier this month, there have been no strikes on ‌the capital or its surroundings since the U.S. announced a ceasefire on April 16. However, Israel has traded fire with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah called for a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday (May 25, 2026) evening to mark the 26th anniversary of Liberation Day, when Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.

On Sunday (May 24, 2026) evening, Hezbollah head Naim Qassem ramped up his rhetoric against the Lebanese state, saying that people had a right ‌to take to the streets and overthrow the Lebanese government, although he stopped short of making a ​direct call for Hezbollah’s supporters to do so. Mr. Smotrich said he had approved a 2 billion shekel ($693 million) budget for technological solutions to address the ⁠drone threat.

“The response to a significant threat must be significant,” Mr. Smotrich said, adding Israel needs to ⁠change the rules and the equation.

Polls show Mr. Smotrich’s party struggling to pass the threshold to get into parliament in an election later this year.

Israeli media ‌reported that during the cabinet meeting, military chief of staff Eyal Zamir also said that buildings in Beirut should be struck in response to the drone attacks. ​A military spokesperson declined to confirm his comments.

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the U.S. State Department said Friday (May 15, 2026).

It comes after two “productive” days of talks and will be followed by more negotiations June 2-3, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. A shaky truce between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon had been due to end on Sunday (May 17, 2026).

Also read: Israeli strikes wound dozens in Lebanon

“We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border,” Mr. Pigott said on social media.

Three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles just south of Beirut on Saturday (May 9, 2026) killed four people while a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter, state media and the Health Ministry said.

The three drone strikes south of Beirut marked another escalation since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect on April 17. Both Israel and Hezbollah have continued their daily attacks despite the truce.

On Wednesday night (May 6, 2026), Israel’s air force carried out an airstrike on a southern suburb in which Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah military official. It was the first strike near the capital since the ceasefire was reached.

Two of the strikes on Saturday (May 9) took place on the highway linking Beirut with the southern port city of Sidon in which several people were wounded, while the third happened on a road leading to Lebanon’s Chouf region killing three, the state-run National News Agency said.

An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw a dead body on the highway in the town of Saadiyat.

The Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven, including a child, and wounded 15. The ministry said this was an initial count.

The agency reported strikes in southern Lebanon, including one on the village of Bourj Rahhal that killed three and another in Maifadoun that killed one.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, said three Israeli drone strikes killed a Syrian man who was riding a motorcycle with his 12-year-old daughter in the city of Nabatiyeh.

The ministry said that after the initial strike, the man and his daughter managed to move away from the site only to be attacked again by the drone instantly killing the man. The girl then moved about 100 metres away and was hit again by the drone after she had been already wounded. The girl later died in a hospital, NNA said.

“The Ministry of Public Health denounces this barbaric targeting and the deliberate violence against civilians and children in Lebanon,” the ministry said in its statement, adding that the strike marks an ongoing series “of grave violations of International Humanitarian Law.”

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired explosive drones into Israel near the border with Lebanon adding that three soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, in one of the attacks. It added that Hezbollah fired drones inside Lebanon as well in which one hit an Israeli vehicle without inflicting casualties.

Hezbollah claimed several attacks inside Lebanon as well as firing a drone at an Israeli military post in the northern town of Misgav Am.

The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran.

Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border.

Later, Lebanon and Israel held their first direct talks in more than three decades. The two countries have formally been in a state of war since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

A new round of talks is scheduled to take place in Washington over two days starting Thursday.

A 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect on April 17. The ceasefire was later extended by three weeks.

In the Syrian capital of Damascus, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held talks Saturday with Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in which they discussed strengthening relations between the two neighbours and boosting security cooperation amid regional wars.

Speaking to reporters before heading back home, PM Salam said that Lebanon will not be used again to harm “our Arab brothers, on top of them Syria.”

He was indirectly referring to Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s civil that broke out in 2011 by backing the five-decade Assad family rule that ended in December 2024.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least one person and wounded four rescuers on Sunday (May 3, 2026), the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel maintained its attacks on the country despite a fragile truce in its war with Hezbollah.

In separate statements, the ministry said the a strike on Arabsalim killed at least one person and wounded three, including a child, and another strike on Srifa wounded five people including four rescuers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, as the strike hit near one of their centres.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (April 16, 2026) announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon effective from midnight.

“I just had excellent conversations with the Highly Respected President Joseph Aoun, of Lebanon, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel. These two Leaders have agreed that in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries, they will formally begin a 10-day ceasefire at 5 p.m. EST,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday (April 15, 2026) said Israel and the U.S. share “identical goals” in the ongoing conflict with Iran.

The Israeli Prime Minister said the U.S. has been keeping Israel updated on its contacts with Iran and reiterated that both nations seek the removal of enriched material, an end to Iran’s enrichment capabilities, and the reopening of key maritime routes.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people on Thursday (March 26, 2026), Lebanese state media said, as Hezbollah militants claimed they had staged a new wave of attacks on Israel.

Also read: West Asia war updates on March 26, 2026

The Israeli military announced, meanwhile, the killing of a soldier in fighting in south Lebanon, raising to three the total number of troops killed since Hezbollah drew Lebanon into war with Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran, the militant movement’s backer.

Israel has since launched a sustained campaign of bombardment focused mostly, but not solely, on areas where Hezbollah has long held sway, while also sending ground troops across the border in a push to establish a buffer zone by reoccupying swathes of south Lebanon.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, a strike on a building in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon killed two people. Another strike in the border area of Bint Jbeil killed another three people, the agency said.

On Wednesday (March 25, 2026), Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 1,094 people since the start of the war, 121 of them children, and wounded more than 3,000 others.

Million displaced

With swathes of Lebanon under evacuation warnings, more than a million people have fled their homes.

On Thursday (March 26, 2026), the Israeli military said it had killed 700 Hezbollah militants since the start of the war, though the movement has not announced its casualties.

With Israel pressing its bid to crush Hezbollah, the militants claimed a new round of attacks against it.

The group said it had targeted a Defence Ministry complex in Tel Aviv, as well as other military objectives in northern Israel.

Hezbollah also said it had fired rockets in Lebanon’s Khiam, scene of fierce fighting between Israeli troops and the militant group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday (March 25, 2026) that his country’s forces were expanding a “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, adding that dismantling Hezbollah “remains central” to Israel’s objectives in Lebanon.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced on a visit to Beirut on Thursday (March 26, 2026) the delivery of 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid while calling for the immediate cessation of what he called Israel’s “aggression”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for an end to the war.

“Hezbollah must stop launching attacks into Israel. And Israel must stop its military operations and strikes in Lebanon, which are hitting civilians the hardest,” he said. “The Gaza model must not be replicated in Lebanon.”

On Wednesday (March 25, 2026), Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said any negotiations with Israel under fire would amount to “surrender”, as he called on Lebanon’s authorities to rethink their decision to “criminalise” his group’s military activities.

Hezbollah and its Shiite Muslim ally Amal condemned the government’s decision to declare Iran’s ambassador persona non grata, while movements aligned with the groups called for a sit-in to support the envoy on Thursday afternoon (March 26, 2026).