BEIRUT/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON – Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire beginning at 4pm local time on June 19 (9pm Singapore time), a senior US official told Reuters, after hostilities between them had escalated sharply overnight in Lebanon.
“Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said, adding that negotiators for the US and Qataris worked out the deal with help from Iran.
“We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.”
The intensification of violence in Lebanon strained the US-Iranian interim agreement signed on June 17 to end the wider war in the Middle East.
A Hezbollah lawmaker earlier told Reuters that Iran had informed the group that talks with Washington could not continue without the implementation of a comprehensive ceasefire.
Overnight, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry reported, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in south Lebanon in one of the deadliest attacks by Hezbollah during this war.
The Iran deal requires the United States, Iran, and their allies to declare an immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Violence abated significantly earlier this week, but has since picked up. REUTERS