Lebanon says ceasefire must be in place before Israel talks

A senior official in the Lebanese president's office has told the BBC that Lebanon will participate in direct negotiations with Israel next week only if there is a ceasefire in place beforehand.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorised direct talks following what he said were "repeated requests from the Lebanese government".

A US State Department official said it would host a meeting next week in Washington "to discuss ongoing ceasefire negotiations" between the two countries.

Israeli air strikes have continued to hit Lebanon, with 21 people killed in the latest attacks, Lebanese authorities say. Hezbollah has also fired more rockets at several places in Israel.

Lebanese authorities said the deaths included seven members of the same family in the town of Abbassieh and 11 people in Zrarieh. A medical centre in Burj Qalaway was also hit, killing two people, while a drone strike targeted an ambulance in Toul, with no casualties reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck about 10 rocket launchers on Thursday night which it said had fired on northern Israel. It said it was continuing to locate and destroy more.

Hezbollah also fired rockets at Israel overnight, triggering sirens across the country. One was fired at the southern coastal city of Ashdod - the furthest Hezbollah has targeted in the current fighting - but was intercepted, the IDF said.

The group said it fired rockets at Kiryat Shmona, near the Israel-Lebanon border, at 10:00 (06:00 BST) on Friday, and Misgav Am in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel. There are no reports of casualties.

It said it was acting in response to what it described as Israel's "violation" of the US-Iran ceasefire agreement.

But there is fierce dispute over whether Lebanon was included in the US-Iran ceasefire declared by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Pakistan, which mediated the truce, and Iran say it was, while the US and Israel say it was not. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the BBC on Thursday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon constituted a "grave violation" of the ceasefire.

But speaking in Budapest on Wednesday, US Vice-President JD Vance said "I ⁠think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't."

In a statement addressed to residents of northern Israel on Thursday night, Benjamin Netanyahu said there was "no ceasefire in Lebanon".

He added that "after repeated requests from the Lebanese government to open peace negotiations with us, I instructed the cabinet last night to open direct negotiations with Lebanon in order to achieve two goals: One - disarming Hezbollah. And the second - a historic and sustainable peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon".

Direct talks between Lebanon and Israel would be highly unusual, with the two countries historically communicating through intermediaries. Efforts to establish negotiations have been ongoing since a ceasefire agreement in November 2024, with US envoys previously mediating indirect talks between the two sides.

In Beirut, rescue teams are continuing to recover bodies after the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the start of the latest fighting.

More than 300 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded, according to Lebanon's health ministry, when Israeli jets carried out a 10-minute blitz across Lebanon on Wednesday.

The IDF said it had targeted "100+ Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, & command-and-control centres".