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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has directed his cabinet to begin ceasefire talks with Lebanon “as soon as possible”, a day after his country unleashed the largest-scale attacks yet on its neighbour, killing at least 300 people and injuring 1,150.
In an X statement in Hebrew on Thursday, Netanyahu said he had made the request after “repeated calls” from Beirut to open direct talks but confirmed that Israel is still striking Hezbollah – even as analysts warn that the attacks could derail peace talks between the United States and Iran set to begin on Saturday in Pakistan.
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Israel’s heaviest bombing of Lebanon on Wednesday came without usual warnings, just hours after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran that began on February 28.
Strikes continued in Lebanon on Friday morning, although at a reduced pace. Hezbollah, too, has fired missiles into Israel.
Experts say Wednesday’s bloody attacks were likely designed to derail Tehran’s talks with the US, as Iran has insisted that halting fire on both Iran and Lebanon would form the basis for any negotiations.
Iran-backed Hezbollah began hitting Israel in defence of Tehran, opening up another front in the US-Israel war. Israel says its retaliation and consequent invasion of southern Lebanon are aimed at targeting fighter positions, but thousands of civilians have died, and more than one million people have been displaced.
Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years from 1982 in response to armed attacks from Palestinian fighters, and Hezbollah was formed in resistance to that invasion.
The group has since morphed into a political party represented in parliament, but its armed wing, described as equivalent to a medium-sized army and stronger than the Lebanese military, has remained active.
Here’s what we know about the Lebanese-Israeli talks:
A woman and an injured man, centre, are rescued by firefighters from a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli air strike in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, April 8, 2026 [Emilio Morenatti/AP]Are ceasefire talks really happening?
As of Friday morning, both the Israeli and Lebanese governments have signalled willingness to hold peace talks, but Israel’s continued bombing of the country is causing scepticism among analysts as to its real intentions.
For Israel, disarming Hezbollah is a priority, Netanyahu reiterated in a televised address on Thursday, adding that Israel would continue striking the group even as he directed ceasefire talks to start.
In an X statement, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir said on Friday: “We continue to fight against Hezbollah with great intensity … we are prepared to resume fighting with great determination if required at any given moment.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Joseph Aoun, in his response to Netanyahu’s announcement of talks, said he welcomed the move.
However, Beirut has insisted that there will be no negotiations with the country under fire.
Israel may have no choice but to comply, analysts say, as reports emerge that Washington, racing to protect its talks with Iran as a priority, is applying pressure. The US has even offered to mediate and host Israeli and Lebanese negotiators, an unnamed US official told AFP news agency.
The Wall Street Journal reported that US President Donald Trump pressured Netanyahu to stop bombing Lebanon after Wednesday’s barrage of bombs.
In a shorter than usual phone call, Trump delivered a stern warning to Netanyahu over Israel’s actions in Lebanon, the WSJ reported.
The US president confirmed to NBC on Thursday that he spoke with Netanyahu and that Israel will “be sort of a little more low-key”.
Vice President JD Vance also said that Israel has agreed to “check itself” in Lebanon.
Israel is also under pressure from its European allies, particularly Germany and France, to cease attacks on Lebanon.
But talks between the Lebanese and Israeli governments – if they happen – will be uneasy, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said, reporting from Beirut.
While the Lebanese government itself banned Hezbollah’s military wing in March, blaming it for dragging Lebanon into the US-Israel war on Iran, Beirut will insist on a halt to all hostilities before any talks, she said.
On the other hand, Hezbollah, which holds 15 of 128 seats in parliament, has rejected any talks with Israel.
Analysts say Iran’s insistence on including Lebanon in the agreement, while beneficial, also risks the ire of the government in Beirut. Lebanon, they say, wants a greater say over when it enters or exits a war.
The mother and wife of Lebanese man Mohammed Zain al-Abidin Shehab, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, react during his funeral in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 9, 2026 [Mohamad Azakir/Reuters]Why does Lebanon matter for the US-Iran ceasefire negotiations?
Iran was clear in its 10-point proposal to the US that Israel and Washington must halt attacks on all of its allies – including Hezbollah – for the two-week ceasefire announced on Tuesday to hold and for negotiations to begin.
Against that backdrop, Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon is now violating Tehran’s red lines, analysts point out, and could derail the fragile truce between the US and Iran.
Israel said it killed an aide to Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem in the major escalation on Wednesday and confirmed on Friday it still had troops in southern Lebanon.
Iran has condemned the attacks on Lebanon, saying it is a “grave violation” of its deal with the US and has threatened “strong responses”.
Middle East analyst Mohamad Elmasry said Tehran will likely insist on a Lebanon ceasefire in the Islamabad talks.
Not doing so “would be stabbing the Lebanese, stabbing Hezbollah in the back” from Iran’s point of view, Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
“They understand Israel is on a path to a ‘Greater Israel’, as they call it; they are going through systematically country by country … so it’s really important for the entire region that Israel stops.”
Why was there confusion over whether Lebanon was included in Iran-US talks?
After Iran and the US confirmed Tuesday’s ceasefire, thousands of displaced people in Lebanon began returning to their homes in celebration.
Iran, in its statements, had said the two-week ceasefire included the Lebanon front.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who negotiated the talks, said in his statement that the US and Israel, “along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY”.
The US did not initially comment on Lebanon in its statements. Trump did say that “almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran”.
He also called Iran’s 10-point plan “workable”.
But after Wednesday’s devastating bombing in Beirut, Trump said Lebanon was never a part of the ceasefire deal with Iran. The White House doubled down on that assertion, insisting that Lebanon was not a part of the agreement. US Vice President JD Vance, who is expected to lead his country’s delegation at the talks in Islamabad on Saturday, also said that the Iranians had a “genuine misunderstanding” — and that Lebanon was not included in the truce.
Nevertheless, Vance said that Israel would reduce the intensity of its attacks on Lebanon to give the Islamabad dialogue a chance, a claim that Trump echoed on Thursday.
Pakistan’s Sharif described the attacks as “violations of ceasefire … across the conflict zone” in an X statement on the same day without directly mentioning Israel.
But while Israel’s Friday morning attacks on Lebanon were not as big as Wednesday’s strikes, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir has said his forces were not following any ceasefire in Lebanon.
“No one seems to agree about what everyone agreed about,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera.
“We don’t know what both sides think they agreed to. And then you have the added complication, which is particularly pertinent to Lebanon, that various parties to the conflict were not represented at the table. The Gulf states were not represented, and [neither was] Israel.”
