Massive celebrations swept through Lebanon as a 10-day ceasefire with Israel took effect on Friday, in what US President Donald Trump hailed as a ‘historic day.’
Trump announced the deal on Thursday after speaking with Israeli and Lebanese officials, noting that representatives from both countries met in Washington on Tuesday in the first diplomatic encounter in more than 30 years.
When the ceasefire then took effect on Friday, barrages of gunshots rang out across Beirut as residents fired their weapons into the air in celebration.
At the same time, displaced families started to return to their homes in southern Lebanon – leading to long car caravans clogging the roads as residents waved flags out the windows, according to The New York Times.
Lights and fireworks also illuminated the night sky.
As the celebrations continued, Trump took to his Truth Social page to tout the deal he helped broker.
‘May have been a historic day for Lebanon,’ the president wrote. ‘Good things are happening!!!’
The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon marks a major stepping stone for the US to secure a peace deal with Iran, which has said it would not engage in a second round of peace talks with the US unless Israel entered into a ceasefire with Lebanon.
The Israeli government has previously said Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, was not included in the two-week ceasefire deal between the US, Israel and Iran, and strikes between the two countries have continued.
Yet the agreed-upon ceasefire remains fraught on Friday as Israeli officials vowed to keep its forces in southern Lebanon, saying they would attack if threatened, and Hezbollah said the Lebanese people have the ‘right to resist.’
Massive celebrations swept through Lebanon on Friday as a 10-day ceasefire between the country and Israeli forces went into effect
Residents who were displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon clogged the roadways as they returned home on Friday
President Donald Trump hailed the ceasefire as a ‘historic day for Lebanon’ in a post to his Truth Social page
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said he agreed to the ceasefire ‘to advance’ peace efforts with Lebanon, but said Israeli troops would not withdraw.
Israeli forces have engaged in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the border area as they pushed into southern Lebanon to create what officials have called a ‘security zone.’ Netanyahu, in his video address, said it will extend six miles into Lebanon.
‘That is where we are, and we are not leaving,’ he said.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon also told reporters at the State Department in Washington DC: ‘We will have to follow very carefully what’s happening on the ground.
‘We are not going anywhere. We are holding our positions,’ he vowed, noting: ‘The problem is not with the Lebanese government, the problem is with Hezbollah. And it will be challenging.’
Hezbollah then responded that ‘Israeli occupation on our land grants Lebanon and its people the right to resist it, and this matter will be determined based on how developments unfold’ – a stance that could complicate the ceasefire.
But according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel reserves the right to defend itself ‘at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.’
Otherwise, Israel ‘will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, and other state targets,’ the US State Department said.
Displaced residents are seen returning in a vehicle loaded with belongings to Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Lasers lit up the sky over Beirut as the ceasefire agreement went into effect
The wording suggested Israel would maintain the freedom to strike at will, as it did in the months following the ceasefire that ended the previous war. This time, Hezbollah said it would respond to any strikes by Israel.
It now remains unclear when the 1 million people displaced by the war will be able to safely return.
But Lebanon’s state-run National News agency has already reported that Israeli shelling continued in the villages of Khiam and Dibbine about a half hour after the truce went into effect. Israel’s military said it was looking into reports of shelling and artillery fire in southern Lebanon.
At the same time, Hezbollah continued firing rockets at northern Israeli towns and communities right up to the start of the ceasefire. Air raid sirens went off in some often-targeted border towns less than 10 minutes before midnight.
The agreement came after a meeting between Israel’s and Lebanon´s ambassadors in Washington and a flurry of subsequent phone calls from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a White House official told the Associated Press.
They were the first direct diplomatic talks between the two countries in decades. Hezbollah had opposed direct talks between Lebanon and Israel.
President Trump announced the ceasefire deal on Thursday after speaking with Israeli and Lebanese officials
The US president spoke Wednesday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire under certain terms, and later spoke with Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun
Trump spoke Wednesday evening with Netanyahu, who agreed to a ceasefire with certain terms, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rubio then called Lebanon´s president, Joseph Aoun, who got on board. Trump then spoke with Aoun, and again with Netanyahu.
The State Department worked with both governments to formulate a memorandum of understanding for the truce.
Trump also invited the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to the White House for what he said would be ‘the first meaningful talks’ between the countries since 1983.
‘Both sides want to see PEACE, and I believe that will happen, quickly,’ Trump wrote on social media.
Lebanese officials have claimed Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,100 people and displaced over 1 million people in the country, while Israeli officials say Hezbollah’s attacks have killed at least a dozen Israeli soldiers and two civilians.
Pakistan´s army chief, Gen. Asim Munir (left), was in Iran’s capital of Tehran on Thursday to secure a second-round of negotiations. He is pictured with the speaker of Iran’s Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (right)
Meanwhile, Pakistan´s army chief, Gen. Asim Munir, was in Iran’s capital of Tehran on Thursday to secure a second-round of negotiations ahead of the April 22 deadline of a two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.
The first-round of negotiations failed last weekend when the Iranians pushed for the right to enrich uranium for 20 years, Trump has said.
But Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have reportedly been continuing to engage with Iranian officials and their intermediaries.
Following the ceasefire agreement between Israeli and Lebanese forces on Thursday, Trump sounded optimistic about bringing Iranian officials back to the negotiating table, even telling reporters he ‘might’ go to Pakistan himself if there was a peace deal to sign.
‘They’ve agreed to give us back the nuclear dust that’s way underground because of the attack that we made with the B-2 bombers,’ he claimed.
‘So we have a lot of agreement with Iran and I think something is going to happen, very positive.’
He also suggested that negotiations could begin as early as this weekend.
Two Iranian sources also told Reuters there were signs of a compromise emerging on its highly enriched uranium stockpile.
Yet tensions remain over the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply traverses.
Tensions remain over control of the Strait of Hormuz, which US naval forces have been blockading
One-fifth of the world’s oil supply traverses the narrow waterway
The US has implemented a naval blockade on all Iranian ports as Iranian forces tried to maintain control of the vital waterway.
But Iran’s military has since warned it would retaliate by blocking other important shipping routes if the US blockade continues.
On Wednesday, Major General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, the commander of Iran’s top military center, threatened to halt all trade in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, NPR reports.
Of particular concern is the Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow waterway in the Red Sea for vessels sailing between Europe and Asia.
Iranian-aligned Houthi militants control most of the coastline and have previously disrupted shipping in that passage during the height of the war in Gaza.
Another route that could be in jeopardy if Iran retaliates is a pipeline that Saudi Arabia used just after the war began at the end of February to divert crude oil from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
Some Iranian officials doubled down on that rhetoric even as the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Thursday, with one top aide to Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei saying the country would sink US ships if Trump tries to ‘police’ the Strait.
The official added that he welcomes a ground invasion as a chance to hold US soldiers hostage.
Mohsen Rezaee, a former commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, also told the Iranian Fars news agency he is personally opposed to a ceasefire and that Iran is prepared for a prolonged war with the US.
