Hezbollah rejects latest ceasefire agreement as Israeli strikes kill 4
in Lebanon
[June 05, 2026]
By BASSEM MROUE, JON GAMBRELL and SAM METZ
BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire
agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, and the militant
group demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as more
fighting there hampered efforts to end the Iran war.
The Hezbollah announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four
people, according to local authorities, and a U.N. peacekeeper was
killed in the crossfire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in combat in
southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, called
the negotiations “absurd, humiliating and insulting.” He said the
agreement’s demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under
fire would mean “surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy’s goals.”
“What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and
Israel’s withdrawal,” he said, underscoring that Hezbollah has not made
any commitment to stop fighting. “So long as our villages are not safe
and are being bombed and destroyed and our people are killed," he said,
northern Israel “will not be safe.”
Sirens sound after Netanyahu visit
Following Kassem’s statement, drone alert sirens sounded in several
border communities in northern Israel, including Shlomi, a town where
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers had been meeting
with local officials, his office said. Israeli media reported that
Netanyahu left a short time before the alerts sounded.
The Israeli military later said the sirens were triggered by attempts to
intercept several drones that hit near soldiers in southern Lebanon. No
injuries were reported.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, acknowledged
Thursday that the ongoing war was straining northern Israeli towns
living under the threat of Hezbollah fire. He said Israel’s operations
in Iran and Lebanon had “created a new security reality,” by weakening
Iran and Hezbollah “to an unprecedented degree.”
Lebanese troops began moving Thursday afternoon into the southern
village of Dibbine, in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, after
Israeli forces left the area, which saw intense clashes in recent days,
state-run media reported. It was the first time Israeli troops withdrew
from an area in southern Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war
began about three months ago.
The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths
of the south, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the
Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has
jolted the world economy.
Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year,
wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer
poses a threat.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who faced a rare rebuke from Congress on
Wednesday, has sought to downplay the diplomatic deadlock and the
failure of declared ceasefires to end the fighting. He told reporters
that in the Middle East, "a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more
moderate manner.”
Serbian peacekeeper and Israeli soldier killed
A Serbian peacekeeper was killed and two others were wounded when a
mortar struck their location near Marjayoun, a Christian-majority town
that has seen intense fighting, according to the U.N. mission in
southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, and the Serbian Defense Ministry.
Israel blamed Hezbollah for the firing that killed the U.N. peacekeeper,
without offering evidence. Hezbollah and the U.N. did not immediately
comment on who launched the shells.
Also Thursday, the Israeli military announced that a 21-year-old captain
in the armored corps was killed in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a drone strike killed a
motorcyclist and wounded four people in the village of Maaroub. The
Israeli military said soldiers killed an armed militant and later found
a Hezbollah cache of guns, grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other
combat gear in the area.
[to top of second column]
|
Smoke rises near the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as seen
from northern Israel, Thursday June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
The military also said it conducted strikes near the coastal city of
Tyre and around Shaqra, another community in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese news agency reported airstrikes in the south and said a
strike on the village of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon,
killed three people and wounded others.
Israel has warned people not to go into parts of southern Lebanon where
it says it is striking Hezbollah facilities.
Fighting has raged despite declared ceasefires
Hezbollah resumed rocket fire days after Israel and the United States
launched their surprise Feb. 28 attack on Iran, which backs Hezbollah.
Before then, Israel had regularly carried out strikes in Lebanon against
what it said were militant targets, often killing civilians, despite an
earlier truce reached in 2024.
After Hezbollah's rocket and drone attacks resumed, Israeli troops
seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country's
south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation.
In the southern city of Sidon, residents reacted to Wednesday's
ceasefire announcement with skepticism, saying previous agreements had
failed to stop the violence.
“Every few days a ceasefire is announced, but people keep getting
killed,” said Mayada Hijazi.
“It’s all talk and no action,” said Salah Nassab. “We keep going back to
our homes, and then we get displaced again, back and forth. We’re very
tired."
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and over 1.2 million
have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 28 Israeli
soldiers and three civilians.
Latest ceasefire came from ongoing Israeli-Lebanese talks
The latest declared ceasefire came about through U.S.-brokered talks
between Israel and Lebanon's government, which accuses Hezbollah of
dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before
the latest hostilities.
The ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanon's armed forces to take control
of security zones in Lebanon from which the militants would be banned.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called the new agreement "the
last chance to enter a final and comprehensive ceasefire.” He said
Lebanon was ready to implement the deal once he receives responses from
relevant factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah. The United States —
and Trump himself — would determine how and when the deal is
implemented, Aoun told journalists.
The agreement terms Hezbollah “an enemy" of Israel, the U.S. and Lebanon
and calls for dismantling it. The government has promised to do so in
the past but does not have the capabilities to disarm Hezbollah by
force.
The latest agreement did not say when Israel would withdraw from
southern Lebanon but said the U.S. would support the Lebanese army as it
works to assert control in areas where Hezbollah has long wielded power.
___
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Metz from
Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Malak Harb and Sarah El
Deeb in Beirut; Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Edith M. Lederer
at the United Nations contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
