IDF said to hit last bridge linking south to rest of Lebanon

Beirut said to balk as Trump pushes for 1st-ever call between leaders of Lebanon and Israel

President Aoun reportedly tells Rubio he won’t speak to PM Netanyahu, with Lebanon pressing for a ceasefire before any talks while cross-border fighting continues in full force

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised a phone call the following day between Israeli and Lebanese leaders, but a Lebanese report on Thursday appeared to throw cold water on the likelihood of such a conversation.

The diplomatic efforts came amid US attempts to build on talks held in Washington this week to end fighting between Israel and Lebanon and pave the way for a larger peace deal, while Beirut continued to insist on a ceasefire as a precondition for any discussions.

Despite the efforts, the IDF continued to strike Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon throughout Thursday, while the terror group fired rockets and drones at a wide swath of northern Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun spoke Thursday with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was reportedly seeking to facilitate the call between Aoun and Netanyahu.

According to the Lebanese outlet LBCI, Aoun informed Rubio that he would not speak with Netanyahu.

That came after Trump said late Wednesday night that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon were set to speak directly on the following day.

“Trying to get a little breathing room between Israel and Lebanon. It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years. It will happen tomorrow. Nice!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.

In fact, no sitting leaders of Israel and Lebanon have publicly spoken in the history of the two countries.

Lebanon is believed to be demanding a ceasefire before agreeing to hold such high-level engagement with Israel, but Jerusalem has to date been holding out on agreeing to one, as it seeks to continue degrading Hezbollah’s military capabilities.

The security cabinet discussed a potential Lebanon ceasefire during a meeting on Wednesday night, but the session reportedly ended without a decision.

Speaking earlier Thursday, Aoun once again stressed the importance of reaching a ceasefire before any direct negotiations with Israel.

“The ceasefire requested by Lebanon with Israel is the natural starting point for direct negotiations between the two countries,” Aoun said in a statement.

Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel said during a radio interview Thursday that a Netanyahu-Aoun call was expected later that day.

“The prime minister will speak for the first time with the president of Lebanon after so many years of a total disconnect in the dialogue between the two states, and this move will hopefully, in the end, lead to prosperity,” she said.

The Lebanese outlet Al-Jadeed reported that mediators were working to schedule a trilateral call between Rubio, Netanyahu and Aoun. According to the report, the call was expected to concern a ceasefire between the two countries and the launch of a process to implement steps for both sides aimed at reaching an agreement between Jerusalem and Beirut.

Israeli and Lebanese envoys held a historic direct meeting in Washington on Tuesday, attended by Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad.

Leiter said after the meeting that Beirut and Jerusalem had agreed they were on the “same side” in fighting against Hezbollah, while a joint statement from the three nations said the talks were positive and could lead to a “comprehensive peace deal.”

A senior US official told reporters late Wednesday that the American government did not demand Israel agree to a ceasefire before talks could move forward.

“This is not something we have asked for, nor is it part of the peace negotiations with Iran, but the president would welcome the end of hostilities in Lebanon as part of a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon,” the official said in a statement.

But cross-border violence continued in full force throughout Thursday morning and afternoon, with both Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rocket attacks.

Missiles from Lebanon set off sirens throughout Thursday morning in the northern Israeli towns of Metula, Karmiel, Kiryat Shmona, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi and others. No injuries were reported in the attacks.

The IDF also reiterated again on Thursday its wide-scale evacuation warning for southern Lebanon.

“Hezbollah’s terror activities are forcing the IDF to act strongly against it. Strikes are ongoing… therefore, for your safety, we again urge you to evacuate your homes immediately and move at once to north of the Zahrani River,” said army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee on X.

The IDF said Thursday that it had razed 70 Hezbollah sites in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon following a raid by commando forces a day earlier.

Troops of the Egoz commando unit raided the Aynata “casbah,” or fortified neighborhood, adjacent to Bint Jbeil, which the IDF describes as a Hezbollah “combat compound.” The troops located numerous weapons, including RPGs, assault rifles, grenades, anti-aircraft missiles, and other equipment.

“After the searches were completed, the forces destroyed approximately 70 terror infrastructures within just one minute,” the IDF said.

Meanwhile, troops of the Maglan commando unit killed “numerous” Hezbollah operatives in the area, the army said. The military also said that IDF troops uncovered more than 130 weapons inside a school in the Bint Jbeil area.

And according to Lebanese reports, the IDF once again struck the Qasmiyeh Bridge over the Litani River, destroying it completely.

The strike was said to have severed the last bridge linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, according to a senior Lebanese security official who spoke to Reuters, and added that the strike “shattered” the bridge and left no possibility of repairing it.

Israel previously targeted the bridge on March 23, accusing Hezbollah of using it to move operatives and weapons into the country’s south. That drew condemnation from Beirut, which at the time called the strike a “dangerous escalation.”

The Lebanese state-run National News Agency also reported Thursday that an Israeli strike targeting a car on the road linking the Lebanese capital, Beirut, to the Syrian capital Damascus killed one person.

NNA reported that the highway was subsequently shut.

Since the renewal of cross-border fighting last month, 13 IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah, two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military has said that it has killed some 1,700 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran.

More than 3,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have also been struck, including hundreds of command centers, weapon depots and rocket and missile launchers, according to the IDF.