Earlier, Trump says Iran talks 'started to get boring'

Trump announces fresh Lebanon truce as Netanyahu appears to call off Beirut strikes

Hezbollah keeps attacking Israel’s north despite declaration of ceasefire, which US president reportedly demanded PM agree to: ‘You’re f*cking crazy. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel’

US President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that Washington had brokered a fresh truce between Israel and Hezbollah, after the one reached in April unraveled in recent days. Still, the Iran-backed terror group continued to target northern Israeli communities into early Tuesday morning and Lebanese media reported fresh IDF strikes.

Following Trump’s announcement, an Israeli source said Jerusalem agreed to postpone planned strikes on Beirut, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said they had instructed the military to strike Hezbollah targets in the capital.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he had a “very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no troops going to Beirut, and any troops that are on their way, have already been turned back.”

“He turned his Troops around. Thank you Bibi!” Trump said, describing Israel’s attack plans as “a major raid of Beirut.”

Israeli military sources, however, said no troops had been en route to Beirut, contrary to Trump’s claim.

“Likewise — through highly placed representatives — I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — that Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” Trump added, without specifying with whom he spoke, while also claiming Hezbollah had consented to not target Israeli troops.

“Let’s see how long that lasts — Hopefully it will be for ETERNITY!”

Prior to a phone call Monday with Netanyahu, Trump told CNBC that he would ask the Israeli premier, “What’s going on with Lebanon?”

Trump reportedly went on to lash out at Netanyahu during the call, calling him “fucking crazy” as he demanded that Israel agree to the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Axios cited a US official summarizing Trump’s message to Netanyahu as follows: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

While US officials told the news site that Trump was aware Hezbollah had been firing repeatedly at Israel and that Jerusalem had a right to respond, they also said he believed the IDF had responded disproportionately in recent days, endangering Washington’s efforts to secure a ceasefire extension with Iran — which is conditioning a deal on a truce in Lebanon.

Trump “steamrolled” Netanyahu on the call, and “Bibi said, ‘OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,’” a US official told Axios.

US officials were also quoted saying that Trump told Netanyahu that he has kept him out of prison, a reference to Trump’s repeated public demand that Israeli President Isaac Herzog pardon the prime minister, who is in the midst of a lengthy corruption trial.

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Truce terms remain unclear as fighting continues

Washington’s push for a new ceasefire came as the previous ceasefire brokered on April 16 has largely evaporated, with Hezbollah keeping up its relentless rocket and drone attacks and the Israel Defense Forces pushing ahead with an expanded ground operation and widening airstrikes.

Trump did not clarify the exact terms of his apparent ceasefire, and there were conflicting indications as to what it entails from Washington, Jerusalem, Beirut and Hezbollah, with the latter claiming the truce prevents Israel from strikes not only in the Lebanese capital but in the entire country.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly informed the US that Hezbollah was ready to sign a full ceasefire with Israel and that he would guarantee the truce’s implementation.

“I called the US ambassador to Beirut, Michel Issa, on Sunday and told him on behalf of Speaker Berri that Hezbollah will be ready to totally commit to a comprehensive ceasefire and we are ready to guarantee it,” Berri’s aide Ali Hamdan told the Axios news site.

Axios said the ceasefire that Hezbollah is willing to accept would still allow Israel to keep its large buffer zone in south Lebanon.

Berri has close ties to Hezbollah, but it is far from clear that the senior lawmaker can ensure the terror group’s compliance with a ceasefire.

Hamdan confirmed that the US proposed a partial ceasefire over the weekend that would require Hezbollah to stop striking northern Israel in return for the IDF committing to not strike Beirut.

A US official told Axios that Berri’s response to Washington’s proposal was “evasive and disappointing” — a charge rejected by Hamdan.

“The proposal we received was no Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel and that in return Israel will not bomb Beirut and then gradually the ceasefire will expand to other areas. Speaker Berri’s reply was, ‘Why a partial ceasefire? Let’s have a full ceasefire,” Hamdan said.

Berri instead proposed a full ceasefire on the ground, air and sea that would also include a cessation of Israeli home demolitions in southern Lebanon.

Hamdan told Axios that Berri has been able to exchange messages with Hezbollah’s secretary general Naim Qassem, who is believed to be in hiding.

“We are sure Hezbollah will commit to a total ceasefire. We think it will be more productive. We know time is running out,” Hamdan said.

The same US official quoted earlier by Axios told the news site that he stood by his earlier characterization of Berri’s response.

While the US has, for months, urged Israel not to strike Beirut, officials have refrained from doing so publicly, or even anonymously in the press.

“The US does not expect Israel to absorb ongoing attacks on its civilians by a terrorist organization,” the US official told Axios, suggesting that Washington’s opposition to strikes in Beirut could soften.

There was no immediate response from Israel to Trump’s announcement, but after around two hours, Netanyahu said Israel would proceed with its earlier plans to strike Beirut should Hezbollah not halt its attacks on northern Israel.

“I spoke this evening with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not stop attacking our cities and civilians, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut. This position remains unchanged,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language statement.

“At the same time, the IDF will continue operating in southern Lebanon as planned,” Netanyahu said.

Separately, an Israeli source told the Ynet news site that Israel had postponed the planned strikes on Beirut at the request of the US, which had asked it to hold off as it worked to advance the ceasefire initiative announced by Trump.

Earlier on Monday, an Israeli official had told the news outlet that the now-postponed Beirut strikes had been coordinated with Washington. The outlet noted the possibility that the purpose of ordering the attack was to pressure Hezbollah into agreeing to the ceasefire proposal.

Shortly after Netanyahu’s statement, sirens sounded in the border community of Metula, which the IDF said were triggered by a rocket launched by Hezbollah that struck near Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.

Sirens were also activated early Tuesday morning in communities across the north, including the Upper Galilee city of Safed, where the IDF said it intercepted two Hezbollah rockets launched toward the area. In the Western Galilee, an apparent Hezbollah drone struck a military position close to the border with Lebanon.

There were no injuries in any of the attacks.

Lebanese media, meanwhile, reported several Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon in the wake of Trump’s announcement, though there was no immediate comment from the IDF.

Trump: Iran talks ‘started to get very boring’

Trump’s announcement of a fresh ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came after Tehran reportedly threatened to bolt talks with the US if the IDF didn’t cease its strikes in Lebanon.

Then, following his announcement, Trump declared that talks were “continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump later explicitly linked the two, telling ABC News that he believed a deal to extend the US-Iran truce and reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be reached “over the next week” after fixing “a little glitch” that he said was Iranian anger over Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.

Earlier he had told CNBC that he wasn’t bothered by the potential collapse of negotiations with Iran, saying, “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump went on, complaining that the lengthy interactions had “started to get very boring.”

The sequence of events would appear to undercut US efforts to try to separate the war in Lebanon from its conflict with Iran. Tehran has insisted on tying the two, as it seeks to protect its Hezbollah proxy and continue influencing events in Lebanon. While the US and Israel have pushed back against such linkage, Washington’s effort to secure another Lebanon truce announcement just hours after Tehran threatened to abandon talks with the over the issue indicated that the Trump administration was not as committed to separating the two fronts as Jerusalem is.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the US and Israel attacked its main backer, Iran. Since then, 26 IDF soldiers and one Defense Ministry civilian contractor have been killed in southern Lebanon, 14 of them since a ceasefire was introduced on April 16. Two civilians were also 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 over 2,500 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since early March.

Since March 2, Hezbollah has fired some 5,500 rockets at IDF troops operating in the south of the country, as well as around 2,500 at Israel, according to the military. There were at least 75 rocket impact sites in Israel.

In addition, Hezbollah launched around 300 drones, of which 25 struck Israel, according to the IDF.

The IDF believes Hezbollah still possesses thousands of short-range rockets, along with hundreds of longer-range projectiles. The IDF has said that Hezbollah is launching most of its attacks from deeper within southern Lebanon, north of the Litani River, and not from areas close to the border.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.