A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, announced on Friday afternoon after the deadliest day in weeks, was undermined overnight when Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s state-run National News Agency. The attacks, concentrated in the Nabatieh region, struck more than a dozen locations, destroying residential buildings and triggering new civilian flight. The violence came despite a truce mediated by the United States and Qatar with Iranian cooperation, and hours after an outburst of fighting that had left 47 Lebanese dead and four Israeli soldiers killed.

From Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesman said forces retained “full operational freedom” to eliminate threats and described the strikes as responses to ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that troops would remain in southern Lebanon “as long as necessary” to protect northern communities. Hezbollah officials countered that their fire was a reaction to Israeli advances and presence, and a senior Hezbollah lawmaker warned Iran had made further negotiations conditional on a comprehensive halt to hostilities in Lebanon. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, in a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, insisted that a full ceasefire was the prerequisite for any diplomatic progress, while his government denounced the raids as a violation of sovereignty.

The renewed violence has disrupted the architecture of the memorandum of understanding signed just days earlier by the United States and Iran, which committed both sides to a suspension of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. That interim pact, which opened a 60-day window to negotiate a lasting settlement on Iran’s nuclear programme and regional security, had already led to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and tentative sanctions relief. Gulf-based diplomats and Western analysts note that Israel’s continued operations in Lebanon represent the single greatest threat to converting the temporary accord into a durable peace. Viewed from Washington, the administration of President Donald Trump—who publicly stated he had told Israel to “calm down sometimes and use your head”—scrambled to rescue the diplomatic track, dispatching special envoy Steve Witkoff to Switzerland for technical talks.

Formal US-Iran negotiations that had been postponed because of the fighting are now expected to resume, with both delegations converging on the Swiss resort of Buergenstock. In parallel, a fifth round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled for 23–25 June in Washington, where US officials aim to press for Hezbollah’s disarmament and the restoration of Lebanese state control over the south. The conflict erupted in early March when Hezbollah opened a front to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes; Israel responded with a massive air campaign and ground invasion. With each side accusing the other of violating the ceasefire, and Israeli forces still deployed inside Lebanese territory, the truce serves more as a diplomatic marker than a military reality. The coming days will determine whether international mediation can transform a nominally agreed pause into a meaningful end to hostilities.