A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah entered into force on Friday afternoon, brokered by the United States and Qatar with Iranian assistance, according to American officials. The agreement followed a day of intense cross-border strikes that killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers, marking the sharpest escalation since Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending hostilities across all Middle Eastern fronts. Despite the truce, Lebanese state media reported an Israeli airstrike on the Jebel al-Rafie area near Sajd and sustained artillery fire around Nabatieh in the first hour after the ceasefire was scheduled to begin, before military operations subsided.

Viewed from Jerusalem, the ceasefire does not alter Israel’s military posture. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces would remain in southern Lebanon “as long as necessary,” and Defence Minister Yisrael Katz specified that troops would hold positions from the Mediterranean coast to the Beaufort heights, destroying villages and preventing residents from returning. After the announcement of the four soldiers’ deaths, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for retribution, writing that “all of Lebanon should burn.” Israeli officials described the day’s strikes—more than 150 targets hit since midnight, according to the military—as a response to repeated Hezbollah violations of the existing understandings. Hezbollah, for its part, accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire and continued rocket and drone launches, while a Hezbollah parliamentarian told Reuters that Iran had informed the group that US-Iran negotiations would not proceed if the Lebanon ceasefire failed.

The truce is nested within a wider diplomatic architecture. The US-Iran memorandum, signed remotely by Presidents Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian, envisaged a formal signing ceremony in Switzerland and the launch of a 60-day process to address Iran’s nuclear programme. Those technical talks, however, were postponed indefinitely by the Swiss government, and the expected attendance of US Vice President J.D. Vance and Pakistan’s prime minister—whose country played a mediating role—was cancelled. A diplomatic source familiar with the matter described the situation as “still fragile,” pointing to Israel and conservative voices in Iran as factors capable of derailing the agreement. Washington, according to a CNN report citing an informed source, has conveyed to Tehran that Israel will not further escalate its campaign in Lebanon, placing the onus on Hezbollah to halt attacks.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli escalation as targeting the US-Iran interim accord but said it would not obstruct efforts to reach a comprehensive ceasefire. He instructed Lebanon’s negotiating team to pursue that goal in the next round of talks in Washington, where discussions on an Israeli withdrawal, Lebanese army deployment, and prisoner returns are expected. The Lebanese health ministry reported that cumulative casualties since 2 March have reached 3,980 dead and 12,001 wounded, including 135 health workers killed. New displacement waves were observed on roads from Sidon to Beirut. The coming days will test whether the ceasefire can hold and unlock the frozen US-Iran channel, or whether the gap between the memorandum’s framework and the military facts on the ground in southern Lebanon proves unbridgeable.