The quake occurred at 1:47 p.m. on Thursday.
The event’s status and type were listed as preliminary/undetermined, and data came from 39 stations.
No immediate reports of damage or injuries were available; details may change as the event is reviewed and finalized.
Israel and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah terrorists would be banned.
In a joint statement released after a fourth round of US-mediated talks at the State Department, the two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River. It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established, but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas.
“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement said. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.”
The latter was a reference to Iran, which supports Hezbollah and has insisted that Israeli attacks on Lebanon be halted as part of a tentative agreement with the US to end the conflict with Iran. Hezbollah is not part of the Israel-Lebanon talks.
Israeli leaders had threatened that the Israel Defense Forces would target Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, if the Iran-backed terror group targeted Israeli communities.
Washington’s push for a new ceasefire came as the previous ceasefire brokered on April 16 had 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.
Before the announcement, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that in Lebanon, “there is no ceasefire for our forces,” during a visit to the Haifa Naval Base on Wednesday.
“We are working to maximize the freedom of action that has been granted to us and will seize every opportunity to remove threats to the citizens of Israel and to our forces,” he said, in remarks provided by the IDF.
Zamir also said that the Israeli Navy is becoming “an additional long-range strategic arm” of the military.
“Upon assuming my position, I directed the strengthening of the Navy as an additional long-range strategic arm of the IDF. We are now accelerating the implementation of the operational concept,” he said.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem says that fighting will continue as long as Israel is striking Lebanese villages and people are being killed, in comments that appear to reject a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and the state of Lebanon.
In a written statement read on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV on Thursday, Qassem says 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,” Qassem says. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation.”
Qassem also urges the Lebanese government to quit the “farce” of direct talks with Israel.
