10-Day Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire Begins Amid Skepticism

10-Day Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire Begins Amid Skepticism

Stefan J. Bos

A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect at midnight local time after being announced by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, though skepticism remained over whether the truce would hold.

Trump said Friday he is inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for what would be their first direct talks in more than 30 years.

Aoun had refused to speak with Netanyahu just hours earlier. However, both governments ultimately agreed to the ceasefire following more than a month of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon after deadly clashes.

TRUCE UNDER STRAIN

“In the sky above the northern city of Nahariya, Israel’s air defense interceptors shot them down, triggering loud explosions. Ambulance crews said at least three people were wounded by shrapnel in the hours before the ceasefire took effect, including two seriously,” said Lucy Williamson, a Middle East correspondent for broadcaster BBC in Nahariya.

“On the ground here—and across the country—there’s skepticism about why Israel’s leader has signed up to the truce,” she added, referring to Netanyahu.

In Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, residents expressed both hope and reservations about the ceasefire, two days after the countries held their first direct diplomatic talks in decades in Washington.

“I think it is in the best interest of both Israel and Lebanon to have a ceasefire, and hopefully both countries will be wise enough to hold it,” said Tel Aviv resident Eyal Rosovsky.

On the other side of the border, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli shelling “continued” in the villages of Khiam and Dibbine on Friday, about half an hour after the truce began.

VIOLATIONS REPORTED

The Lebanese Army repeated its warning to displaced residents against returning to southern Lebanon due to intermittent shelling.

Israel’s military said early Friday that it was looking “into reports of shelling and artillery fire” in southern Lebanon.

The terms of the ceasefire, provided by the U.S. State Department, prohibit Israel from offensive military actions in Lebanon. However, they appear to leave room for “self-defense,” including actions against “planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

Despite reported violations, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the ceasefire.

Guterres said he hopes the truce will pave the way for negotiations toward a long-term solution to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

The secretary-general reaffirmed U.N. support “for all efforts to end hostilities and the suffering of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border,” Dujarric said.

However, concerns remained over a separate ceasefire involving Israel, the United States, and Iran.

Pakistan’s army chief met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday in a bid to extend that separate ceasefire arrangement.

U.S. Navy Spy Drone Circles Cuba As Report Says Pentagon Weighing Possible Military Ops

U.S. Navy Spy Drone Circles Cuba As Report Says Pentagon Weighing Possible Military Ops

 TYLER DURDEN

With President Trump signaling on Thursday that a deal with Tehran could be close, and indicating that another round of talks may take place this weekend, the focus is already beginning to shift beyond the Gulf region and back toward the Gulf of America, where reports earlier this week suggested the U.S. military was preparing for some form of intervention against the communist regime in Cuba.

USA Today reported on Wednesday that the Department of War is preparing for a possible operation in Cuba. The report was based on two sources.

The DoW responded to the outlet, saying it plans for a range of contingencies and remains prepared to execute the president's orders as directed.

By early Friday, X user OSINTdefender reported that a U.S. Navy high-altitude, long-endurance maritime surveillance drone "flew an over-12-hour mission off the coast of Cuba."

BLKCAT6, a U.S. Navy MQ-4C “Triton” High-Altitude Surveillance Drone flew an over 12-hour mission yesterday off the coast of Cuba, flying rounds over the Gulf of America and Northern Caribbean, taking a particularly close look at both Havana and the area near Guantanamo Bay,… pic.twitter.com/X8UahG4Z0Y

The drone in question was a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton, used primarily for maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. It is also used for target detection and tracking.

Importantly, the maritime surveillance drone provided the Navy with a wide-area view of what was happening along the Cuban coast. It is often paired with a P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft.

Also on Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed a crowd of communist supporters, saying he does not want conflict with the U.S. He also boasted that Cuban forces would defeat the U.S. military.

Díaz-Canel told the crowd: "We have to be ready to resist serious threats, including military aggression. We do not seek it, but it is our duty to prepare to avert it, and, should it prove inevitable, to win it."

The Trump administration has been calling on the communist regime in Havana to open the island economically so it can thrive, rather than remain trapped in its current state of economic collapse - a byproduct of failed communism. Oddly enough, some Democrats and left-wing NGOs continue to praise communism in Cuba and claim that it works well.

President Trump's march across the Western Hemisphere and into the Gulf region appears to be ushering in a new order, one in which the U.S. maintains its dominance for another generation by controlling energy flows. China is certainly angered.

 

Tanker Armada Races For Hormuz After Iran Says Strait Is Open

Tanker Armada Races For Hormuz After Iran Says Strait Is Open

TYLER DURDEN

An armada of at least eight oil tankers set off toward the Strait of Hormuz immediately after Iran’s foreign minister said the vital waterway was fully open to shipping.

Five of the carriers, which had been anchored north of Dubai, were moving into the waterway on Friday afternoon, soon after Iran’s foreign minister said it was completely open, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Three more, which were waiting about 70 miles west, have also begun moving in the direction of the strait.

The tankers moved despite reports in Iranian media that suggested the country was still seeking to impose restrictions. Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that ships and cargoes linked to “hostile” countries would not be allowed through (in other words, no change from before). Passage via Strait of Hormuz will be closed if US naval blockade continues as it will be considered a violation of the ceasefire, the country’s Fars news agency reported. At the same time, Trump said that Iran-aligned ships would be barred passage as per the recently announced blockade until a ceasefire is finalized. 

Earlier in the day, before the news that the Strait had reopened, we learned that a Greek shipowner whose vessels have repeatedly braved the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war, sent through its biggest oil supertanker since the start of the conflict. The Atokos, a VLCC with a transport capacity of about 2 million barrels, signaled its location in the Indian Ocean on Friday. That would suggest it navigated Hormuz, with its digital transponder off, over the past several days.

It's not just tankers: according to MarineTraffic, today also saw the first cruise ship transit the Strait since conflict began. The cruise ship Celestyal Discovery has become the first passenger vessel to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the conflict. The Malta-flagged vessel departed Dubai on 17 April after remaining docked

And merchant ships are also rushing to cross the strait before Iran changes it mind. 

If all the ships ships headed for the strait are able to continue their voyages into the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea beyond, their movements would be among the clearest signs yet that Hormuz might finally be opening up to shipping that isn’t connected to Iran since the war began on Feb. 28.

More importantly, amid the constant headline ping pong, there remains lots of confusion as to the actual state of affairs, although as we reported previously, the only thing that matters in this entire conflict is whether the Strait is reopened: in a few hours we will have the answer. 

USS Gerald Ford returns to Mideast as 3rd American aircraft carrier heads to region

USS Gerald Ford returns to Mideast as 3rd American aircraft carrier heads to region

AP

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, has again entered the waters of the Middle East, two defense officials tell the Associated Press.

The Ford, which until recently was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, transited the Suez Canal, along with a pair of destroyers, the USS Mahan and the USS Winston S. Churchill, and is now operating in the Red Sea, one official says.

Both speak on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

The Ford is returning to the Red Sea after more than a month in the Mediterranean following a major fire in a laundry space that forced the ship back to port for repairs. The carrier also broke the record for the longest aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam war this week.

The Ford’s arrival makes it the second aircraft carrier in the region in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. The USS George H. W. Bush is also heading toward the region and is currently off the coast of South Africa, according to one defense official.

Netanyahu: Long ‘road to peace’ begins, as Trump says Israel ‘PROHIBITED’ from bombing Lebanon

Netanyahu: Long ‘road to peace’ begins, as Trump says Israel ‘PROHIBITED’ from bombing Lebanon

Lazar Berman

Emanuel Fabian

Nurit Yohanan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the road to peace with Lebanon was long, “but we have begun,” as he defended his decision to accept a 10-day ceasefire with Hezbollah, framing it as a strategic opening for both diplomacy and continued military pressure.

However, the impression that this was a truce imposed upon Israel was reinforced by US President Donald Trump, who declared in a Truth Social post that Israel “will not be bombing Lebanon any longer.”

“They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA. Enough is enough,” he added in an unprecedented expression of US control over Israel’s actions.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu sought to give the truce a positive spin.

“One hand holds a weapon; the other is extended for peace,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, explaining that at the request of Trump, Israel was “giving an opportunity to advance a combined diplomatic and military solution with the Lebanese government.”

Still, Netanyahu made clear the campaign against Hezbollah was far from over. He argued that since October 7, 2023, Israel had removed the threat of infiltration and anti-tank fire from the group and eliminated roughly 90% of its rocket arsenal.

“I will say honestly, we have not yet finished the job,” he added, warning that further action was planned against remaining rocket and drone threats. Dismantling Hezbollah, he said, would require “sustained effort, patience, and careful navigation in the diplomatic arena.”

His remarks came as the fragile ceasefire, brokered by Washington after some six weeks of fighting, took effect overnight.

Despite the truce, Lebanese media on Friday evening reported one killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a motorcycle between the southern towns of Kounine and Beit Yahoun. There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the incident.

Netanyahu stunned

Netanyahu was reportedly “stunned and alarmed” by Trump’s statement, learning of it from the media, a senior Israeli source told Axios, which noted that such pronouncements, implying that Israel had no choice but to obey, would have been under any other US administration.

Axios said that aides to Netanyahu, including Israel’s envoy in Washington, Yechiel Leiter, scrambled to understand the implications of Trump’s remarks, approaching the White House for clarification as they contradicted the terms of the agreement.

And a US official later clarified Trump’s remarks, telling The Times of Israel that the “ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel clearly states that Israel will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets but preserves its right to self-defense against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah signaled it remained on high alert hours after the ceasefire began, saying its fighters were keeping their “finger on the trigger” in the event of Israeli violations, citing fears of the “enemy’s treachery.”

Trump similarly cautioned Hezbollah against undermining the truce in a separate Truth Social post, saying, “I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time… No more killing. Must finally have PEACE!”

 Defense Minister Israel Katz stressed that the ceasefire was only a “temporary freeze,” emphasizing that forces would remain deployed inside Lebanon until Israel’s remaining missions in that country are completed, by force if necessary.

“The IDF holds and will continue to hold all the areas it has cleared and captured,” Katz said in a statement, adding that while significant achievements had been made — including the killing of more than 1,700 Hezbollah fighters and the clearing of a buffer zone along the border — key objectives remained unfinished.

“We are inside Lebanon in the midst of a war against Hezbollah, with a temporary freeze and a 10-day ceasefire,” he said, reiterating that dismantling Hezbollah’s weapons remained the central goal, through both military and diplomatic means.

Katz acknowledged that the new security zone in south Lebanon, which stretches up to the Litani River, still has enemy fighters and weapons in it, and said it will be cleared through a diplomatic arrangement or by returning to fighting.

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