Israel and Hezbollah agreed June 19 to a truce after overnight strikes in Lebanon initially threatened the progress of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with Iranian officials pulling out of planned talks in Switzerland slated to take place the same day.
According to CBS News, Lebanese officials reported at least 18 civilians died “in Israel's deadliest attacks since the U.S. and Iran finalized their agreement.” Israel “said four soldiers were killed in an attack on a tank,” the outlet reported.
The Times of Israel reported that a Gulf state diplomat confirmed the new ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel was brokered by Qatar, the U.S., and Iran.
The initial talks between Iran and the U.S. scheduled to begin June 19 have been postponed.
The new Israel-Hezbollah truce comes amid mounting tension between Israeli officials and the Trump administration, as Israel has signaled it would refuse to honor the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The MOU, which President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Iranian leaders signed two days earlier, contains provisions forbidding Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
As Zeale News reported, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated June 15 that the nation would refuse to withdraw troops from captured lands in Lebanon, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the MOU, calling it Trump’s “decision” and not his own. Israel “has its own interests,” Netanyahu said, and indicated he would continue Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
The remark came after Trump repeatedly berated Netanyahu over the way he was conducting war in Lebanon. As Zeale News has reported, Trump has publicly criticized the prime minister both for Israeli strikes that the President said jeopardized diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war, and for the high number of civilian deaths Israeli strikes have caused in Lebanon.
In a rare rebuke, Vance stated from the White House podium June 18 that Trump is Israel’s “only powerful ally in the entire world” at this point, and that Israel should not risk alienating “the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel" by flouting or criticizing the MOU.
In comments to The New York Times, Vance also addressed himself to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom had attacked the MOU.
"You're a country of nine million people,” Vance said. “You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have."
Ben-Gvir responded to Vance on X June 19, suggesting Israel’s enemies are 21st-century Nazis who must be dealt with the same way the 20th century’s Nazis were.
In another X post the same day which drew widespread outrage, Ben-Gvir repeatedly wrote “All of Lebanon must burn!”
“I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep,” Ben-Gvir wrote in the same post. “Enough with the ping-pong. In the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint—you need to go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.”
At the time of this writing, Ben-Gvir’s post was covered up and marked by the X platform with a notice that read, “This Post violated the X Rules. However, X has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Post to remain accessible.”