President Trump said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend their ceasefire by three weeks, hours before Hezbollah rockets and Israeli airstrikes tested the deal on Friday and a senior lawmaker for the Iran-backed group said it would not honor the extension.
The announcement pushes out a pause in fighting that began April 16 as an initial 10-day truce, the first high-level contact between the two countries in decades. But the Friday exchange of fire, a Hezbollah lawmaker's on-the-record rejection and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz's warning that his military is 'prepared to renew the war against Iran' leave the new window resting on commitments neither fighting party has endorsed.
What is new
Trump posted on Truth Social that 'The Ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS,' writing that the Thursday White House meeting 'went very well.' CBS News reported the session included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ambassadors from both countries. Trump said he intended to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, and that the United States would 'work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah.'
Last week's edition covered the start of the original 10-day truce. The new elements are the three-week extension, Hezbollah's formal rejection of it and a resumption of cross-border fire within a day of the announcement.
Hezbollah's refusal
Lebanese parliamentarian Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah lawmaker, said the group 'firmly rejects' the extension, calling it 'meaningless' while Israel retains a six-mile buffer zone in southern Lebanon from which residents have been barred. Fayyad said Israel has continued 'assassinations, bombardment, and opening fire' and that 'any ceasefire that does not constitute a prelude linked to Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory affirms the Lebanese people's firm and final right to resist the occupation,' according to CBS News.
Hezbollah said it fired a rocket salvo at the Shtula settlement in northern Israel on Friday, framing the attack as retaliation for Israeli strikes on southern Lebanese towns. The Israel Defense Forces said it 'struck Hezbollah military structures' in reply and would continue decisive action 'against threats directed at Israeli civilians.' Israeli forces have killed two suspected Hezbollah members since the original truce took effect, CBS News reported.
The journalist killing
An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and at least four other people, NPR reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists said Khalil was the eighth journalist killed by Israel in Lebanon since fighting began and said in a statement that 'Journalists are civilians and protected under international law.' Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the targeting of media workers as 'an established approach.'
The wider picture
The Lebanon track is tethered to a separate U.S.-Iran truce Trump extended Tuesday. Iran dismissed that extension as meaningless and demanded Washington lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Pope Leo XIV urged renewed U.S.-Iran talks this week and called for 'a culture of peace.'
Lebanon wants Israeli troops out of its southern territory; Israel wants a buffer against Hezbollah rocket fire on its north and has pressed Beirut to force the group to disarm. Those demands have not moved since the original ceasefire.
The counterpoint
Center and right-leaning coverage of Thursday's announcement and Friday's exchange was not accessible in the reporting reviewed for this article, leaving the competing pressure on the truce to come from the combatants themselves. Hezbollah's Fayyad has rejected the extension outright; Katz has said Israel is waiting only for a U.S. 'green light' to resume combat. The underlying events — Trump's post, the rocket salvo on Shtula, the IDF reply and Khalil's death — are not in dispute among the outlets reviewed.
Trump said the White House would invite Netanyahu and Aoun to Washington. The extension runs for three weeks from Thursday's announcement, putting its expiration in mid-May.