Middle East & Arab World Lebanon/Hezbollah/Israel May 2026

Canada-Lebanon relations

Peace With Iran Is All About Lebanon Now
Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, author of Prophets without Honor: The 2000 Camp David Summit and the End of the Two-State Solution
(Project Syndicate) US President Donald Trump says that he “calls the shots” on negotiating with Iran, and Israel has no choice but to submit to a deal that undermines its security interests. But a deal that makes Trump the protector of Lebanon—and, by extension, Iran-backed Hezbollah—could put the US and Israel on a collision course.
The ceasefire that was reportedly just agreed between the United States and Iran reflects US President Donald Trump’s desperation to escape the quagmire that he created. Gone is the muddled array of objectives he touted in the war’s early days. All the Trump administration has reportedly secured in the new agreement is a promise to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war, and plans for new negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, which was already under discussion. But even these pared-down goals might prove unattainable if Israel continues its fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump is already fed up with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was Netanyahu who advised him in 2018 to abandon the nuclear deal then-President Barack Obama had reached with Iran three years earlier, putting Trump on the hook to deliver a better one.
Netanyahu also convinced Trump to launch the current war by touting a heady vision of the world’s two most powerful air forces quickly annihilating the Islamic Republic’s military and nuclear installations and toppling a regime that had long been a thorn in their sides. Now, Netanyahu is the last obstacle to a deal that would allow Trump to leave the resulting nightmare behind.

26-27 June
Deal With Israel Divides Lebanese, Fueling Protests in Beirut
Supporters welcomed the agreement as a step toward curtailing Iran’s influence within Lebanon, but others took to the streets, calling it a capitulation.
(NYT) Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement that the framework built on existing Lebanese agreements and United Nations resolutions, and that its end goal was “to achieve Israel’s withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, restore state sovereignty over it and enable its residents to return.”
The situation remains precarious, highlighting the challenge of translating diplomacy into calm on the ground. Less than 24 hours after the agreement was announced, Lebanon’s state agency reported that an Israeli drone struck an intersection in south Lebanon.
In Small Step, Israel Agrees to Withdrawal From Two Areas in Lebanon
Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the agreement marked only “the beginning of the beginning” of negotiations between Israel and Lebanon
(NYT) Israel agreed to test how it might execute a military withdrawal from Lebanon, under a U.S.-brokered agreement between the two countries unveiled on Friday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Speaking at the State Department, Mr. Rubio said the two countries — which committed months ago to the goal of striking a lasting peace and security deal — had struck a new “framework agreement” to that end after several days of meetings.
Tensions have risen between the Trump administration and both countries about whether Lebanon’s fate will be linked to U.S. peace negotiations with Iran. The agreement reached on Friday amounts to a statement by the United States, Israel and Lebanon that they intend to shape Lebanon’s future independent of the U.S.-Iran conflict.

16-17 June
Israeli air strikes on Lebanon continue despite US-Iran deal
There has been a reduction in violence since the US-Iran agreement was announced, but attacks on Lebanese territory have not stopped.
(Al Jazeera) The fighting in Lebanon is considered one of the biggest threats to the framework agreement in the US-Israel war on Iran with Tehran warning that new Israeli strikes on Lebanon and continued occupation of its territory would be regarded as a violation of the deal.
Iran’s top envoy says peace deal with US dependent on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon
Abbas Araghchi says war ‘not fully come to an end’ without Israeli forces leaving territories occupied during present conflict
(The Guardian) Iran’s top diplomat has said a peace deal with the US would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, as concern grows that Israel could undermine diplomatic efforts to finally end the Middle East war, with Donald Trump even criticising his ally and war partner as irresponsible.
“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” said the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
A Hezbollah media relations official also said the group had received ⁠assurances from Iran that it ⁠would ⁠demand a ​withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon ⁠in its next phase of talks ⁠with the US.
The comments came as Donald Trump, speaking at the G7 leaders summit, rounded on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he had to behave “more responsibly in Lebanon”, adding that a recent Israeli bombing attack on Beirut was “vicious”.
Exchanges of fire across Israel and Lebanon border “significantly reduced,” UN says
(CNN) There has been a “significantly reduced level” of violence and exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border compared to the weekend, the UN said, hailing the US-Iran agreement as having a “positive impact on the situation” in Lebanon.
Iran warns Israel over Lebanon strikes as Trump slams Netanyahu
Iran’s military vowed a “harsh response” if Israel doesn’t end its attacks. Trump said Netanyahu “has to be more responsible.”
Trump criticizes Israel’s tactics in Lebanon, says it is killing civilians
– Trump said Israel need not bomb entire apartment buildings to target Hezbollah militants
– Rebuke comes amid tensions between Trump and PM Netanyahu over Lebanon, Iran deal
– White House said Trump still has a strong relationship with Netanyahu
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on ​Tuesday issued a rare public rebuke of Israel’s military tactics in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah militants, saying it ‌was unnecessary to bomb entire apartment buildings to hunt militants.
Trump, who in recent days had expressed his displeasure over Israeli attacks in Beirut that he said could have endangered his peace deal with Iran, said Israel has been fighting Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned Lebanese militia, for “too long”.

14 June
Trump faults Israel’s Beirut strike, urges stand-down as Iran threatens deal
(Axios) A drone strike on northern Israel set off a chain reaction Sunday: Israel hit Hezbollah targets in Beirut in retaliation, and Iran is now threatening to strike back.
Why it matters: The escalation lands hours before the the U.S. and Iran are supposed to sign a deal to end their war, and now Iranian officials have signaled Israel’s attack could scuttle the agreement.
A similar strike last week led to Iran launching missiles at Israel and a day of escalation between the two countries.
The latest: President Trump criticized Israel’s strike in a post on Truth Social, saying it “should not have happened” with a peace deal so close.

9-10 June
Why Lebanon remains caught up in the Israel-Iran conflict (video)
(Al Jazeera The Take) The Israel-Iran ceasefire may be holding, but for many in Lebanon, the war continues.
Israel kills 16 in Lebanon, UN to probe international law violations
UN investigators to arrive in Lebanon next week to assess potential violations of international law by all parties.
(Al Jazeera) On Wednesday evening, an Israeli warplane raided the village of Deir ez-Zahrani, targeting a mosque and a clinic. The attack killed at least three people, according to NNA.
Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre, said that Israel is trying to give the impression that it has given residents of these villages sufficient time to safely leave, but that is not the case.
“The Geneva Convention requires that evacuation routes are safe, that people are given enough time, and that a return route is provided so the occupation does not continue,” said Hitto, adding: “Israeli military activities in southern Lebanon do not meet those requirements.”
Israel Strikes Lebanese City of Tyre as U.S.-Brokered Truce Falters
(NYT) The bombardment followed Israeli evacuation warning for the entire city, a day after Iran threatened to attack Israel again if it kept up its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

8 June
Lebanon between war and statehood: Shrinking the space for Hezbollah
By Jeffrey Feltman, John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy – Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
(Brookings) American, Israeli, and Lebanese leaders all want Hezbollah defanged. But Israel’s expanding occupation is failing to defeat Hezbollah, which adapts by shifting to asymmetric tactics. Nor are today’s Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) up to the task of disarming Hezbollah. The Lebanese state is far too weak and underdeveloped to replace the jobs, social services, and patronage networks that Hezbollah provides to a once-neglected Shia population. In talks with Washington, Iran is more likely to double down on, rather than negotiate away, its most successful surrogate.
– There is no exclusively military solution to Hezbollah. Israel’s expanding occupation has failed to defeat it, and the LAF remains incapable of disarming it by force.
– Loosening Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon requires eroding its Shia political base by demonstrating that the Lebanese state can deliver services, jobs, and security in ways that Hezbollah no longer can.
– The United States’ role in Lebanon remains indispensable: no other actor can assemble the funding, coalitions, and understandings needed to permanently and positively transform Israeli-Lebanese dynamics.
– Iran will not negotiate away Hezbollah and will use any sanctions relief or access to frozen funds to bolster it. Diplomacy with Tehran must account for this, or it risks undermining efforts to rebuild Lebanese state capacity.

1-3 June
Three Lebanese hospitals hit by Israeli forces in under a week
Airstrikes in south of country kill nine people and wound another 150, most of them medical staff
(The Guardian) Israel carried out an attack in the immediate vicinity of the public hospital in Tebnine on Wednesday, just days after strikes next to the Hiram and Jabal Amel hospitals in Tyre. The attack next to Jabal Amel on Monday killed four people and injured 127 – most of whom were medical staff.
Israel strikes southern Lebanon despite Trump’s effort to shore up ceasefire
Warplanes carry out dozens of airstrikes and Israeli army issues evacuation warning for city of Nabatiyeh
The US president said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and representatives of Hezbollah and both agreed that “all shooting will stop”.
But on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported 30 Israeli strikes across the south. Near the city of Sidon, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, after an Israeli strike.
Trump ‘shouted and cursed Netanyahu over threat to resume Beirut bombing’
Angry phone call took place after Iran said it would suspend talks with US over Israel’s Lebanon campaign, Axios reports
… The phone call came after Netanyahu had ordered the Israeli military to resume bombing the southern Dahiya area of Beirut to target Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia which has launched drone strikes into Israel. The Israel Defense Forces told Lebanese civilians to evacuate areas of southern Beirut, causing thousands of people to flee.
Iran said on Tuesday that it would suspend peace talks with the US over Israel’s ongoing campaign in southern Lebanon. Tehran insisted Lebanon should be covered by a ceasefire agreement meant to facilitate negotiations to open the strait of Hormuz and lift a US blockade of Iranian ports.
The phone call between Trump and Netanyahu came on the heels of that announcement, which would effectively freeze talks days after Trump had claimed negotiators had reached a preliminary deal that he was considering whether to sign.

Israeli army captures strategic castle in Lebanon in deepest incursion into the country in 26 years
(AP) — Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday, while U.S. Secretary of State spoke to Lebanese and Israeli leaders in an effort keep negotiations going.
The taking of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, followed days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.

Live Updates: Trump Says Israel and Hezbollah Will Hold Off on New Military Action
President Trump wrote on social media that talks with Iran were continuing, and that Israel and Hezbollah had “agreed” not to attack one another.
(NYT) President Trump said in a social media post that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and indirectly with representatives of Hezbollah, after Netanyahu on Monday ordered Israel’s military to conduct new strikes near Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Trump suggested in his post that those attacks, and any retaliation, now would not take place. “Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” he concluded.
Iran suspends peace talks after ‘violation of ceasefire’ in Lebanon
Tehran says it holds Israel and US responsible, while Trump says ‘going silent’ on negotiations ‘would be very good’
(The Guardian) Iran has indicated it will suspend peace talks with the US in protest against Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, threatening the collapse of negotiations with Washington as the two sides skirmished amid a faltering ceasefire.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said “unequivocal violation of the ceasefire on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts” and the US and Israel would be held responsible. A news agency aligned to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tehran was suspending its participation in talks designed to end the blockade of the strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump has said the US was not yet informed of Iran suspending talks but suggested he was not opposed to a halt in negotiations.
“I think we’ve been talking too much, if you want to know the truth,” the US president told NBC News. “I think going silent would be very good, and that could be for a long time.”
… The apparent collapse of talks followed the US hitting Iranian radar and drone sites at the weekend and Tehran on Monday saying it had countered by targeting a military base in Kuwait that it claimed was involved in the US operation.
Thousands flee as Netanyahu orders Israeli bombing of southern Beirut
Iran calls off all further talks maintaining that a ceasefire in Lebanon is a precondition of broader truce with US

25 May
Netanyahu Says Israel Plans to Intensify Attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon
After the prime minister made the announcement, the Israeli military said it had struck more than 70 Hezbollah sites in the past day.
As President Trump sent conflicting messages about whether any progress had been made on a deal to end the war with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday signaled that his country’s fight with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would intensify.
“We are at war with Hezbollah,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a video on social media.

20 May
At least eight killed in Israel’s air attacks on southern Lebanon
Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue despite the ‘ceasefire’ that was recently extended until the beginning of July.
(Al Jazeera) The fresh wave of Israeli attacks came hours after at least 16 people were killed in Israeli air attacks across southern Lebanon on Tuesday. The Health Ministry said three women and three children were among the victims.
Moreover, the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said its forces clashed with Israeli troops trying to advance to the centre of the village of Haddatha late last night.
The group also reported clashes with Israeli forces in the town of Biyyada and the municipality of Rashaf.
Attacks on eastern Lebanon ongoing
Israeli forces continue to expand their military campaign beyond the country’s south into the western Bekaa Valley.

16 May
Israeli strikes kill six in southern Lebanon hours after extension of ceasefire
Three paramedics at health centre among dead, while Hamas military chief Izz al-Din al-Haddad killed in Gaza strike
(The Guardian) Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, killing at least six people, including three paramedics working at a health centre, just hours after its envoys had agreed with the Lebanese government to extend a ceasefire.

10 May
Medics among 51 killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon in past 24 hours
Israeli attacks are intensifying in southern Lebanon, with 552 killed since the ‘ceasefire’ started on April 16
“The Israeli enemy continues to violate international laws and humanitarian norms, adding more crimes against paramedics, as it directly targeted two points of the Health Authority in Qalawiya and Tibnin, Bint Jbeil district, in two raids,” the ministry said.
A ceasefire, brokered by the United States, is into its third week.
The ministry said 2,846 people have been killed across the country since March 2, when Israeli forces began a new military operation.
Since then, the United Nations says at least 103 Lebanese medical workers have been killed and 230 injured in more than 130 Israeli strikes.
“We’re under threat every second, every day,” Ali Safiuddin, the head of the Lebanese Civil Defence in Tyre in southern Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “We ask ourselves if we’re going to survive or if we’re going to die, we know we’ve already given up our lives by working here. We’ve lost so many people and it feels like we’re already gone as well.”
Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto, reporting from Tyre, said that “international humanitarian laws are clear: medical personnel and first responders, like the Lebanese Civil Defence, must be protected in armed conflict, but on this front line, the question isn’t whether another strike is coming. It’s how many people will be left to answer the calls for help”.
Dr Tahir Mohammed, a war surgeon, and humanitarian worker who’s worked in both Gaza and Lebanon, told Al Jazeera that he saw parallels in Israeli actions in both places.
“We used to see our colleagues in Gaza come through the door all the time. I’ve had colleagues, nurses, medical students killed by Israeli weapons, and so to see the same policy of targeting healthcare workers in Lebanon … it’s consistent,” he said.
“If Israel had their way, they would absolutely occupy the entire southern region of Lebanon, and they would do it tomorrow. They have no care for life. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Dr Mohammed added.
Israeli attacks have displaced more than 1.2 million Lebanese people since March 2.

8 May
Prime Minister Carney speaks with President of Lebanon Joseph Aoun
Prime Minister Carney expressed Canada’s friendship and solidarity with the Lebanese people in the face of widespread destruction, displacement, and civilian deaths. He reiterated Canada’s support for Lebanon, including humanitarian aid for the Lebanese people and peace and security assistance, notably through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The Prime Minister expressed strong support for the Government of Lebanon’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. He condemned continuing Hezbollah attacks on Israel and urged sustained progress on disarmament, supported by the international community.
Prime Minister Carney condemned Israel’s illegal invasion of Lebanon and reaffirmed Canada’s steadfast support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He underscored the importance of maintaining a meaningful ceasefire and creating conditions for displaced civilians to return home safely.
The Prime Minister emphasised Canada’s readiness to work with partners to protect civilians, reinforce long-term regional stability, and support de-escalation efforts. He emphasised that Canada is one of the world’s largest providers of international assistance to Lebanon, with over $800 million in assistance since 2016.

7 May
Israel Says It Killed a Hezbollah Chief Near Beirut, Testing the Truce
The strike was the first near the Lebanese capital since a cease-fire that has curbed fighting but not halted it. Washington is pushing for a lasting peace, hoping it will ease diplomacy with Iran.
(NYT) The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs a day earlier, the first attack near the Lebanese capital since a U.S.-mediated cease-fire took effect last month.
The attack, which risked further destabilizing an already tenuous truce, targeted the commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan force, the group’s elite commando unit, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah has not yet commented on the strike, which hit an apartment building in the Dahiya, the densely populated residential and commercial area where the Iran-backed group holds sway.
Despite the declared cease-fire, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange daily attacks in southern Lebanon. Every escalation raises the specter that the truce, which sharply reduced the scale of fighting, will collapse and full-fledged war will return.
–24 April
Escalating Clashes Test Newly Extended Israel-Lebanon Truce
The U.S.-mediated cease-fire halted an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, but their intensifying attacks on each other could put the truce at risk.

6 May
Why the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire is ‘in name only’
(CBC) Analysts say agreement restricts fighting but fails to fully halt violence
Pope Leo XIV comforts 13 priests from southern Lebanon with a surprise video call from Rome</strong
(AP) The Lebanese Catholic and Maronite priests were asked to attend an online morning meeting with the Vatican’s ambassador to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia. Once online, Borgia told them Leo was also present and would like to speak with them.

5 May
BBC traces how 10 minutes of Israeli bombing brought devastation to Lebanon
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, the neighbourhood of Hay el Sellom is barely recognisable.
What was once a densely populated, lively community is now a landscape of collapsed concrete, twisted metal and exposed wires. Homes have been reduced to layers of rubble. Staircases lead nowhere. The sounds of everyday life have been replaced by silence.
Despite repeated Israeli attacks since the start of the Iran war on other parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, residents say this neighbourhood remained calm until the afternoon of 8 April.
… The Lebanese health ministry has told us more than 80 people were killed in this neighbourhood. Our analysis shows that at least 15 of those who died were children.

3 May
Israel Said It’s Applying the Gaza Model in Lebanon. This Is What the Devastation Looks Like.
By Samuel Granados, Abdi Latif Dahir and Sanjana Varghese
(NYT) An entire street is leveled. Houses and shops are flattened, including a popular cafe. This is what is left of the town of Bint Jbeil, just a couple of miles from the Israeli border, nearly two months after Israel relaunched its ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
The destruction of this town, a Hezbollah stronghold, is repeated again and again across southern Lebanon, a lush region of undulating vistas, where Israel has razed border villages as part of an effort to lay the groundwork for a larger occupation.
The approach, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said, was modeled on tactics the military used in Gaza, where the Israeli military reduced entire neighborhoods, buildings and streets to rubble.
After the war between Israel and Hezbollah reignited in early March, when Hezbollah attacked Israel in solidarity with Iran, Israel established a several-mile-deep “buffer zone” that it says it will continue to occupy until the threat from Hezbollah is contained.
An analysis of satellite images, along with photos and videos shared online and verified by The New York Times, shows the scope of that campaign. Widespread demolitions have flattened expanses of at least two dozen towns and villages near the border, with damage to government offices as well as civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and mosques.
Villages are now blurred into ash, with the white of rubble marking town after town.
Since the war began, Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, including journalists and medical workers, and destroyed infrastructure such as bridges and gas stations. More than a million people have been displaced. The fighting has continued despite a U.S.-mediated cease-fire, which has now been extended through mid-May.
The Israeli military says it is targeting infrastructure and positions belonging to Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group has launched hundreds of drones, rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israel and has killed at least 17 Israeli soldiers since early March, according to the Israeli military.
Legal experts and human rights activists say targeting civilian infrastructure or destroying it without a valid military justification constitutes a war crime. They also expressed concern over Israeli officials’ statements that they would model the destruction in southern Lebanon on Gaza, given the scale of devastation and loss of life in the strip.