Lebanese negotiators want to prolong a fragile ceasefire with Israel by at least another month as part of efforts to end the conflict with Hezbollah, according to a political source with knowledge of the matter.
“Lebanon will demand an extension for a ceasefire by one month or more,” the source told CNN on Wednesday.
The White House is scheduled to host a second round of talks between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the US, Yechiel Leiter and Nada Hamadeh, respectively, on Thursday.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun called for “a complete halt to the Israeli aggressions.” Negotiators are focused on “achieving the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territories” and “the start of reconstruction” in Lebanon, Aoun posted on X.
Aoun thanked his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, for “an opportunity that we must not waste.” On Friday, Trump said he’d “prohibited” Israel from carrying out fresh strikes, warning “Enough is enough!!!” in a social media post.
The Israeli offensive in Lebanon came after the Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched projectiles into Israel and has killed at least 2,294 people there, Lebanese health officials said.
In the south, the Israeli military has occupied a belt of border villages and told residents “not to cross and return to” their homes below the Litani River, which bisects Lebanon.
UN experts have condemned Israel’s actions, saying “the deliberate destruction of homes is a weapon of war and a form of collective punishment.”
