The truce was set for 2100 GMT on April 16, 2026, and it was supposed to last ten days. President Donald Trump announced it on Truth Social after separate calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. He described the talks as “excellent conversations” and wrote that both sides “want to see peace, and I believe that will happen, quickly!”
The announcement came two days after Israeli and Lebanese delegations met at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday, in US-mediated talks. Spectrum News described the contact between the two countries’ ambassadors as the first direct diplomatic talks of its kind in decades. Trump put the gap between the two leaders at approximately 34 years and said he hoped to create “breathing room between Israel and Lebanon.” He also invited Netanyahu and Aoun to the White House, which would be the first meeting of Israeli and Lebanese leaders since 1983.
Terms and conditions
The record shows the truce came with limits attached. Netanyahu called it “an opportunity to make a historic peace agreement with Lebanon,” but said Israeli forces would stay inside a 10-kilometer security zone in southern Lebanon for the duration. According to the U.S. State Department, as quoted by Spectrum News, Israel keeps the right to act against “planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks,” while committing to no offensive operations against Lebanese targets.
Trump assigned Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine to work with both governments on a lasting settlement.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the agreement. He had called a ceasefire the “primary goal” of Lebanon’s delegation in the Washington meeting.
Who was at the table
Israel is not formally at war with the Lebanese state. Its fighting has been against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group, inside Lebanese territory. Hezbollah rejected participation in the negotiations. After the truce was announced it said the Lebanese people keep the “right to resist” an Israeli military presence on their soil, and it warned it would respond to any Israeli strike.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s security cabinet never voted on the arrangement. Ministers, according to media reports, learned of it from news coverage after their meeting ended.
In Beirut, residents celebrated with gunfire. Displaced families started heading south even though officials warned them not to go back early.
The truce also sat alongside a second track. Pakistan’s army chief met Iran’s parliament speaker to push for an extension of the wider Iran-U.S. ceasefire, which had paused nearly seven weeks of fighting that killed thousands and disrupted global oil markets.
Sources
- Israel, Lebanon agree to ten-day ceasefire, Netanyahu confirms (The Jerusalem Post)
- Israel, Lebanon Agree to 10-Day Ceasefire: Trump (TRT World)
- A 10-Day Ceasefire Between Israel and Lebanon Takes Effect (Spectrum News)
