Is the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire over before it began? - The Latest
episodePreviously titled “Israel strikes southern Lebanon despite new ceasefire - The Latest” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What recent events led to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon?
This is The Guardian.
It's really difficult. I mean, you still have a million people displaced, many living on the streets. People are just trying to figure out, you know, where safety is. The text of the ceasefire read last night said that Hezbollah must stop firing at Israel. Hezbollah has rejected that. Donald Trump is forced to pay attention to what's happening in Lebanon because it could upset the peace negotiations with Iraq. And Lebanese people sort of have to contend with trying to figure out for themselves.
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Harlan. There's been talk today about a ceasefire brokered by the US between Israel and Lebanon. Will Christou, you are our Guardian reporter in Beirut, so you're right across this. I mean, I think the word ceasefire has become sort of divorced from any meaning, given how many we've had and how little they seem to mean in practice. So is this a ceasefire at all? And if so, what are its terms?
Not a ceasefire, unfortunately. Like you said, ceasefires are on sale. We had announcement of a ceasefire at around 2 in the morning Beirut time. And then we had a rejection of a ceasefire at around 3 p.m. Beirut time. In the meantime, we had airstrikes and firing from Hezbollah and Israel on both sides. So no ceasefire.
So it doesn't sound like any ceasefire at all. The crucial player in this was Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group, and they had made it clear that they wouldn't accept what they described as a partial ceasefire, which was what it seemed to be on the table. What were some of the things that they objected to? Because it sounds like it was very favourable to Israel's demands.
Yeah, so the text of the ceasefire agreed last night said that Hezbollah must stop firing at Israel, Israeli troops, and in return Israel wouldn't fire on Beirut. And Hezbollah has rejected that. They said they want to see the full withdrawal of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, and they want a complete ceasefire. And they've actually said that any firing on Lebanese villages would be met with fire on northern Israel.
Yeah, and as you say, the strikes on southern Lebanon have continued in the last 24 hours. Huge numbers of people we know have been forced to leave their homes. Those evacuations continue. So this huge humanitarian impact... And Israel's saying that they want to maintain quite a substantial presence of troops in southern Lebanon and create these sort of zones that I think are reminiscent of what's happened in Gaza. And that is something that not just Hezbollah, but Lebanon is opposed to, right?
Yeah, exactly. Israel has set up what they call the Yellow Line, the same thing they set up in Gaza. And that's about 600 square kilometers that they occupy in southern Lebanon. And they're advancing further. Yeah.
And the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says that Israel wants to have the ability to continue to, quote, dismantle terrorist infrastructure and is not ruling out any further strikes, even on big cities like Beirut, if there was any military offensive action taken against them. So that basically feels like we're back to a pre-war situation where attacks could happen at any time.
What are the terms of the ceasefire and why did Hezbollah reject it?
Exactly. And that's not a ceasefire. A ceasefire where one party is continuing to fire, it doesn't work. We had that for 15 months in Lebanon, and Hezbollah has categorically said that they're not going to return to that.
And Will, you've been doing some really harrowing reporting this week because there have been, in the space of a week, three attacks on Lebanese hospitals in the south of Lebanon by Israeli forces. 150 people have been wounded. The majority of them medics who have stayed in hospitals despite the very, very difficult conditions in terms of working there are. several people who've been killed in those strikes, those hospitals containing women and children. You've been talking to one of the directors of one of the hospitals that's been struck. What sense have you got from that conversation?
Yeah, I mean, he said it was a regular day at the hospital.
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