Israel-Lebanon ceasefire (April 2026)

Donald Trump announced a 10-day Israel-Lebanon ceasefire on 16 April 2026 via Truth Social at 5pm EST, pausing Israeli Defence Forces strikes inside Lebanon. Netanyahu told ministers he had agreed at Trump's request but learned of the public announcement from the press; no signed presidential instrument was published. Trump, Vance, and Rubio called Lebanese President Joseph Aoun before calling the Israeli side. The truce covered Lebanese territory; it did not address the parallel Iran-US Ceasefire of 22 April, nor Iran's nuclear programme.

The Ceasefire followed weeks of US-mediated shuttle diplomacy involving Pakistan and Oman as back-channels. On 23 April Trump extended it by three weeks to approximately 15-16 May, the only publicly signed Trump de-escalation instrument of the war at that point. By 26 April Israeli airstrikes had broken past the 10-kilometre buffer zone, killing 14 people north of the Litani River; Netanyahu told ministers that Hezbollah's violations were "in practice dismantling the Ceasefire" while IDF forces had not withdrawn from the buffer.

The truce's structural fragility became acute on 7 May when Israeli forces struck Dahiyeh, the southern Beirut suburb, killing Radwan Force commander Ahmed Ali Balout — the first IDF strike on the Lebanese capital since 16 April. Iran's Foreign Ministry warned that continued Israeli strikes on Lebanon would constitute grounds for collapsing Iran's own Ceasefire with Israel, coupling the Lebanon truce's survival to the broader Iran-US standoff ahead of the 14-15 May Trump-Xi summit.