Iran Israel War Update: Within hours of the US and Iran announcing a ceasefire, Israel carried out what its army said was “the largest coordinated strike across Lebanon”, striking more than 100 targets in 10 minutes and killing around 250 people. The shaky ceasefire has all but crashed under the strikes, with Iran reportedly closing the Strait of Hormuz again, and the US claiming that ceasing operations in Lebanon was never part of the deal.
Pakistan had mediated the ceasefire, and its Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, had posted on X on April 8 that Iran and the United States of America, “along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.”
However, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had soon said that while Israel supported the ceasefire, the attacks on Lebanon would continue.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, later wrote on X, “The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Why is Netanyahu insisting on bombing Lebanon, at the cost of endangering a ceasefire his biggest ally just agreed to?
The loser in the ceasefire
To understand why Israeli jets were over Beirut hours after a ceasefire, one needs to understand what that ceasefire cost Netanyahu, and why it is unpopular among a large section in Israel.
The emerging agreement between Washington and Tehran represents a sidelining of the Israeli prime minister and of what he claimed were his core objectives in attacking Iran.
Netanyahu framed the campaign around three goals, as articulated on March 12. Israel aimed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, from developing more ballistic missiles, and to “create conditions that will allow the Iranian people to remove the cruel, tyrannical regime that has oppressed them for nearly half a century.”
However, Iran still possesses stockpiles of enriched uranium that can be used to build a nuclear bomb, though Tehran consistently denies that is its objective. By many estimates, about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal seems intact. Some sanctions relief for Tehran seems likely. And, in the words of Israel’s Opposition leader Yair Lapid, “instead of an 86-year-old Khamenei ruling Iran, a 56-year-old Khamenei rules Iran.”
Also, the ceasefire was agreed between Trump and the new Khamenei; Netanyahu seems not to have been on the table. Further negotiations, set to take place in Pakistan, also don’t seem to have a large role for the Israeli PM directly. To quote Lapid again, Israel has been treated not as a strategic ally, but a “demolition contractor”.
The ceasefire’s endurance, thus, is not in Netanyahu’s best interests. Also, with his handling of the Iran war coming in for criticism, a decisive victory over Hezbollah in Lebanon becomes even more important for the Prime Minister, who faces an election in the second half of this year.
Israel’s endless war with Lebanon and Hezbollah
Israel and Lebanon — or more precisely, Israel and the armed groups operating from Lebanese soil — have been in a state of intermittent war for nearly five decades. Israel has launched operations to “wipe out” Hezbollah before this too, to limited success.
In 1982, Israel invaded southern Lebanon to militarily weaken the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which had been using the region as a base for attacks on Israel. That invasion became an 18-year occupation and had an unintended consequence: giving birth to Hezbollah. Backed by Iran, the group was formed explicitly to push Israel out. When Israel finally withdrew in 2000, Hezbollah declared—with some justification—that it had achieved the first Arab military victory against Israel.
A boy carries a bottle of water next to the tent his family uses as a shelter after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut on April 8. (AP Photo)
The two sides fought again in 2006, a 34-day war triggered when Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. Israel’s response was overwhelming: killing more than 1,000 Lebanese people and over 150 Israelis. Yet Israel failed to destroy Hezbollah. This “defeat” caused much outrage in Israel, with the government setting up the Winograd Commission, which said that the launch of the war was “rash” and “without an organised plan” — criticism Netanyahu is facing today.
After 2006, both sides hardened their positions and prepared for the inevitable next round. The big flare-up came in 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. This time, Israel managed to kill Hezbollah’s long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah along with much of its senior leadership and severely degraded its capabilities. A ceasefire overseen by the US and France was reached in November 2024.
Then in March, after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s assassination, Hezbollah fired some rockets towards Israel, and an exchange of strikes has continued since, demonstrating that the militia has not lost its ability to fight.
Hezbollah’s stronghold is south Lebanon, from where it can fire rockets into Israel’s north. Netanyahu’s administration has vowed to not stop until north Israel can “feel safe”.
After the latest US-Iran ceasefire, Hezbollah said it would honour it, but Israeli bombs have not stopped.
What next for Lebanon
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz on March 24 said his country would occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani river, 30 km north of the border, as a security buffer against Hezbollah attacks.
The Lebanese government has been asking Israel for direct ceasefire talks, but has been rebuffed. Israel claims that under previous ceasefire agreements, the Lebanese State was supposed to disarm Hezbollah, but since it failed, Israel needs to finish the job.
Meanwhile, over 1,000 civilians are dead and a million displaced. Many people from south Lebanon had fled to the capital Beirut, which is also being bombed.
On Wednesday, France, Italy and Spain condemned Israel’s actions, with Italy Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying “we want to prevent a second Gaza.”
However, Netanyahu is unlikely to stay his hand unless Trump were to weigh in — like he did last year in June, when Israel bombed Iran after a ceasefire was announced in their 12-day war. Trump had then said Israel needed to “calm down”, and that “we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.”
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