# Lebanon says Israeli strikes already violated a new 10-day ceasefire
Event date: 2026-04-17
Lebanese officials raise alarms within hours of truce start
Lebanon’s military said on 2026-04-17 that several Israeli attacks and artillery shelling incidents had already taken place despite the new ceasefire that was meant to pause fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for 10 days. The report, carried in Al Jazeera’s account of the agreement, came just as Lebanese officials urged people to be cautious about returning to towns and villages in the south.
The ceasefire had been announced a day earlier by US President Donald Trump and was said to have taken effect at 21:00 GMT on Thursday. According to the reporting packet, the arrangement was intended to create space for talks on a more permanent security and peace deal. But the first morning of the truce quickly showed how fragile that arrangement looked on the ground.
Lebanon’s army said on Friday that there had been “several Israeli attacks” and intermittent shelling of a number of villages. It also warned civilians to exercise caution as they considered returning home. The story quoted local reporting that Israeli fire had even targeted an ambulance team in Kunin in southern Lebanon, with casualties reported. Those details were not independently confirmed in the packet, but they reinforce the military’s broader claim that hostilities had not fully stopped.
The ceasefire itself was unusual for what it did and did not include. Trump said the temporary pause was a “historic day” and described it as covering Hezbollah as well as Israel and Lebanon. Yet the agreement, as described in the packet, still allowed Israel to preserve what the US State Department called its right to take measures in self-defence and to respond to planned, imminent or ongoing attacks. In other words, the truce was not framed as a full disarmament or withdrawal deal.
That ambiguity mattered immediately. Lebanese civilians in Beirut and the south were reported to be wary about heading back to damaged areas. Hezbollah also told displaced people to be careful until the course of events became clear. The group, according to the reporting, approached the ceasefire with “caution and vigilance.”
On the Israeli side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu portrayed the truce as a chance for a broader agreement, though he also stressed that Israeli forces would remain in Lebanon in an “extensive” security zone up to the Syrian border. He repeated that Israel still wanted Hezbollah disarmed. Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, quoted by Al Jazeera, dismissed Netanyahu’s optimism and said he did not see how a peace agreement could be signed while Hezbollah remained armed.
The report also underlined the military and political context behind the ceasefire. It followed six weeks of fighting in which Israel had killed at least 2,196 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million, according to the packet. Hezbollah had launched dozens of attacks on Israeli forces and northern Israel in the run-up to the pause, while Israeli military warnings continued even after the truce formally began.
For now, the clearest sign of the deal’s weakness is that both sides are treating it as provisional. Lebanon’s army is warning civilians, Israel is maintaining positions, and the first day of the ceasefire has already been marked by allegations of breach. That leaves the promised 10-day window looking less like a secure pause than a test of whether either side can stop the shooting long enough to negotiate at all.
