File image.
United States President Donald Trump announced on April 23 that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by three weeks.
Trump made the announcement after participating in the second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon at the White House.
“The meeting went very well!” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
“The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” he said, without elaborating.
“The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by THREE WEEKS,” he continued.
“I look forward in the near future to hosting the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun,” Trump added, without specifying if he plans to meet with the two leaders together.
The ceasefire has been barely holding up, with both the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah exchanging strikes for the last few days.
In fact, just hours after Trump’s announcement, Hezbollah fighters shot down a Hermes 450 combat drone over the town of Tyre in southern Lebanon. The IDF acknowledged the aerial loss, saying that the drone was targeted with an anti-aircraft missile.
The Hermes 450, which reportedly cost more than $2 million, is a medium-sized multi-payload drone designed by Israeli defense company Elbit.
The drone has an endurance of over 20 hours, with a primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance, combat and communications relay. Payload options include electro-optical/infrared sensors, communications and electronic intelligence, synthetic-aperture radar/ground-moving target indication, electronic warfare, and hyperspectral sensors.
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Around the same time, the IDF ordered the residents of the southern Lebanon town of Deir Aames to evacuate, claiming that Hezbollah fired rockets from a nearby area.
“Hezbollah’s terror activities and the launching [of rockets] from the village force the IDF to act against it in your area of residence,” warned military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.
Adraee called on residents to “immediately” evacuate their homes and move at least a kilometer from the town, which is located outside of the Israeli-held security zone in southern Lebanon.
Trump had stressed shortly after announcing the expansion of the ceasefire that Israel reserves the right to strike Lebanese targets in self-defense.
“Israel is going to have to defend itself if they are shot at… but they’re going to do it carefully, and they’ll be surgical,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump also revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will be coming to Washington “over the next couple of weeks. He later claimed that the two leaders would meet together at the White House.
“We think that the president of Lebanon and the prime Minister of Israel, over the next couple of weeks will be coming here,” Trump said.
“We’re going to be working with Lebanon to get things straightened out in that country,” he added.
Trump also expresses his hope that the situation in Lebanon can be stabilized “simultaneously with what we’re doing in Iran.”
There is a clear contrast between Trump’s overly positive remarks and the reality on the ground. There is no real ceasefire in southern Lebanon, and while the IDF has halted ground operations in the region, it likely did so due to the resistance of Hezbollah, which continues to launch attacks undeterred.
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so tired of peace prez announcements i could puke
old prez to stupid to talk new prez to stupid to not shut up
the expanzionisterrorists are occupying lebanese soil destroying homes killing civilians using drones that violate lebanon territory and airspace. their whole racist supremacist land theft project based on lies manipulation usurpation and violence is the main reason of instability in the levant. they already have 300+ zio-only illegal settlements in southern lebanon.groups like uri tzafon promote+ attempt to change all city names in hebrew like they do in palestine.