Key facts
- Israel will continue operations in Lebanon and will not withdraw.
- A US-mediated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon is contingent on Hezbollah halting attacks.
- Israel plans to maintain a buffer zone in occupied southern Lebanon.
- Israeli strikes killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza City.
- Ceasefire talks for Gaza have stalled.
- Hezbollah rejected the ceasefire plan agreed by the Lebanese and Israeli governments.
Israel's military intends to continue operations in Lebanon and will not withdraw, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz. This stance persists despite a new ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel, brokered by the United States. The agreement stipulates that Hezbollah must cease all attacks on Israel and withdraw its fighters from southern Lebanon. Katz indicated Israel's intention to maintain a buffer zone in occupied southern Lebanon to dismantle 'terrorist infrastructure,' preventing displaced Lebanese residents from returning. Concurrently, Israeli airstrikes hit four residential buildings in Gaza City, resulting in at least 11 Palestinian deaths, including women and children, and wounding at least 15 others. Indirect talks for a second phase of a Gaza deal have stalled. Gaza health officials report approximately 930 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since the truce began, while the Israeli military states four soldiers have been killed by militants in the same period. The total death toll in Gaza since the war commenced exceeds 72,000.
Hezbollah has rejected the ceasefire plan agreed upon by the Lebanese and Israeli governments in U.S.-mediated talks. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem described the negotiations as "shameless" and the Washington declaration as a "roadmap for the annihilation of a section of the Lebanese people and the enslavement of the rest," vowing that "as long as the occupation exists, the resistance will continue." Hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel resumed on March 2, and Qassem stated that towns in northern Israel would not be secure "as long as our villages are unsafe, bombed, destroyed, and our people are being killed." The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force indicated that the minimum demand of the resistance is Israel's withdrawal to pre-war positions.