Israel launched fresh strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel appeared to pull back from a threat to strike Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, under pressure from President Donald Trump and the United Nations.

Netanyahu paused the attacks on Beirut but made no mention of a ceasefire in Lebanon and vowed to maintain the military offensive in the south. Iran has said that among its conditions for a peace agreement with the United States is an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.

The Israeli military issued a new evacuation order Tuesday for Nabatieh, one of southern Lebanon’s largest cities, which has been heavily bombarded in recent days.

The strikes were launched as officials from the Lebanese government and Israel were set to meet Tuesday for a new round of U.S.-mediated talks in Washington aimed at defusing the conflict.

On Monday, diplomats at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council were nearly unanimous — with the exception of the United States — in calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and refrain from launching more attacks. Israel had warned that it would strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Trump later said on social media that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop their attacks on each other, while the Lebanese government — which does not include or control Hezbollah — said a new truce was taking shape.

Netanyahu then issued a statement that appeared to move away from his immediate threat to attack Beirut while adding that the Israeli military would “continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.”

“I spoke with President Trump tonight, and told him that if Hezbollah doesn’t cease its attacks on our cities and civilians — Israel will strike terror targets in Beirut,” he said. “This position of ours remains.”

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. Lebanon’s government said it had “received confirmation that Hezbollah had agreed to the U.S. proposal for a mutual cessation of attacks.” A prominent Lebanese politician, Nabih Berri, who has acted as an intermediary between Hezbollah and the United States, said the group was prepared to accept a ceasefire.

Here’s What Else We’re Covering:

— Beirut evacuations: Thousands of people fled their homes after Netanyahu’s threat to strike the city’s southern suburb, clogging roads in an exodus that has become a miserable routine over the past three years.

— U.S.-Iran negotiations: Iran had warned the United States through intermediaries that it would suspend negotiations to end the war if Israel attacked southern Beirut, according to two senior Iranian officials. Speaking to CNBC, Trump said he “couldn’t care less” about Iran’s threats to halt talks.

— Market reaction: Oil prices fell Tuesday after jumping more than 4% a day earlier on worries that the precarious ceasefire in the Middle East and negotiations for a U.S.-Iran peace deal were faltering.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Aaron Boxerman, Christina Goldbaum, Farnaz Fassihi and Hari Raj/Daniel Berehulak
c. 2026 The New York Times Company