Democracy Now! / April 17, 2026
Guest: Kareem Chehayeb – Beirut-based journalist reporting on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq for the Associated Press.
Link: Kareem Chehayeb at AP
A 10-day ceasefire has begun in Lebanon. The news is being celebrated across the country, but major questions remain over what happens next. President Trump announced the deal between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday. Hezbollah, which is not a party to the agreement, says it will observe the ceasefire. The Israeli military is occupying a large swath of southern Lebanon, about 10% of the country. Early on in the current war, the Israeli military announced the intention to create a “security zone” from the Lebanese-Israeli border all the way to the Litani River, 20 miles north of the border.
Many in the country are questioning whether Israel will abide by the ceasefire, says Beirut-based journalist Kareem Chehayeb. Israel continued airstrikes on Thursday right up until the ceasefire took effect, including blowing up the last bridge over the Litani River. “With this kind of military mobilization and this ground invasion of Lebanon, many in Lebanon do fear this could lead to some sort of long-term or even permanent occupation, similar to that from 1982 until the year 2000,” says Chehayeb.
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
As a 10-day ceasefire has been reached between Israel and Lebanon, major questions remain over what happens next. President Trump announced the deal on Thursday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s very exciting, because it’s 48 years. We’re going to be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu, as you know, and the president of Lebanon. And I had a great talk with both of them today. They’re going to be having a ceasefire, and that will include Hezbollah.
AMY GOODMAN: Over the past seven weeks, Israel has killed nearly 2,200 people in Lebanon, including 172 children. Over a million Lebanese have been displaced. Forty thousand homes have been destroyed or heavily damaged. Just before the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli airstrikes in the city of Tyre killed at least 13 people.
Hezbollah is not a party to the ceasefire agreement. While the group says it will observe the ceasefire, it’s opposing the Israeli plan to keep occupying a large swath of southern Lebanon.
Some residents of southern Lebanon have returned home to find their neighborhoods have been turned into rubble.
SOUTHERN LEBANON RESIDENT: [translated] There’s destruction, and it’s unlivable. Unlivable. We’re taking our things and leaving again. May God protect these young people. May God grant us relief and end this whole thing permanently, not temporarily, so we can return to our homes and livelihoods. May God protect everyone.
AMY GOODMAN: Many in Lebanon have questioned whether Israel will abide by the ceasefire. After a Lebanon ceasefire was reached in November 2024, Israel repeatedly violated it, almost on a daily basis. According to the U.N., Israel violated that ceasefire more than 15,000 times, killing at least 370 people.
We go now to Beirut, where we’re joined by Kareem Chehayeb, a Beirut-based journalist reporting on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq for the Associated Press.
Thanks so much for being with us, Kareem, again. What has been the response to the announcement of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire?
KAREEM CHEHAYEB: Well, there’s certainly been a collective sigh of relief. This was a very, very intense war. It happened — the escalation happened so rapidly, didn’t sort of stretch out over a seven-, eight-month period like the last one. People, of course, are very skeptical of how long this — you know, this temporary ceasefire could last, whether it’ll even, you know, last all 10 days and whether it’ll be renewed. People definitely want a long-term solution, and they want some level of stability. Lebanon is a country that has gone through so many crises and wars in its short and troubled history.
That being said, the main division right now, the main dividing point among the Lebanese, is really: Who is — who’s to take credit for this ceasefire? Was it the Lebanese government that held direct talks with the Israelis for the first time since 1993 on Tuesday, or was it Iran, which included Lebanon in its set of conditions in its talks with Washington?
People are — either way, people are, you know, visiting their homes, seeing, assessing the damages. I was just in the southern suburbs earlier, widespread destruction everywhere there. People are trying to basically see if their houses can be fixed or not. But there’s a lot of cautious optimism. But for now, people are at least relieved that there might not be strikes, at least at the same caliber as there was just yesterday.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the large swath of southern Lebanon that Israeli troops continue to occupy up to the Litani River and blowing up the last bridge over the Litani River? The significance of this?
KAREEM CHEHAYEB: Early on in this war, the Israeli military announced an intention to create what they call a security zone, which stretches from the U.N. Blue Line, which divides the two countries, all the way to the Litani River, which is, you know, almost some 20 miles away from the border. The Israelis were not able to push all the way to that, to that de facto border, the Litani River. However, they do control large swaths of southern Lebanon. And it seems there’s a huge emphasis on the southeast near Mount Hermon. This is very close to the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, which they took from Syria, and, of course, the Syrian border. It seems, on the eve before the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to expand eastward, and that’s what we saw.
The Israeli military and Hezbollah militants have been fighting in very strategic hilltop towns that overlook the border, including in Bint Jbeil and Khiam. And this is a very interesting sticking point, because the Israelis said they will not withdraw from what they call the security zone in southern Lebanon. But at the same time, there has been ongoing fighting until, you know, the ceasefire went into effect. In Bint Jbeil, for example, the Israeli military has the town largely surrounded, but there are Hezbollah fighters in there. And the question is that, you know, what’s going to happen, and they’re going forth.
And, of course, with this kind of military mobilization and this ground invasion in Lebanon, many in Lebanon do fear this could lead to some sort of long-term or even permanent occupation, similar to that from 1982 until the year 2000. Now, the Lebanese government says that as negotiations continue, that they’re hoping to, as soon as possible, get some sort of Israeli withdrawal. But at the moment, this is not part of the 10-day truce, and it is unclear when this will happen.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu confirming the Israeli government has agreed to this 10-day ceasefire.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] In these peace talks, we have two fundamental demands: first, the disarmament of Hezbollah; second, a sustainable peace agreement, peace through strength. In order to achieve the ceasefire, Hezbollah insisted on two conditions. The first condition was that Israel must withdraw from all Lebanese territory up to the international border. The second condition was a ceasefire based on a quiet-for-quiet arrangement. I did not agree to either of these. And indeed, neither of these conditions is being met.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. A Hezbollah official told you the ceasefire was a result of Iran’s negotiations with the United States, in which Iran insisted Lebanon be included. Can you talk about the significance of this and what the real value of these diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon is, orchestrated by the White House, but not including Hezbollah?
KAREEM CHEHAYEB: So, this is definitely a major sticking point here in Lebanon. So, yes, that’s right, we did speak with Hezbollah parliamentarian Hassan Fadlallah, who credit — who, like, you know, Hezbollah and their supporters, credit Iran for their leverage and including Lebanon in their talks with the United States. Now, when Pakistan announced the truce between Iran and the U.S., they did mention that Lebanon and other regional wars that have been sort of a spillover from this conflict would be included. However, this is something that Israel rejected and proceeded with bombing Lebanon. Lebanon, at the same time, was also horrified by the idea of Iran negotiating on its behalf, and therefore tried to open a diplomatic track of its own. And that’s when the talks started to take place.
Now, what the question is, really: What caused the ceasefire? What was the main turning point? Hezbollah says that the Iranians spoke with the United States and informed them at dawn, hours before Trump’s announcement. However, the Lebanese say that taking these talks away from, you know, Iran kind of holding on to the Lebanese position, talking to the Israelis, helped play a role, as Lebanon had been trying to use diplomacy for a ceasefire since the beginning of the war and early March. It’s just that the Americans and the Israelis did not necessarily respond to them favourably from that point. It could be a combination of the two. We don’t know that.
What we do know is that there have been efforts to bring about more direct talk between the Lebanese and the Israelis. And our understanding is that the Lebanese president, when speaking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, refused to speak directly to Benjamin Netanyahu. And that appeared to be something that they were trying to sort out before the ceasefire announcement. And he didn’t do that, which also indicates that he is trying to find a way to appease his divided support base in Lebanon, many who are not in favour of developing any sort of diplomatic ties with Israelis or high-level direct talks at this point in time.
AMY GOODMAN: Kareem Chehayeb, I want to thank you very much for joining us from Beirut. Kareem is a journalist reporting on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq for The Associated Press.
