Smoke rises following the Israeli attack on a building in the Nabatieh neighbourhood in Beirut, Lebanon on 28 March 2025.

Israel ‌and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire that US President Donald Trump declared on 16 April, the US State Department said on Friday. “The ‌April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further ‌progress,” State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said.

The State Department cast Israel-Lebanon talks - held in Washington on Thursday and Friday - as “highly productive” ‌and said the countries would reconvene negotiations on 2 June and 3 June.

READ | Lebanon, Israel meet in the US for new ceasefire talks as expiry deadline nears

This week’s talks were the sides’ third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on 2 March, three days into the US-Israeli war on Iran. Israel had widened its ground invasion into Lebanon’s south last month.

Fought in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, Israel’s war in Lebanon has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on 16 April, though hostilities have largely ‌been contained ‌to southern Lebanon since then.

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