The appeal came as Washington sought to advance direct diplomacy following two rounds of Lebanese-Israeli talks held this month in Washington, the first such high-level contacts in decades, after cross-border fighting involving Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated into a wider regional conflict in March.

President Donald Trump had announced a 10-day ceasefire beginning on April 17, later extending it by three weeks after the second round of discussions. He has said he hopes to host Aoun and Netanyahu “over the next couple of weeks” as both sides prepare for direct negotiations.

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Lebanon faced a decisive moment and called for leadership from Beirut to move toward a broader political settlement.

“Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Its people have a historic opportunity to reclaim their country and shape their future as a truly sovereign, independent nation,” the embassy said.

It added that a direct meeting between Aoun and Netanyahu, facilitated by Trump, could secure guarantees on sovereignty, territorial integrity, border security, reconstruction support and the restoration of Lebanese state authority across all its territory.

The proposal has exposed divisions inside Lebanon, where Hezbollah has rejected direct negotiations with Israel and opposed Beirut’s previous commitment to disarm the group, a longstanding demand from Western governments and Israel.

Aoun said on Wednesday that Israel must first fully implement the ceasefire before negotiations could meaningfully proceed.“Israeli attacks cannot continue as they are,” he said, adding that Lebanon was waiting for the United States to set a date for the start of direct negotiations.

Israeli forces have continued military operations despite the truce, maintaining troop activity inside what officials describe as a “Yellow Line,” a zone extending roughly 10 km into southern Lebanon along the border.Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on Thursday killed at least 17 people in the south, including five women and two children.

The Lebanese army said a separate strike killed one of its soldiers.Israel’s military also said one of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon.

Aoun on Thursday condemned what he called Israel’s “continuing violations” of the ceasefire, citing airstrikes, demolitions of homes and places of worship, and attacks on civilians and emergency personnel.

Speaking to a delegation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, he called for international pressure on Israel to halt attacks on civilians, paramedics, civil defense teams and humanitarian workers.

Three Lebanese civil defense personnel killed in Israeli strikes were buried on Thursday.Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported multiple Israeli airstrikes across the south, while an Israeli military spokesperson issued evacuation warnings for more than 20 villages near the border.

Hezbollah said it carried out 10 attacks on Israeli military targets in southern Lebanon, including strikes on tanks and troop positions.In Beirut, dozens of residents from southern Lebanon and local officials gathered to protest what they described as the continued destruction of villages despite the ceasefire.

“We will not surrender and will not normalize,” protester Hanaa Ibrahim, 48, told AFP.The ceasefire text published by the U.S. State Department states that Israel retains the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks,” language Hezbollah says was never formally presented to Lebanon’s cabinet.

Aoun said on Wednesday that the wording matched the November 2024 ceasefire agreement that ended the previous war and that all parties had accepted it at the time.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, rejected that account, calling Aoun’s remarks “inaccurate, to say the least,” and disputing that the same terms had been accepted in the earlier agreement.

The Home Office is appealing against the High Court’s earlier decision that the 2025 ban on Palestine Action was disproportionate to the threat posed by the group and should be revoked. The government had outlawed the organization days after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in southern England and caused millions of pounds of damage to two military aircraft during protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Under the ban introduced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, Palestine Action was added to a proscribed list that includes Hamas and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, making membership or public support for the group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison under British terrorism laws.

Government lawyer James Eadie told the court that the earlier ruling had wrongly assessed the balance between civil liberties and public protection, arguing parliament had already determined the measure was both necessary and proportionate.“The protection of national security and of the public from terrorism was central” to the decision, Eadie said in written submissions.

He told the court that judges had failed to properly consider parliament’s judgment that the ban was “both effective and appropriate,” adding that ordinary criminal law had “demonstrably failed” to prevent an escalation in the group’s activities.

“The line between criminality, sometimes violent criminality, and terrorism is not a bright one,” Eadie said, arguing Palestine Action was “not engaged in what can be properly described as merely civil disobedience.”He said the group met the statutory definition of being involved in terrorism under British law.

The ban triggered strong criticism from civil liberties advocates and pro-Palestinian campaigners, with thousands of supporters reportedly arrested since its introduction.In February, a three-judge High Court panel ruled in favor of a legal challenge brought by Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, finding that the prohibition had caused a “very significant interference” with rights to free expression and peaceful assembly.

Founded in 2020, Palestine Action says its objective is to end what it describes as global complicity in Israel’s actions in Palestinian territories.

The group has primarily targeted weapons manufacturers, particularly facilities linked to Israeli defense company Elbit Systems.The appeal hearing is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

The warning was issued by the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who said civilians should leave areas near Hezbollah positions, facilities and weapons.

“The military does not intend to harm you, and out of concern for your safety, you are required to evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the specified area toward the Sidon District,” Adraee said in a post on X.“Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, their facilities or their weapons is endangering their life,” he added.

The areas listed in the evacuation warning were located outside or along the edge of the so-called “Yellow Line,” a roughly 10-kilometer-deep strip of Lebanese territory along the border where Israeli troops are currently operating.

The warning came as tensions continued despite a ceasefire agreed earlier this month between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, with both sides accusing each other of repeated violations.

On Tuesday morning, the Israeli military said it launched interceptors in two separate incidents against what it described as suspicious aerial targets detected in areas where Israeli forces were operating in southern Lebanon.It said the targets did not cross into Israeli territory.

The military also said one Israeli soldier was seriously wounded and another lightly injured on Monday after an explosive drone struck during operational activity in southern Lebanon.“This incident constitutes a violation of the ceasefire understandings by the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the military said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Hezbollah’s rockets and drones remained a major threat requiring continued military action, adding that Israeli strikes would persist.

Hezbollah entered the wider Middle East conflict on March 2 by launching rockets toward Israel, saying the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Since then, the cross-border fighting has displaced large numbers of civilians in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, while international mediators have struggled to preserve the ceasefire and prevent a broader regional escalation.

Among them is Rabih Khreiss, a 45-year-old mechanic and father of nine from the southern town of Khiyam, who now lives in a makeshift tent on Beirut’s waterfront after fleeing with his family in the early hours of March 2, when Hezbollah launched attacks into Israel and Israeli retaliatory strikes began almost immediately.

Khreiss, who once supported his family through a car repair workshop in southern Lebanon, now relies on donations for survival and says the uncertainty has left him feeling trapped.“I feel like my children and I are prisoners in a room, sentenced to life imprisonment,” he said.

“But when will relief come so we can get out of this life sentence? No one knows.”His family now lives in a fragile shelter built from wooden beams and plastic tarps that shake in the wind. Without showers, they bathe in plastic tubs and wash clothes by hand. His older sister, who is living with them, is battling cancer and struggles to access medical care.

“We’re living in tents, not knowing where these days will take us,” he said. “We start thinking, if only we could wake up and win the lottery so we could get out of this mess.”Although a ceasefire brokered by the United States was intended to reduce hostilities, Israeli forces have continued airstrikes and maintained troops in a strip of southern Lebanon, where they say Hezbollah infrastructure remains active.

That includes near-daily controlled demolitions in Khiyam, a town once home to around 10,000 residents and now described by locals as almost entirely flattened and deserted.Hezbollah has also continued attacks against Israeli forces inside Lebanon and on northern Israel, while both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire terms.

The prolonged conflict has deepened despair among Lebanon’s estimated 1.2 million displaced people, many of whom had hoped the truce would allow them to return home but now face indefinite displacement.“Khiyam is my town, my region, my land, my home, my work, my people, my loved ones, everything,” Khreiss said. “Of course, all my memories are in Khiyam.

I miss everything about it.”The family has already endured repeated cycles of conflict. During the previous Hezbollah-Israel war in 2024, one of Khreiss’s older sons lost an eye when an Israeli strike hit their home in Khiyam.Khreiss said he pulled his children from the rubble with his own hands and felt he had aged “years” in a single hour.

His garage was also damaged during that war, but he rebuilt and returned. This time, he does not know whether either his workshop or his home still stands.With no steady income and rising anxiety over his children’s future, he says he is considering selling his car if he cannot find work soon.

“It’s showing in my children that they’ve never known joy or happiness, never been to an amusement park, never had fun like other children,” he said.“I brought them into this world, and I have to take responsibility for them and secure their future.

But circumstances have forced me to do nothing for them. There’s nothing I can do.”

The Israeli military said it had begun targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bekaa region as well as in southern Lebanon, while security sources told Reuters that strikes hit near the town of Nabi Chit, close to Lebanon’s border with Syria.

No immediate fatalities were reported.The strikes marked the first attacks on the Bekaa Valley since the ceasefire came into force, significantly reducing but not ending the exchange of fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group.

Israel has continued near-daily strikes across southern Lebanon and maintains troops in a strip of territory along the border, where it says operations are aimed at dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure and preventing further attacks.

Lebanon’s state news agency reported multiple Israeli strikes in southern areas on Monday that wounded at least three people.Hezbollah said it had attacked an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon using a drone.

The Israeli military later confirmed that a Hezbollah drone exploded near its troops in southern Lebanon but said no casualties were reported.The ceasefire followed weeks of intense fighting that escalated after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel on March 2 in support of its ally Iran, prompting a broad Israeli ground and air campaign across Lebanon.

Since then, more than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon, with large parts of the south heavily damaged and thousands displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

The conflict has deepened political divisions inside Lebanon, particularly over Hezbollah’s independent military role and the prospect of diplomatic engagement with Israel.

Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States have held two rounds of discussions related to the ceasefire framework, which is intended to create conditions for possible direct negotiations aimed at securing a broader peace arrangement between the longtime adversaries.

Hezbollah has strongly rejected such talks.Its leader, Naim Qassem, said on Monday that direct negotiations with Israel would amount to a “humiliating and unnecessary concession,” dismissing any outcomes from such discussions as irrelevant to the group.

“Let it be clear, these direct negotiations and their outcomes are considered nonexistent to us and do not concern us at all,” Qassem said in a written statement. “We will continue our defensive resistance for Lebanon and its people.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun defended the government’s decision to pursue face-to-face talks and appeared to criticize Hezbollah’s unilateral decision to enter the regional conflict without broad national agreement.

“What we are doing is not treason; rather, treason is committed by whoever takes his country to war to achieve external interests,” Aoun said in a statement released by his office, without naming Hezbollah directly.

“Some hold us accountable for deciding to go to negotiations on the pretext of the lack of national consensus, and I ask: When you went to war, did you first obtain national consensus?” he said.

The remarks underscored widening internal tensions over Lebanon’s security policy as the government seeks to balance domestic political divisions, ongoing Israeli military pressure and international efforts to prevent a broader regional escalation.

According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Araghchi was due to convey “Iran’s positions and views on the framework of any understanding to completely end the war” during fresh meetings with Pakistani officials.

The minister had visited Islamabad a day earlier, meeting Army Chief Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar before flying to Muscat, where he met Haitham bin Tariq as regional diplomacy intensified.Other Iranian envoys returned to Tehran for consultations and to obtain instructions related to ending the conflict, ISNA reported.

Before those talks, the White House had said Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were preparing to travel to Pakistan for further indirect negotiations.Trump later scrapped the trip, telling Fox News there was no reason to continue “sitting around talking about nothing,” while criticizing Tehran’s negotiating position.

“They gave us a paper that should have been better and interestingly immediately when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said, without giving details.Asked whether canceling the trip meant a return to open conflict, Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”Araghchi described his initial Pakistan visit as “very fruitful” but questioned Washington’s seriousness about diplomacy.“

Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” he said.Pressure for a diplomatic breakthrough has intensified as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively blocked, disrupting one of the world’s most important oil and gas shipping routes and driving energy prices sharply higher.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had no intention of lifting the blockade.“Controlling the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining the shadow of its deterrent effects over America and the White House’s supporters in the region is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran,” the Guards said on Telegram.

The United States has responded by tightening restrictions on Iranian ports and increasing maritime enforcement actions against vessels linked to Tehran’s energy exports.Iran’s military accused Washington of “blockading, banditry and piracy” and warned that continued pressure would trigger a response.

Regional tensions also escalated on the Lebanese front, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes against Hezbollah targets after accusing the group of violating a ceasefire recently extended for three weeks.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes in several southern districts, while Lebanon’s health ministry said attacks in Nabatieh and Bint Jbeil killed six people.Israel’s military said it had killed multiple Hezbollah operatives, including fighters allegedly transporting weapons.

Although Trump had earlier expressed optimism about peace after meetings with Israeli and Lebanese envoys, Hezbollah parliamentary bloc leader Mohammed Raad urged Lebanon to withdraw from negotiations, warning that any agreement without broader consensus would be politically unsustainable.

Araghchi is expected to travel to Moscow after completing the Islamabad consultations.

The ministry said two separate Israeli strikes targeted a truck and a motorbike in the town of Yohmor Al-Shaqeef in Nabatieh district, resulting in four deaths.“Two Israeli enemy strikes, on a truck and a motorbike, in the town of Yohmor Al-Shaqeef in the Nabatieh district killed four people,” the ministry said in a statement.

The latest deaths followed Israeli attacks on Friday that killed six people in the southern areas of Wadi Al-Hujair, Touline, Srifa and Yater, according to Lebanese authorities.The renewed violence came days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced in Washington that the 10-day ceasefire that began on April 17 had been extended by three weeks in an effort to contain further escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah entered the wider regional conflict on March 2 by launching rockets toward Israel, saying it was retaliating for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes, further expanding the Middle East war.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Israeli artillery shelling across several locations in the south on Saturday, along with what it described as a “violent explosion” in Khiam, a strategic border town east of the frontier with Israel.

The agency has previously accused Israeli forces of systematically destroying homes and civilian structures in Khiam and nearby villages.Israel’s military on Saturday renewed warnings to residents not to return to dozens of villages and towns inside what it calls the “yellow line,” a zone extending around 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory along much of the southern border.

The army also said it had struck Hezbollah rocket launchers overnight in several areas, describing the operations as part of efforts to prevent renewed militant attacks.

Israeli officials have maintained that military action in southern Lebanon is aimed at neutralizing immediate threats near the border and preventing Hezbollah from re-establishing launch positions close to Israeli communities.

Lebanese authorities say more than 2,490 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2, reflecting the scale of destruction despite repeated ceasefire attempts.On Friday, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayad said the group retained the right to respond to Israeli “aggressions” during the truce and argued that extending the ceasefire “makes no sense” while Israeli military operations continue.

The continued strikes have raised concerns that the fragile truce may collapse entirely, with both sides maintaining military pressure despite diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader regional war.

The Israeli military said the launcher had been used in an attack that was intercepted by its air defense systems. Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.The exchange came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire had been extended by three weeks, underscoring ongoing fragility in the truce.

Hezbollah said its attack was in retaliation for an earlier Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Yater. Lebanon’s public health ministry said two people, including a child, were wounded in artillery shelling in the area.

Separately, the ministry reported that an Israeli airstrike killed three people in the Nabatieh region in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said those killed were militants who had launched a missile toward an Israeli warplane.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have persisted intermittently despite ceasefire efforts, with both sides accusing each other of violations as tensions linked to the wider regional conflict continue.

The attack targeted a unit serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon as it was traveling to an outpost isolated by ongoing hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, according to UN officials.

In a statement, Security Council members denounced the assault “in the strongest terms” and reaffirmed their full support for UNIFIL operations in the region. The council did not assign responsibility, though France has blamed Hezbollah for the attack.

The incident occurred on Saturday amid heightened tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, where clashes have intensified in recent weeks. UNIFIL peacekeepers are mandated to monitor hostilities and support stability in southern Lebanon.

French authorities have not released further operational details about the ambush, while the United Nations has called for accountability and the protection of peacekeeping personnel under international law.

The attack underscores growing risks faced by UN forces operating in volatile regions conflict zones, as diplomatic efforts continue to prevent further escalation in Lebanon.

Major General Diodato Abagnara, commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), paid tribute to Florian Montorio during a ceremony at Beirut airport ahead of the repatriation of his remains to France.Montorio, 39, was killed on Sunday when a UNIFIL patrol clearing explosive ordnance came under small-arms fire near Ghanduriyah in southern Lebanon.

Three other peacekeepers were wounded, including two seriously, according to UNIFIL.“We are here to honour you,” Abagnara said during the ceremony, praising the soldier’s service and sacrifice and emphasizing that his contribution would endure through the mission’s ongoing work.

UNIFIL said the patrol had been attempting to restore access to isolated positions when it was targeted by what it described as non-state actors. The group Hezbollah has been alleged to be involved. The mission has launched an internal investigation and urged Lebanese authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible.

The ceremony was attended by senior officials including France’s ambassador to Lebanon, Hervé Magro, and UNIFIL Chief of Staff Paul Sanzey, who highlighted France’s longstanding role in the peacekeeping mission.

France has been a key contributor to UNIFIL since its establishment in 1978, deploying troops for patrols, demining operations and support to Lebanese armed forces in the volatile south region.Montorio was posthumously awarded UN and Lebanese Army medals in recognition of his service.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters.The incident underscores ongoing risks faced by peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where tensions persist despite the absence of large-scale hostilities in recent years.