Iran began negotiations for a cease-fire by insisting that it include Hezbollah. Pakistan insists that the deal reached at the eleventh hour with Donald Trump includes a pause in fighting in Lebanon.
The Israelis would beg to differ. With the IDF freed from conducting sorties on Iranian regime targets, they turned their attention to Hezbollah targets in Beirut. Israel conducted its largest air operation in the new war last night:
The Israeli military has carried out a large wave of air strikes across Lebanon, with reports of a high number of casualties across the country, hospitals overwhelmed and people believed to be under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Israel described it as the largest wave of air strikes in this conflict, hitting more than 100 of what it called Hezbollah command centres and military sites in 10 minutes.
Attacks hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Defense Minister Israel Katz called it the biggest attack on Hezbollah leadership since Operation Grim Beeper:
“Hundreds of Hezbollah operatives were targeted in surprise strikes at headquarters across Lebanon, in the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since the pager operation,” he says, referring to the exploding pager attack that targeted Hezbollah members in 2024.
Katz says Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem was warned that “Hezbollah would pay a very heavy price for attacking Israel on behalf of Iran, and his personal turn will also come.”
Surprise may be an understatement. Until last night, the expectation was that any pause in the war would be universal. Iran had made that a key demand even before they admitted to negotiating at all. They wanted to stop Israel from uprooting their key terror proxy from its 44-year perch in Lebanon in order to salvage at least a small part of its regional encirclement strategy.
Instead, Israel launched a comprehensive offensive on all fronts. That includes a ground operation that seized key strategic positions overnight and has essentially reoccupied the sub-Litani region of Lebanon:
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had completed deployment of ground troops along a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah could fire anti-tank guided missiles directly at Israeli communities.
The so-called anti-tank line is located several kilometers deep in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s anti-tank missiles have an estimated range of around 10 kilometers.
“IDF troops have now completed their deployment along the ‘anti-tank line’ and continue operating in the area to strengthen the forward defensive line and remove the threat to residents of the north,” the military said in a statement.
In recent weeks, the IDF advanced to strategic positions from which the military said Hezbollah could launch attacks on Israel, including the Ras al-Bayada headland, south of the coastal city of Tyre, located around eight kilometers (5 miles) north of Israel’s border.
In the western sector, the Israeli military has been operating near the Litani River — some four kilometers from Israel’s border. And in the central sector, troops have also pushed into villages several kilometers deep into Lebanon.
Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu did not react with delight to the cease-fire decision yesterday, although Netanyahu publicly supported it. Some in Netanyahu's coalition argued that Trump "came out looking like a duck," which must be an insult in Israeli political idioms on par with "TACO" here in the US. Netanyahu got out in front of it immediately, though, to insist that while Israel agrees to the cease-fire with Iran, that has no bearing on the war in Lebanon:
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel supports President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, contingent on Tehran reopening key maritime routes and halting attacks on the United States, Israel, and other countries in the region.
However, the statement emphasized that “the two-weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” directly contradicting earlier remarks from Pakistan — a mediator in the talks — which had suggested the truce would cover the Lebanon front as well.
The Israeli military confirmed the distinction, saying it has halted offensive operations against Iran but will continue combat operations against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist group operating in Lebanon.
A leading Hezbollah politician threatened that the offensive would undo the cease-fire with Iran:
"In accordance with directives from the political leadership, the IDF has ceased fire in the campaign against Iran and remains on high defensive alert, prepared to respond to any violations," read an IDF statement, adding that "the IDF continues combat operations and ground activity against the Hezbollah terrorist organization" in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, in turn, has issued a warning to Lebanese civilians, urging them not to return to villages and towns in southern Lebanon still under attack, while simultaneously attempting to frame the ceasefire as a victory. “The barbaric enemy is trying to divert attention from his defeat and may carry out attacks to create a false image of achievements,” the group said.
Lebanese Member of Parliament and Hezbollah member Ibrahim Moussawi later issued a statement warning that if Israel does not adhere to the ceasefire, no party will feel bound to uphold it. He reiterated Iran's demand that the agreed ceasefire include Lebanon, something that Israel has refuted.
Will the Iranians bail out of the cease-fire over attacks on Hezbollah? That may turn into a crisis point for the regime in Tehran. If they were never serious about the cease-fire, then we can expect Iran to claim that the agreement has been broken and return to full-scale attacks. However, it seems pretty clear that the regime knew it had only hours left before total destruction – and if they didn't know it, China certainly did, and told them so.
The omission of Hezbollah and Lebanon from the explicit terms of the cease-fire agreement is itself a humiliating climb-down by the mullahs. They clearly didn't want American restraint to be based on the actions of the lunatics in the Dahiyeh neighborhood of Beirut. If Iran doesn't respond to this massive offensive, the regime will send a clear signal that Hezbollah is disposable and that they are truly worried about their own survival. If so, that may be enough to finally get Lebanon's army in action to combine with the IDF to forcibly eject the Iranian occupation from Lebanon for the first time in nearly a half-century.
And if Iran responds? Trump can order those B-52s back into action. One has to wonder whether Trump and Netanyahu had this in mind all along. It's an elegant test, whether strategically planned or not.
Update: It appears that Iran has already failed the test, or is testing whether a failure will result in renegotiation:
Iran has told regional mediators its participation in talks with U.S. officials in Islamabad is conditional on a cease-fire in Lebanon, warning it might also reverse its decision on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, people familiar with the matter said.
Iranian mediators have also warned they would continue to carry out attacks on regional countries, including Israel, if attacks on Lebanon and Iran by Israel continue, they said.
Trump has already declared that the cease-fire agreement doesn't cover Lebanon and Hezbollah, no matter what the Iranians claim:
President Donald Trump said that Lebanon is not included in the two-week ceasefire with Iran, in a phone interview with PBS.
"Yeah they were not included in the deal," Trump told PBS.
Asked why, Trump said, “because of Hezbollah. They were not included in the deal.”
“That’ll get taken care of too. It’s alright," Trump said.
Iranian state media claims that the IRGC has issued threats on Hormuz shipping again:
Iranian state media reports the passage of oil tankers through the Straight of Hormuz has been stopped after Israeli strikes in Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/GknWMJ5Kj2
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) April 8, 2026
We still haven't seen a "cease" in this cease-fire. If this continues, Bridge and Power Plant Day may take place soon.
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