The pilot-zone plan Israel and Lebanon agreed to in late June covers just three villages, Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Gharbieh, with no fixed exit timetable for Israeli forces, and Trump declined to commit to one during his July 21 meeting with President Joseph Aoun, according to PBS News. Two of the three villages already sit under Lebanese army control, while Israeli troops remain in part of Zawtar al-Gharbieh.
Chatham House fellow Bilal Saab has called the resulting arrangement “only a ceasefire in name,” per NBC News, since Israeli clearing operations have continued without a binding deadline to stop.
Medical responders have paid a cost. Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry said 42 medical workers have been killed since fighting resumed in March, including two paramedics whose ambulance was struck this month while responding to an earlier strike in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, calling the pattern “deliberate obstruction of rescue operations,” per LBC Group.
Aoun, the first Lebanese president to visit the White House since 2009, told Trump his goal was ending “the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever.” Trump called it Aoun’s legacy but announced no new enforcement mechanism.
