BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Wednesday that Israel must fully implement the ceasefire between the two countries before beginning direct talks, after Israeli strikes killed 20 people over the last two days.

Israeli and Lebanese representatives have met twice in Washington, the first such meetings in decades, for discussions that Hezbollah has categorically rejected.

After the first talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire that began on April 17, and a three-week extension after the second round.

Trump said he hoped to host Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “over the next couple of weeks” as the two countries prepare for direct negotiations.

Israel “must first fully implement the ceasefire in order to move on to negotiations... Israeli attacks cannot continue as they are,” Aoun said in a statement shared by the presidency.

“We are now waiting for the United States to set a date to begin direct negotiations” with Israel, he added.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon, particularly the south, despite the truce, and has carried out demolitions of border villages inside a “Yellow Line” it established in southern Lebanon.

It said on Wednesday that it struck “approximately 20 command centres and military structures used by Hezbollah”.

Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir vowed to continue attacks on “any threat, anywhere, against our communities or our forces — including beyond the Yellow Line and north of the Litani”, referring to a river located around 30 kilometres north of Israel.

In a military statement shared after his visit to Israeli troops positioned in southern Lebanon, Zamir added they may be “required to remain” in certain positions in the country.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported a series of Israeli strikes on the country.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, and drone and rocket fire on northern Israel, saying it is in response to ceasefire “violations”.

‘Consolidate the ceasefire’

A Lebanese soldier and his brother were killed in an Israeli strike on Wednesday, Lebanon’s military said.

The raid comes one day after 19 people, including three civil defence personnel, were killed in strikes in the country’s south, according to updated health ministry figures, while two troops were also wounded.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the strike that killed the civil defence workers a war crime.

Aoun in an earlier statement on Wednesday said that authorities were keeping up “contacts to consolidate the ceasefire and stop the demolition of homes in occupied southern villages”, according to a statement.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2026