Lebanon and Israel have opened a third round of direct talks in Washington on Thursday, May 14, hosted by the U.S. State Department, even as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 22 people across southern Lebanon the day before — including eight children — in one of the deadliest escalations since the current ceasefire took effect. The two-day meeting, running through Friday, is the most substantive round yet in a U.S.-led effort to translate a fragile truce into a lasting security arrangement between two countries that have been technically at war since Israel's establishment in 1948 and maintain no diplomatic relations.
Wednesday's strikes hit roughly 40 locations in Lebanon's south and east, with drone attacks striking multiple vehicles on the busy coastal highway linking Beirut to the southern port city of Sidon, killing eight people in a single incident — among them a woman and her two children. Israel's military said the strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots, launch pads and infrastructure. Lebanon's Health Ministry confirmed at least 380 people have been killed and more than 1,100 wounded since a ceasefire was declared on April 17, bringing total casualties since fighting began in early March to nearly 2,900 dead and almost 9,000 wounded. More than 1 million people have been displaced. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia armed group and political movement that is designated a terrorist organisation by several governments, said it carried out ambushes and drone and rocket attacks against Israeli forces in the south in response to what it describes as ceasefire violations.
The talks were preceded by a previous round at the White House on April 23, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a three-week ceasefire extension and floated the idea of hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun for a historic first summit — an event that did not materialise. Trump is currently on a state visit to China and will not attend this round; the U.S. side will be led by the ambassadors to Lebanon and Israel — Michel Issa, a Lebanese-born businessman, and Mike Huckabee, an evangelical pastor — along with Mike Needham, a senior aide to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lebanon's delegation is led by Simon Karam, 76, a veteran lawyer and former ambassador who has long championed Lebanese sovereignty, alongside the country's ambassador to Washington. Israel's team is headed by its Washington ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, a Netanyahu ally associated with Israel's settler movement, with both sides having expanded their delegations to include military officials and deputy national security advisers.
The positions of the two sides remain far apart. Lebanon is seeking a formal consolidation of the ceasefire, an end to ongoing Israeli strikes and demolitions in the south, a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, the release of prisoners, the return of displaced civilians and reconstruction support. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed to press on with operations against Hezbollah regardless of the truce, conditioning any full withdrawal on the dismantling of Hezbollah's military infrastructure — a demand his foreign minister called the "only problem" between the two countries. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the political leadership had asked the military to prepare plans for a deepened ground offensive, and satellite analysis indicates Israel has consolidated control over a buffer zone — referred to internally as a "yellow line" — extending between 1.2 and 12 kilometres north of the internationally recognised Blue Line demarcation, covering some 568 square kilometres and roughly 85 villages. Israel has not declared any intention to annex this area, and Washington has stated Israel does not seek to permanently occupy Lebanese land. Hezbollah is not part of the Washington talks and its secretary-general, Naim Qassem, has denounced direct negotiations with Israel as "pure gains" for the Israeli side, calling instead for indirect talks led by the Lebanese state.
The backdrop makes a breakthrough unlikely in the short term. Analysts note that Israel appears to be using military pressure to consolidate facts on the ground ahead of any diplomatic settlement. Washington, for its part, is pushing not only for a ceasefire but for a broader restructuring of Lebanon's security arrangements — including the creation of vetted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces trained to operate against Hezbollah — a proposal that alarms many Lebanese officials who fear it could drag the army into an internal confrontation. Lebanon's political class is itself divided: media and politicians aligned with Hezbollah view the talks as negotiations from a position of weakness, while those supportive of the official government position see them as a necessary step to stabilise the truce and restore international backing for the Lebanese state. The ceasefire extension announced on April 23 nominally expired on May 10, yet fighting has continued on both sides throughout, leaving the diplomatic process caught between a war that has not stopped and a peace agreement that has not yet begun.