Netanyahu Comes Under Fire After Trump Halts Israeli Strikes On Beirut
Benjamin Netanyahu is under criticism at home after U.S. President Donald Trump declared Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him losing.
Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on one another, hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, prompting a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran’s talks with the U.S.
Lebanon’s government later announced a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, under which Israel would halt strikes on southern Beirut and Hezbollah would stop attacks on Israel.
Netanyahu’s challengers in elections due by October accused the prime minister of having acquiesced to Trump on issues of national security.
“The location is different, the story is the same,” said Naftali Bennett, a right-wing security hawk and former premier who also criticizes Netanyahu over Hamas militants’ resurgence in Gaza.
“A government that has lost control of Israeli sovereignty,” Bennett said in an X post.
Bennett and his coalition partner in the upcoming election, centrist Yair Lapid, have pressed for strikes against Hezbollah.
“A full protectorate,” Lapid said in an X post, in effect accusing Netanyahu of allowing the U.S. to dictate Israeli military policy as if Israel was an American client state.
Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade fire despite an April 16 U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The latest conflict began on March 2 with Hezbollah firing into Israel in support of Iran.
Israel has since deepened its invasion of southern Lebanon, displacing over a million people and killing more than 3,400 as it bombards areas with attacks it says are aimed at rooting out Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not released figures on its war dead.
Hezbollah has fired rockets and explosive drones at Israeli troops and northern Israeli towns. Israel says 26 soldiers and four civilians have been killed since March 2.
