Trump's acknowledgment of Hezbollah 'utterly humiliating' for Netanyahu • FRANCE 24 English

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Israeli airstrikes on South Lebanon have killed at least eight people and this includes two children and their father.

[00:00:06]This came after Hezbollah launched missiles at northern Israel overnight.

[00:00:10]Donald Trump's words of 24 hours ago seem somewhat pointless right now. The US president said both Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial back violence with a temporary truce.

[00:00:22]The latest round of talks between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington. Lebanese negotiators are set to seek a full ceasefire that will prevent future attacks. The talks began in April and were the first in more than three decades between the two countries which have no formal diplomatic relations.

[00:00:38]Hezbollah isn't there and Hezbollah has rejected direct talks counting on pressure from Iran.

[00:00:46]Emma Maxwell with this.

[00:00:50]>> In the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, the cleanup has begun at the scene of an Israeli strike near a hospital which caused extensive damage to it and injured 39 staff.

[00:01:01]Lebanon's health minister said Israeli strikes are taking a particularly heavy toll on medical personnel during the 3-month-old war.

[00:01:09]But among the destruction Tuesday, there was some hope.

[00:01:15]This baby was born today.

[00:01:17]He's just a few minutes old.

[00:01:20]He brought us a message of life and a message of hope for the future.

[00:01:28]Israel kept up its strikes on southern Lebanon Tuesday hitting a string of towns as its troops continue to operate deeper into the country than at any time in over a quarter of a century.

[00:01:40]This a day after US President Donald Trump asked the Israeli Prime Minister not to attack Beirut to avert further escalation in the war.

[00:01:48]But the Israeli Defense Minister warned that it would do so if Hezbollah continued to strike northern Israel.

[00:01:55]The Prime Minister and I have devised a plan together with a strategy aimed at establishing an equation between the treatment of the Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut and that of the northern settlements in Israel. If they are attacked, we will strike the Dahiya.

[00:02:10]This principle is also made clear to the American administration.

[00:02:14]>> Hezbollah announced two operations against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday.

[00:02:21]Although it claimed no cross-border attacks, the Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles.

[00:02:27]Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday that Israel's escalation in Lebanon had prompted Iran to suspend communications with the US.

[00:02:35]The hostilities are significant sticking point in negotiations as Tehran has demanded a Lebanon ceasefire as part of any wider deal.

[00:02:43]The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 3,400 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.

[00:02:53]On the Israeli side, at least 27 soldiers and two civilians have been killed.

[00:03:00]>> Amel Maxwell there. Let's get more. Noga Tarnopolsky is our correspondent in Jerusalem. Noga, we spoke 24 hours ago of this unique situation where the US had exchanged with Hezbollah. And then we understood Israel was willing to dial back the violence too. Donald Trump was congratulating himself.

[00:03:15]I'm left with the question, what a difference a day makes.

[00:03:20]>> Right. Well, it was a murky situation yesterday and today we have, I would say, just a tiny bit more clarity. Uh 24 hours after Donald Trump's announcement, what we have is that Hezbollah, through uh Hezbollah legislator um in the Lebanese Parliament, Fadlallah, he said publicly that Hezbollah rejects any such ceasefire deal and demands complete Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory. On the Israeli side, we have simply no acknowledgement of this deal. No rejection, no acceptance.

[00:03:58]It's as if the deal does not exist. But, what we're seeing on the ground is that both Hezbollah and Israel after a very heavy night and early morning of exchanges do seem to be dialing it back. But, this is really no ceasefire. And for Prime Minister Netanyahu, this has been an utter humiliation.

[00:04:24]Seeing the American president acknowledge Hezbollah, say that he has spoken with him directly through representatives, and basically accepting Iran's point of view, which is that the negotiations between the US and Iran won't really move forward unless Lebanon is contained. So, in conclusion to that, what we're hearing this evening is that the White House plan is to quote contain the fighting between Israel and Lebanon.

[00:04:52]In other words, quell it. So, that those negotiations between Iran and the United States can go forward. This is exactly the opposite of what Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team had demanded.

[00:05:06]Which was that there be no connection between Israel's claims against Hezbollah and whatever the US and Iran are discussing regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.

[00:05:19]>> Now, the question now is where does all this leave Benjamin Netanyahu?

[00:05:26]>> Well, it leaves him high and dry, to be honest. We see today Prime Minister Netanyahu again basically fleeing his corruption trial, leaving after a very short period of time, showing up late in what appears to be clear contempt of court. We see him in all sorts of legislative maneuvers to try and postpone the Israeli elections back to their you know mandated legal final date which is October 27th a very complicated date for Netanyahu for whom the catastrophe of October 7th you know is something he wants to escape from but nonetheless we see him trying to get away from elections trying to get away from trial and in fact trying to get away from any public appearances Prime Minister Netanyahu has not been seen in public in the past two days since Donald Trump began his announcements and his team principally his defense minister today were really scrambling and not very successfully to say that this was not a humiliation for the Prime Minister there were some ridiculous and perplexing exchanges on Israeli radio today when the defense minister was asked what do you make of Donald Trump saying I told Netanyahu to stop his army and he sent the soldiers back what does that even mean about Israel's sovereign status and the defense minister saying what Donald Trump's statement means is that he's accepted the Israeli parameters regarding this war so we really are in Israel in a moment in which it's sort of Orwellian and the government is saying who do you believe what you read in Donald Trump's post or what we're telling you here on the radio