Hezbollah has rejected a US-backed renewed ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon. The leader of the Iranian-backed group says the terms were negotiated in talks that they were excluded from - and they amount to surrender.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Sidon is Lebanon's largest city south of Beirut.
The southern Sidon district has been the target of several Israeli strikes - and resident Salah Nassab says he is hoping for a long-lasting ceasefire.
"We're tired of hearing about a ceasefire agreement being reached and then not to have it be implemented. It’s all talk and no action. We keep going back to our homes and then we get displaced again, back and forth. We're tired of hearing about ceasefires and getting excited about going back home. We’re very tired. I hope this gets resolved and we are hoping there will be a real ceasefire."
It's unclear if he will get his wish.
Since a ceasefire commenced on April 17, nearly 3,500 people have died in the near daily Israeli strikes on the country, and Israel and Lebanon have now agreed to renew the terms of the truce.
But the deal is already at risk of unravelling.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem says it rejects the terms of the deal negotiated between Israel and Lebanon without its participation, an agreement contingent on a complete cessation of fire by the militant group.
In a statement, the leader has said the ceasefire terms would allow Israel to achieve its goal and amounts to surrender.
"What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal. We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation."
The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force - which established Hezbollah in 1982 - says the minimum demand is Israel's withdrawal to positions it held before the war began.
But Israel has kept up strikes in southern Lebanon, and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces would not be withdrawing from the area or halting operations in the country, which they invaded in March in parallel with the war in Iran.
Meanwhile, the death toll at Lebanon's border continues to rise.
Israel reported its first fatality since the announcement of the renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, the military saying one of their soldiers was killed after a missile fired by Hezbollah struck a tank in southern Lebanon.
That makes 28 Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon since March 2.
In the hours since the renewed ceasefire in Lebanon was announced, Israeli strikes also killed at least four people, and a UN peacekeeper.
UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed his passing.
"Sergeant Milovan Jovanović of Serbia's 27th Mechanized Battalion died early this morning from critical injuries sustained when a mortar shell hit his position near Marjayoun in southern Lebanon. The Secretary General condemns the killing of our peacekeeping colleague. He expresses his deepest condolences to the families, to the friends and colleagues of the peacekeeper who died, and to the government and people of Serbia."
Mr Dujarric also says the rate of internal displacement in Lebanon has accelerated, with 200,000 people forced to flee their homes Beirut's southern suburbs alone, following Israeli evacuation orders issued on Monday [[1 June]].
Iran has made a ceasefire in Lebanon a condition for any peace deal with the United States, and has suggested in recent days that it could intervene directly in support of Hezbollah if Israel keeps up or escalates attacks there.
With cross-border strikes threatening to unravel a newly negotiated ceasefire in Lebanon, US President Donald Trump says the volatility in the Middle East has made him rethink his definition of a ceasefire.
"Pretty much the way it is. It's a different part of the world. You know, I'd say in that part of the world ceasefire is when you're shooting in a more moderate manner."
Retired US Army major and military analyst Mike Lyons says those remarks appear a part of a strategy by Mr Trump to extricate the US from the deepening conflict in Lebanon and in Iran.
Mr Trump says the talks to end the fighting on both fronts need to remain separate, but Iran maintains the two are linked and this week it threatened to suspend negotiations with the US over Israel's expanded ground operation in Lebanon.
Mr Lyons has told CBS News that has put Mr Trump in a tricky position.
"He (Donald Trump) is trying to show strategic patience right now until he thinks he can get a solution. And I think the Iranians are trying to goad the Americans into escalating. I think that would be disastrous. I don't think that is a good course of action for us right now to resume a large-scale operation. Epic Fury was clearly a military victory, but we just really haven't aligned the strategy. We just have a siege now going on, which is why I think the politicians decided to vote against the president doing anything more there. So the Iranians tried to bring them into it and escalate it. I think the president is trying to show restraint. But he has got to find a middle ground pretty quickly, especially if the Iranians decide that they're not going to co-operate in the talks."
