Khaled Yousef<\/p>\n
22 June 2026\u2022Update: 22 June 2026<\/p>\n
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called Monday for rejecting any ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, saying the Arab country \u201cshould be Israel’s playground.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael cannot agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon,\u201d the extremist minister told Israel\u2019s public broadcaster KAN in an interview.<\/p>\n
He urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convey Israel\u2019s rejection of any ceasefire in Lebanon to US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump is a true friend, and we must treat him politely and embrace him, but we need to tell him that we cannot agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon,\u201d Ben-Gvir said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the ones making decisions, and there are good results for our soldiers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
His opposition comes amid growing disputes within Israeli political and security circles over a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran and their possible implications for ending the war on the Lebanese front.<\/p>\n
Israel and Lebanon are set to hold a fifth round of direct negotiations in Washington on Tuesday. The upcoming talks follow four previous rounds between the two sides that began in April as part of a track aimed at ending the Israeli war in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The US-mediated negotiations come as criticism grows inside Israel over Washington\u2019s handling of talks with Iran and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
The Israeli news site i24NEWS, citing Israeli officials, said Tel Aviv fears that an agreement between the US and Iran could strengthen Tehran and its allies in the region.<\/p>\n
The officials claimed the Trump administration and its negotiating team \u201cmisunderstands the ideology driving Tehran and Hezbollah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump doesn\u2019t speak Shia,\u201d they said, in reference to what they claim is a failure to understand the nature of Iran\u2019s system and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, i24NEWS quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as saying: \u201cPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed ministers to avoid personal attacks on Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 4,100 people, and injured over 12,000 others since March 2, according to official Lebanese figures.<\/p>\n
Israel continues to occupy areas in southern Lebanon, some held for decades and others seized during the 2023\u20132024 war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khaled Yousef 22 June 2026\u2022Update: 22 June 2026 Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called Monday for rejecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-505234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}