{"id":571713,"date":"2026-04-08T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571713\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:02:14","slug":"netanyahu-backs-iran-truce-opposition-blames-him-for-worst-ever-diplomatic-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571713\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu backs Iran truce; opposition blames him for worst-ever ‘diplomatic disaster’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel on Wednesday said it would support and abide by the two-week truce declared with Iran by US President Donald Trump, but vowed to push ahead with its offensive against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement, opposition leaders assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he had failed to secure Israel\u2019s stated strategic goals as part of the ceasefire. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Netanyahu was responsible for Israel\u2019s worst-ever \u201cdiplomatic disaster,\u201d and that the strategic damage would take years to correct.<\/p>\n

Trump had threatened that the US would strike key civilian infrastructure and \u201ca whole civilization will die\u201d in Iran if the Islamic Republic failed to open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday evening. Some 90 minutes before the deadline, Trump said<\/a> that, following conversations with Pakistani leaders, he had agreed \u201cto suspend the bombing and attack of Iran\u201d for two weeks if Iran immediately reopens the strait.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes before the deadline, which fell at 3 a.m. on Wednesday in Israel, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said: \u201cThe Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun \/ POOL \/ AFP) \/<\/p>\n

Some three hours later, in a statement<\/a> released only in English, Netanyahu\u2019s office said: \u201cIsrael supports President Trump\u2019s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran immediately opening the straits and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIsrael also supports the US effort to ensure that Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran\u2019s Arab neighbors and the world,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThe United States has told Israel that it is committed to achieving these goals, shared by the US, Israel and Israel\u2019s regional allies, in the upcoming negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAn Israeli family dismantles their tent in an underground shelter where they had been staying during the war with Iran, after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ohad Zwigenberg)<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, the IDF confirmed that it had halted strikes on Iran, and also said it was continuing to hit Hezbollah, even as three Lebanese sources close to Hezbollah told Reuters that the Iran-backed terror group had halted its fire on northern Israel and IDF troops as part of the accord.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF has ceased fire in the campaign against Iran and remains on high alert in defense, ready to respond to any violation,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n

However, in Lebanon, the IDF said it \u201ccontinues fighting and ground operations against the Hezbollah terror organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military said that it halted strikes against Iran at 3 a.m. after the Air Force carried out a wave of attacks aimed at reducing Iranian ballistic missile fire on Israel.<\/p>\n

During the wave of \u201cextensive\u201d strikes in Iran overnight, IAF fighter jets hit launch sites and ballistic missile launchers, \u201cwith the aim of significantly reducing and suppressing the scope of launches,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA ballistic missile fired from Iran, as seen over Jerusalem, April 7, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael Air Force fighter jets, directed by the Military Intelligence Directorate, struck dozens of launch sites \u2014 thereby disrupting a larger barrage of ballistic missiles that had been aimed at the State of Israel,\u201d the IDF says in a statement.<\/p>\n

Iran continued to fire ballistic missiles at Israel until around 3:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Right after Trump declared the ceasefire, Iran launched a ballistic missile at the Jerusalem area and central Israel, which was followed by several more attacks on the center, north and south of the country.<\/p>\n

Medics reported that three boys were lightly wounded by an Iranian cluster submunition that struck the southern town of Tel Sheva, with the Magen David Adom ambulance service saying it treated two 15-year-olds and a 12-year-old who were hurt by the blast and glass shards.<\/p>\n

Several others were treated for acute anxiety, MDA added.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA crater caused by a cluster munition from the warhead of an Iranian ballistic missile is seen in the southern city of Beersheba, April 8, 2026. (Magen David Adom)<\/p>\n

The Home Front Command was, meanwhile, carrying out an assessment; the IDF said it will update the public if any changes are made to guidelines for civilians.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah is expected to issue a statement outlining its formal position on the ceasefire and on Netanyahu\u2019s assertion that Lebanon is not included, the three Lebanese sources told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported several Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Wednesday morning, and the IDF reiterated its call for civilians to flee the southern coastal city of Tyre ahead of strikes there.<\/p>\n

Israel has carried out massive airstrikes and pushed troops farther into Lebanon after Hezbollah, on March 2, launched its first rocket attack on Israel since the November 2024 ceasefire deal. The agreement had ended over a year of conflict initiated by Hezbollah a day after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has said its renewed attacks were in response both to the killing of Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign on February 28, and to Israel\u2019s continued attacks and presence in Lebanon since the ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFirst responders work at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on April 8, 2026. (Kawnat HAJU \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Israel had held on to five strategic border posts inside Lebanon, citing security concerns, and regularly carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the country, accusing the group of ceasefire violations.<\/p>\n

Over 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon and about a million displaced since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities. The IDF says it has killed some 1,100 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group\u2019s elite Radwan Force, in that period.<\/p>\n

Eleven IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon in the renewed fighting against Hezbollah, two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the gravest strategic failures Israel has known\u2019<\/p>\n

While domestic reaction to the Iran truce was limited because of the Passover holiday, Israeli opposition leaders accused Netanyahu of failing to secure Israel\u2019s demands as part of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history,\u201d Opposition Leader Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party, wrote on X. \u201cIsrael wasn\u2019t even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tOpposition Leader Yair Lapid delivers a video statement, March 31, 2026. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n

While \u201cthe military carried out everything it was asked to do [and] the public showed remarkable resilience,\u201d Netanyahu \u201cfailed diplomatically, failed strategically and did not meet any of the goals he himself set,\u201d said Lapid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take us years to repair the diplomatic and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence and a lack of strategic planning,\u201d Lapid said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFirst responders work at an impact site following an Iranian ballistic missile strike, in Ramat Gan, April 6, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Yair Golan, head of the left-leaning The Democrats party, wrote that \u201cNetanyahu lied. He promised a \u2018historic victory\u2019 and security for generations, and in practice, we got one of the gravest strategic failures Israel has known.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBlood was spilled. Brave citizens killed. Soldiers fell. An entire nation in shelters,\u201d but \u201cnone of the goals were accomplished: The nuclear program was not destroyed; the ballistic threat remains; the regime is in place and is even stronger coming out of this war,\u201d wrote Golan.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDemocrats chair Yair Golan leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on February 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

MK Avigdor Liberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, warned that \u201ca ceasefire with Iran gives the ayatollahs\u2019 regime a break and time to regroup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny agreement with Iran, without giving up on destroying Israel, enriching uranium, manufacturing ballistic missiles and supporting terror groups in the region, means we\u2019ll return to another war in harder conditions with a heavier price,\u201d Liberman wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ceasefire announcement was also met with immediate criticism from within Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, with MK Zvika Fogel, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, who wrote on X: \u201cDonald, you came off as a duck!\u201d Fogel did not comment on Netanyahu\u2019s role in the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Agencies contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel on Wednesday said it would support and abide by the two-week truce declared with Iran by US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-571713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}