Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire to end hostilities, the Trump administration has announced, as the US looks to overcome one of the largest barriers to reaching a broader deal to end the war with Iran.

The Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of fire from the Iran-aligned Hezbollah armed group and the evacuation of all its fighters from the area south of the Litani river in south Lebanon , a joint statement released by the US state department said after negotiations in Washington.

The agreement was signed between the governments of Lebanon and Israel. Fighting has been between Hezbollah and Israel; the Lebanese army is not a party to the conflict. However, the Lebanese government has been negotiating with Israel without Hezbollah as part of its effort to reassert the government’s control over the country and disarm the armed group.

Despite the joint commitment to a ceasefire, Israel carried out multiple drone strikes in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon on Thursday morning.

The two sides, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.

A Hezbollah official told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the group would “not accept a partial ceasefire”, and the group has not been party to the talks.

In private, however, the group has signalled that it is ready for a complete ceasefire which would mean the group not firing if Israel also refrained from strikes. It was unclear how the group would respond to Israel’s bombings on Thursday morning. Hezbollah also has said that it would not return to the prewar status quo, in which Israel struck Lebanon frequently despite the existence of a previous ceasefire.

The joint statement did not mention if or when Israeli troops would withdraw from south Lebanon. Israel occupies at least 608 sq km of land along the Lebanese-Israel border.

A truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon was meant to take hold on 17 April, but hostilities continued, with both sides justifying their ongoing attacks by the other’s alleged violations.

The meetings in Washington were the fourth round of direct talks by Lebanese and Israeli diplomats since fighting erupted on 2 March, when Hezbollah renewed attacks against Israel in support of Iran. The joint statement said the meetings in Washington would continue to fully flesh out a ceasefire and carry out its phased implementation.

Wednesday’s development came after continued cross-border attacks earlier in the day, with Hezbollah saying it targeted Israeli troops, and Israeli strikes killing at least nine people in southern Lebanon.

A ceasefire in Lebanon has had a series of false starts, with the 17 April ceasefire understood to only exempt the capital from attacks.

In substance, the joint statement resembles a previous ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024, in which Hezbollah agreed to pull back from south of the Litani river so Lebanese armed forces could deploy there. The full disarmament of Hezbollah failed to be achieved and Israel carried out more that 10,000 strikes in violation of the ceasefire in the 15 months that followed.

Earlier on Wednesday , the US president, Donald Trump, said he wanted to separate talks on the conflict in Lebanon and those on the war with Iran. However, Tehran insists the conflicts are linked and this week threatened to suspend peace talks with the US in protest against Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, threatening the collapse of negotiations with Washington.

Tehran has said that it will not abandon its ally Hezbollah in its negotiations with Washington, even as the Lebanese government has said it will not allow Tehran to negotiate on its behalf. The fate of Hezbollah in Lebanon is understood to be linked to the outcomes of negotiations in Iran and potentially a broader political deal.

Trump said on Monday that he had stopped an imminent Israeli strike on Beirut and had spoken to Netanyahu and representatives of Hezbollah who agreed that “all shooting will stop”.

Trump confirmed reports that he had described Netanyahu as “crazy”, saying he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon was complicating US-led efforts to advance peace talks with Iran.

According to analysts, Israel wants to inflict as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a potential peace deal with Iran stops its offensive. Netanyahu told CNBC on Wednesday that he and Trump were aligned on the goal of disarming Hezbollah in order to achieve peace between Israel and Lebanon.

The US president is under pressure to resolve the Iran war as higher energy prices and economic uncertainty threaten Republican prospects in the midterm elections and hamper global commerce.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives delivered a stunning rebuke to Trump, with representatives backing a move to force him to seek approval from Congress for the war or withdraw US forces. The vote’s impact was largely symbolic, as it is unclear whether the resolution carries the force of law, even if it were to pass the Senate.

Among the Israeli strikes on Wednesday was one in the immediate vicinity of the public hospital in Tebnine, just days after strikes next to the Hiram and Jabal Amel hospitals in Tyre. The attack next to Jabal Amel on Monday killed four people and injured 127 – most of whom were medical staff.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) also reported strikes on more than 20 locations in the south, some after Israel’s military warned residents of several villages to evacuate.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israel targeted an ambulance in a strike in the south, killing two paramedics from the Risala Scouts Association, a civilian health service run by Hezbollah’s ally the Amal movement. Human rights groups have said any attacks on health workers are a war crime, regardless of political affiliation.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Iran struck Kuwait, killing one person, damaging its airport and injuring dozens while the US military carried out strikes near the strait of Hormuz.

The attacks on Kuwait and in the strait are the latest to test a shaky ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran, sending oil prices up nearly 2%, as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the war was launched.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said they did not fire at Kuwait’s airport and blamed the destruction on US interceptor missiles that failed to hit their targets, according to Iranian state media. The US military said that was not accurate, and that Iranian drones targeted the airport deliberately.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

The widow of a gambling addict who took his own life after falling £18,000 into debt begins a legal claim on Thursday against Betfair that could have far-reaching consequences for the UK’s gambling industry.

Luke Ashton, 40, from Leicester, died in April 2021 after suffering from a gambling disorder that led him to place thousands of bets with the company, which sent him promotional “free” bets.

Lawyers for the Ashton family allege that Betfair was negligent because it failed to intervene as his losses increased, rendering the company liable for his death on the basis it breached its duty of care.

Success in the claim would establish for the first time that a betting operator owed a duty of care to customers showing signs of problem gambling.

In a defence submitted to the high court, Betfair, part of the £13bn international gambling firm Flutter, denied it owed Ashton any duty of care.

It said he had not informed the company he had a gambling disorder and that his financial losses were caused by his “own contributory negligence” and external mental health factors.

Ashton signed up for temporary exclusions from gambling with Betfair three times, but returned to betting each time they ended, going on to lose £21,777 over three years.

In March 2021, after his gambling intensified when he was furloughed during the pandemic, he placed more than 1,000 bets and made a net loss of £5,500.

According to the claim, the volume of “free” bets he received also increased during this period, the month before his death.

Betfair’s lawyers say Ashton would have lost the money with another operator if he had not done so with the company, which had rigorous safer gambling checks in place.

The Ashtons are seeking damages of £846,478, which includes the money Betfair made from Luke and financial losses such as the earnings he would have provided to his family had he lived.

Lawyers for Leigh Day, acting for the Ashton family, will seek to establish that Betfair had a duty of care to Ashton that it failed to meet.

Previous similar claims seeking to hold firms liable for failing to prevent large losses by customers with a gambling problem have failed.

If the Ashtons’ case is successful, it could pave the way for millions of pounds in new claims against the UK gambling industry, which earned more than £12bn from British customers last year.

An estimated 1.4 million adults in Britain have a gambling problem, according to a study for the Gambling Commission last year, using new methodology that has led to a higher estimate of the extent of the issue.

In 2023, a coroner criticised Betfair for its part in Ashton’s death, noting that “more efforts to intervene or interact should have been made”.

Ashton volunteered for a six-month self-exclusion from betting in 2017. He later opted out of receiving promotional material from Betfair Exchange, the company’s peer-to-peer betting platform.

The opt-out, however, did not extend to promotions available on other parts of the Betfair website and app, where he took part in several “free bet” or cashback offers between 2018 and 2021.

The 2023 inquest heard that Ashton had left notes for his wife and children before his death that twice mentioned gambling and admitted he had “demons”.

A spokesperson for Flutter said: “We reiterate our sincere condolences to Mrs Ashton and her family over this tragic case. Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further at this time because of the legal proceedings.”