The statement from the Prime Minister's Office arrived within two hours of the ceasefire announcement. It was four sentences long and contained a word that rendered the ceasefire incomplete before the ink was dry. [1]

"Israel supports President Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks," the statement read. Not "Israel agrees." Not "Israel has joined." The word "supports" was a diplomatic instrument: it preserved Israel's endorsement of the US diplomatic achievement while asserting that Israel itself had made no commitment. [2]

The critical sentence followed: "The two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon." Netanyahu's office did not elaborate. It did not need to. Within hours, IDF strikes resumed across Lebanon in what the military described as its largest coordinated operation against Hezbollah since early March. Fourteen people were reported killed. [1]

The Lebanon carve-out is not a diplomatic technicality. It is the structural center of the ceasefire's fragility. The prior coverage of the Lebanon exclusion as a fatal flaw laid out why: Hezbollah is Iran's primary deterrent capacity. If Hezbollah remains active, Iran's deterrent remains functional, regardless of what Tehran agreed to on paper. Netanyahu's statement made explicit what this paper argued was implicit: the ceasefire covers one theater of a multi-theater war. [2]

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced moments earlier that the ceasefire applied "everywhere including Lebanon." Netanyahu corrected the record.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem