US President Donald Trump on Monday said he spoke with Iran-aligned Lebanese militia group Hezbollah through intermediaries and secured a pledge that it would not attack Israel.
Trump said he also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel has agreed to pull back any troops that were preparing to attack southern Lebanon.
No US president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
"I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop."
A Lebanese official told Reuters that Hezbollah had informed the US, through Lebanon's parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, that it was willing to halt attacks on northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut and its suburbs any strikes.
Trump's comments emerged hours after Israel's government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut a day after its ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon in 26 years and as Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, including the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa.
A joint statement by Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the orders to attack targets in Beirut's southern suburbs followed what they called repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah and "attacks against our cities and citizens."
The Israeli military's Arabic spokesman later posted on X that residents should leave the suburbs, adding that if Hezbollah continues attacking Israeli communities, Israel will launch attacks on the area known in Arabic as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah enjoys wide support.
Hezbollah agreed to halt attacks on Israel when the ceasefire was signed in mid-April, but the militant group resumed the assaults after Israeli strikes in Lebanon that Israel characterised as self-defence.
The fighting also presents a major obstacle in the emerging deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war. Tehran wants any agreement to include Lebanon.
After Monday's warning, large number of people were seen fleeing Dahiyeh, jamming roads leading out of the suburb.
Mohammed Farhat, 23, fled with his brother and parents from Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik and was heading with his mother on a motorcycle to stay with relatives in another neighbourhood.
"We are worried. I am used to it but left for my parents," the university student said.
Israel and Hezbollah clash overnight
Israeli airstrikes overnight on southern Lebanon left six people dead, including a Syrian citizen in a village near the city of Nabatiyeh, the state-run National News Agency said. Israel struck other towns and villages near the major city, close to the strategic Beaufort Castle and other towns the Israeli military captured in recent days.
An airstrike Monday afternoon in the port city of Tyre caused heavy damage to the Jabal Amel Hospital, the Health Ministry said. A video released by the ministry showed shaken women and children inside the hospital, where windows were blown out.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its air force had intercepted two projectiles launched from Lebanon toward Israeli territory, as well as a suspicious aerial target in the area where Israeli soldiers operate in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported, the military said.
Hezbollah said it carried out rocket and missile attacks on northern Israel on Sunday. It said early Monday it attacked Israeli troops in Zawtar al-Sharqieh, just north of the Litani River, and struck what they said was Israeli military infrastructure in Tiberius, a few dozen miles south of the border.