Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire beginning at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, a senior US official told Reuters, after a sharp escalation of hostilities in Lebanon threatened to unravel the wider US-Iran interim agreement signed earlier this week.

“Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.” The official said US and Qatari negotiators brokered the deal with assistance from Iran.

The overnight violence that preceded the agreement was among the most intense of the war. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry reported, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in south Lebanon in one of the deadliest Hezbollah attacks of the conflict.

A Hezbollah lawmaker told Reuters earlier on Friday that Iran had informed the group that talks with Washington could not continue without the implementation of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon.

The US-Iran interim accord signed on Wednesday requires the United States, Iran and their allies to declare an immediate and permanent end to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. Violence had eased significantly earlier in the week following the agreement before escalating again overnight.

(Reuters)