Residents of northern Israel reacted with anger and dismay on Thursday following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of an Israeli ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, while opposition lawmakers berated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for capitulating to the Americans and allowing a truce to be imposed on Israel.

Ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet also fumed during a hastily convened phone call with cabinet members to discuss the matter, claiming they heard about the ceasefire for the first time from Trump’s announcement, and questioned how it was declared without their approval, Hebrew media reported.

Trump announced earlier that the 10-day ceasefire would go into effect at midnight on Thursday, and said he would be inviting Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to the White House for negotiations.

Municipal leaders in northern Israel, which has faced ongoing stream of Hezbollah missiles and rockets since it started firing at Israel on March 2 as part of the Iran war, expressed outrage and betrayal over the announcement.

Moshe Davidovich, who serves as the head of the “Forum of Front-Line Communities, charged that agreements are “signed in Washington” but “paid in blood, in destroyed homes and in dismantled communities here.”

“A ceasefire that does not include lethal enforcement against Hezbollah for every violation and a buffer zone free of terror up to the Litani River is not a political achievement; it is a sentence to wait for the next massacre. The residents of the north are not statistics in an international public relations show,” he said in a statement.

Metula Mayor David Azoulay, a member of the Yisrael Beytenu party, said residents of the north “feel betrayed once again” by the deal.

“The fact that it is the president of the United States who is the one announcing a ceasefire only highlights how disconnected the prime minister of Israel is from the people, and from the reality of the residents of the north,” said Azoulay. In a direct appeal to Netanyahu, he said: “Your basic duty as prime minister of Israel is to provide security to the citizens of the state. In practice, you fail at this time after time.”

Merom HaGalil Regional Council chair Amit Sofer said it is “unreasonable” that Trump has tied the Lebanese and Iranian fronts, warning that it would lead to more years of constant threats to northern residents.

“The IDF should be allowed to win and achieve its goals that the political echelon set for disarming Hezbollah. A ceasefire is currently a worse option for the north than continuing the complex war reality with the missile alarms and the disruption of life,” he said.

“We prefer to suffer more and know that the threat is removed than a few days of apparent calm that will tarnish the entire process, and then wake up to the next disaster.”

Moshav Margaliot Chairman Eitan Davidi expressed fury toward Netanyahu in an interview with Channel 12 news: “When you look at yourself in the morning, what do you think to yourself, that you are speaking with idiots?”

“How can you look at the IDF soldiers, who you send there, who are fighting heroically, I was there; they are doing amazing work, why are you stopping them? How can you explain this? All this for what?”

Asaf Langleben, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, described the ceasefire as “a pause” that will inevitably lead to another round of fighting. He said the north “deserves a decisive outcome that will create real security, not a temporary illusion whose end is disaster.”

Benny Ben-Muvhar, head of the Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, told Channel 12 that he cannot assure residents evacuated southward that it is safe to return home, warning that “there is no security here.”

He said residents who evacuated south “are scared to come home,” adding, “We’ve been underground [in shelters] for two months so the IDF could do what it had to do… enough of these games.”

Ben-Muvhar also rejected the notion that a continued IDF deployment in Lebanon would ensure calm, saying “absolutely not,” and urged  Netanyahu to convene northern leaders for a closed forum on the matter.

Ceasefires forced upon us

Opposition leaders also panned Netanyahu, saying that Israel was being pushed into positions that would ultimately erode the country’s security.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said, “This is not the first time the promises of this government have come crashing down on the ground of reality.

“The fighting in Lebanon can finish only in one way: removing the threat to the northern communities permanently. This will no longer happen in this government; we will do it in the next government.”

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said it was “impossible to make the residents live from round of fighting to round of fighting. This is simply an unbearable reality!”

The government of October 7 has not learned anything. It is again giving Hezbollah time to recover and grow stronger. The war must not end without a clear decision and the elimination of Hezbollah. Otherwise, the next round is just a matter of time, at a heavier price and under much worse conditions. In the next government, I will ensure the security of the residents of the north!”

The Democrats chairman Yair Golan said a ceasefire with Lebanon was “the right direction,” but that “instead of leading, Israel is again being dragged.”

“Now it is important to understand, a ceasefire is not the destination, but rather a window of opportunity to advance negotiations and reach stable agreements with the Lebanese government, along with effective, long-term security arrangements.”

Former IDF chief of staff and Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot said that the ceasefire was the result of “Netanyahu and the government not knowing how to implement military achievements and diplomatic achievements.” Therefore, the ceasefire was “forced on us for a third time.”

“A pattern is developing where a ceasefire is being forced upon us — in Gaza, in Iran, and now in Lebanon.”

Since the renewal of cross-border fighting last month, 13 IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah, two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

In Lebanon, the Israeli military has said that it has killed some 1,700 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran.

More than 3,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have also been struck, including hundreds of command centers, weapon depots, and rocket and missile launchers, according to the IDF.

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