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Israeli drones have killed at least eight people in Lebanon despite an announcement Monday by U.S. President Donald Trump that both Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting. Trump’s intervention came as Israel threatened new strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, leading Iran to suspend indirect negotiations with the U.S. to protest Israel’s expanding military offensive in Lebanon. Since March 2, Israel has killed more than 3,400 people in Lebanon while seizing large swaths of the country and displacing about one-fifth of the population.

Lebanon is “a weak state, it doesn’t have a lot of leverage, and a lot of people are concerned,” says Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut. “They sort of feel beholden to the regional and global powers on their fate.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israeli drones have killed at least eight people despite President Trump’s claim that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed that, quote, “all shooting will stop.” Trump made the claim as Iran said it’s suspending indirect negotiations with the U.S. to protest Israel’s expanding military offensive in Lebanon. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote online, “The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” he said.

Since March 2nd, Israel has killed more than 3,400 people in Lebanon while seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon, including the medieval Beaufort Castle.

Iranian Media Says Iran Is Suspending Talks With US Over Ceasefire Violations

On Monday, President Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone after Israel threatened new attacks on Beirut. Axios is reporting, during the expletive-laden call, Trump told Netanyahu, quote, “You’re f’ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” Axios reported Trump saying to Netanyahu.

After the call, Trump wrote online, quote, “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,” he said.

In Beirut, displaced Lebanese residents decried Israel’s ongoing attacks.

ISSAM KANOUN: [translated] We — this is a feeling that can’t be described, that we have experienced this before, and we rebuilt our land. And God willing, we will rebuild it even better. We have lived through something like this before. I was born in 1975. From the first day I was born, we have been living through wars until now, about staying in the south of Lebanon. As long as there is a strip, an occupied strip, an occupied land, it means Israel is harming us.

ISSAM KANOUN: [translated] We — this is a feeling that can’t be described, that we have experienced this before, and we rebuilt our land. And God willing, we will rebuild it even better. We have lived through something like this before. I was born in 1975. From the first day I was born, we have been living through wars until now, about staying in the south of Lebanon. As long as there is a strip, an occupied strip, an occupied land, it means Israel is harming us.

AMY GOODMAN: At the United Nations, the Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss Lebanon. This is Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya.

VASILY NEBENZYA: [translated] The ceasefire reached on April 17th between West Jerusalem and Beirut, brokered by Washington, has unfortunately turned out to be a smokescreen for a creeping aggression against Lebanon. While the entire world was waiting for the next round of negotiations planned for June 2nd in the United States capital, Israel continued to methodically expand its zone of occupation, razing entire settlements to the ground as part of its scorched-earth tactics. It has become evident that Lebanon is seeing an almost identical replay of the scenario of clearing the Gaza Strip, with the establishment of large-scale occupation control and the forced displacement of the local population.

VASILY NEBENZYA: [translated] The ceasefire reached on April 17th between West Jerusalem and Beirut, brokered by Washington, has unfortunately turned out to be a smokescreen for a creeping aggression against Lebanon. While the entire world was waiting for the next round of negotiations planned for June 2nd in the United States capital, Israel continued to methodically expand its zone of occupation, razing entire settlements to the ground as part of its scorched-earth tactics. It has become evident that Lebanon is seeing an almost identical replay of the scenario of clearing the Gaza Strip, with the establishment of large-scale occupation control and the forced displacement of the local population.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Beirut, where we’re joined by Kareem Chehayeb, Associated Press reporter based in Beirut. His most recent co-authored piece is headlined “Trump says Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to dial back fighting.”

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Kareem. Can you explain what you understand President Trump is saying, who he’s spoken to, and what, in fact, is happening on the ground?

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: Absolutely. What happened yesterday was, in no means, a ceasefire or a step towards a complete ceasefire. However, it was a containment effort to stop what could have, in fact, taken Lebanon back to where it was in the peak of the war, where Israel would be bombing the southern suburbs of Beirut, where there would be mass displacement from these sprawling urban neighborhoods, and it would — and Hezbollah would continue launching rockets and missiles into northern Israel. They weren’t doing much of that in this period, and most of their attacks were targeting Israeli troops in Lebanon, but we did witness an........

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