U.S.-brokered “ceasefire” in Lebanon means bombing every week

For a war front supposedly under a ceasefire, southern Lebanon has faced repeated Israeli bombing and shelling over the past four months. In August alone, the IOF has killed at least 18 people, including 11 people in a single day on Aug. 15.

Why is the time span of four months important? It has been a little over four months since the Israeli and Lebanese governments agreed to the first U.S.-brokered cessation of hostilities in the war that resumed on March 2. The April 16 truce was extended in May, followed by a conditional ceasefire agreement on June 3 and then a formal “framework agreement” signed in Washington on June 26, 2026.

The scale of the assault has been enormous. By Aug. 25, the Lebanese Health Ministry had recorded 4,350 people killed and 12,310 wounded since Israel resumed its offensive on March 2. The death toll has continued to rise despite the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

However, even with this supposed ceasefire in place, the U.S.-backed zionist offensive against Lebanon has not stopped. On Aug. 29, Israeli forces again attacked southern Lebanon, carrying out drone and air strikes, artillery fire and demolitions in and around Nabatieh, Mansouri, Houla and other towns. Two days earlier, an Israeli strike killed a newlywed woman and wounded six other people, including a child and two older adults.

Throughout the various air and artillery strikes since the ceasefire began, the IOF has also continued some level of ground offensives with infantry and Merkava tanks. All of this zionist onslaught has occurred while the formal Lebanese government has engaged in seven rounds of talks with Israeli and U.S. officials. To be clear, the Lebanese government seated in Beirut does not speak for Hezbollah. Yet, the U.S. and Israel refuse to negotiate with Hezbollah directly. 

As the various imperialist wars of 2026 are being waged, whether against Iran, Cuba, Palestine, Lebanon, or Yemen, it has become abundantly clear that “ceasefires” and “negotiations” are simply tactical maneuvers by the U.S. in the furtherance of those wars. The United States government, which represents big defense corporations like Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics as opposed to the masses of working-class people, is not interested in ending these wars. 

They are only interested in crushing any resistance in the Global South to make way for transnational corporate investment and a permanent military presence. Israel’s war against Lebanon is in furtherance of that same goal. Wars waged by Israel against places like Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iran, and Yemen do not happen in a vacuum. These wars are waged on behalf of U.S. capitalism. 

It is for this exact reason that no level of reform in Israel nor any “ceasefire” agreement will ever do enough to end the oppression Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Yemeni people face at the hands of the U.S. via Israel. This oppression will only end when the zionist project is completely defeated, because it would mean the U.S. was strategically defeated in the region. 

Without this sort of victory by the various oppressed peoples of West Asia, there will be no relief from U.S. imperialism. Liberal zionism is not the answer. Ceasefires are not the answer. A two-state solution is not the answer. 

The only answer is the complete defeat of the U.S. and its allies in the region. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.