Trump says no Israeli troops will go to Beirut after call with Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Israel would not send troops to Beirut after a call he held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said he also spoke with Iran-aligned Lebanese militia group Hezbollah through intermediaries and secured a pledge that it would not attack Israel.

No US president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries. The group is designated as a terrorist organisation 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.

The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel to back its ally Iran.

In the latest advance, Israeli ​troops on Saturday seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said.

That occurred a day after one of the ⁠heaviest days of Hezbollah fire toward northern Israel since the April ceasefire, prompting school closures and restrictions.