Trump: Israel-Lebanon ceasefire extended 3 weeks
U.S. President Donald Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday. The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries since last week. Follow our live blog for the latest updates, military developments, and official statements:
07:40 AM, 24 April 2026
US puts $10 million bounty on Kataib Sayyid Al Shuhada leader
The United States has placed a $10 million bounty on the leader of an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq.
The US State Department’s Rewards for Justice program issued a notice it sought the leader of Kataib Sayyid Al Shuhada.
It said Hashim Finyan Rahim al-Saraji led the group, whose members “killed Iraqi civilians and attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq.”
It also said Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada attacked US military bases and personnel in Iraq and Syria.
Iraq has several militias backed by Iran that are part of the country’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which was created after the fall of Mosul in 2014 to formalize volunteer units that defeated the Islamic State group.
06:50 AM, 24 April 2026
Israel says it struck Hezbollah missile launcher
Israel’s military said it struck a missile launcher in Lebanon that had fired into Israel on Thursday in an attack that Israeli air defenses intercepted. Hezbollah claimed the attack.
Israel’s announcement of the strike came soon after Trump said the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire had been extended by three weeks.
Hezbollah said it had launched rockets toward Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Lebanese village of Yater. Two people, including a child, were wounded by Israeli artillery shelling there, said Lebanon’s public health ministry.
The ministry also said that an Israeli airstrike killed three people farther north, in the area of Nabatieh. The Israeli military said it had killed three militants who had launched a missile toward an Israeli warplane.
06:46 AM, 24 April 2026
Trump: US could make a deal with Iran ‘right now’ — ‘We have total control of the Strait’
US President Donald Trump said he could make a deal with Iran “right now,” but he wants it to be “everlasting,” not temporary.
“We have total control of the Strait… They would have opened it up three days ago. They came to us and they said, ‘we will agree to open the Strait.’
“And all my people are happy. Everybody was happy — except me,” he told Fox.
“I said…if we open the Strait, that means they’re going to make $500 million a day. I don’t want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing.”
Trump insists Iran should not have a nuclear weapon and makes the handover of Iran’s enriched uranium as a key precondition for a peace deal.
Iranian officials, including Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghei, have strongly stated that Iran will not transfer its enriched uranium to any foreign country, particularly the United States, calling such proposals a “non-starter“.
06:33 AM, 24 April 2026
Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors thank Trump for historic’ moment
Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Israel and Lebanon “have never been next to each other more than today.”
Leiter thanked Trump and Vice President JD Vance for a day he said was decades in the making.
“We are going to keep going, working for peace. Let’s hope we will get it as soon as possible,” he said.
Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad thanked Trump for presiding over “this historic moment.” She added: “I think with your help, with your support, we can make Lebanon great again.”
04:20 AM, 24 April 2026
Ceasefire in Lebanon extended by 3 weeks: Trump
President Donald Trump says a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended by three weeks after hosting a meeting of the two countries’ representatives at the White House.
Israel and Lebanon held ambassador-level talks and President Trump greeted both representatives upon their arrival at the White House.
02:03 AM, 24 April 2026
US troops board vessel carrying Iranian oil: Pentagon
The Pentagon said US forces boarded M/T Majestic X, a crude tanker suspected of carrying Iranian oil, while sailing in the Indian Ocean. The Trump administration warned that ships providing material support to Iran in international waters would be targeted as part of “global maritime enforcement”.
12:59 AM, 24 April 2026
USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier arrives in Mideast
The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, the US military said Thursday, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.
The Bush was sailing “in the Indian Ocean in the US Central Command area of responsibility, April 23,” the military command responsible for the Middle East said in a post on X that included an image of the carrier with its deck packed with warplanes.
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) sails in the Indian Ocean in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, April 23. pic.twitter.com/oDcTM6YMLF
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 23, 2026
A second carrier – the USS Gerald R. Ford – was operating in the Red Sea on Thursday, while a third – the USS Abraham Lincoln – is also in the region, according to social media posts by CENTCOM.
GN
