“We will continue striking the Hezbollah terror organization and will utilize every operational opportunity,” the IDF said in posts on X, saying its strikes targeted “Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, & command-and-control centers” across Beirut and southern Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel was disregarding “all regional and international efforts to end the war,” including by targeting “densely populated residential areas.”

Israel had “violated the principles of international law and international humanitarian law” with its onslaught, he said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened a “regret-inducing response” if Israeli strikes on Lebanon do not immediately end. Trump backed up Israel, however,

Israel invaded Lebanon after the Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for the Iran war. Israeli forces have vowed to establish a “security zone” across southern Lebanon, destroying homes throughout the area, as well as bridges across the Litani River, which link the south to the rest of Lebanon.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to Lebanese government figures, while more than a million people have been displaced from their homes by bombardment and Israeli military evacuation orders. Israel has warned that those displaced from the south will not be able to return until the safety of Israelis in northern Israel can be guaranteed.

Iranian officials have not released a recent death toll, but the U.S.-based rights group HRANA put the total killed at almost 3,400, including more than 1,600 civilians. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 23 have died in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, and two more died of noncombat causes.

Who negotiated the deal?

Pakistan and Egypt played key roles in facilitating the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with Araghchi expressing “gratitude and appreciation” for Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief of Pakistan, “for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region.”

Trump told the Agence France-Presse news agency that he believed China also played a pivotal part in persuading Iran to negotiate.

“I hear yes,” Trump said after being asked if Beijing was involved in getting its ally Tehran to the negotiating table. Trump is expected to travel to China in mid-May to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after postponing the trip because of the Iran war.

Sharif also credited China, as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, with extending “invaluable” support in the effort to achieve a temporary ceasefire, in a post on X on Wednesday.

Beijing is a close ally of Tehran, as well as the primary buyer of Iranian oil, but it has condemned Iran’s attacks against Gulf countries, with which it also has important economic ties.

What’s next?

The days ahead will be crucial in determining whether the ceasefire holds and whether a more lasting agreement can be negotiated to end the war that has consumed the region and threatened global economic pain.

Pakistan and Iran have both said talks toward a lasting peace deal would begin Friday in Islamabad. The U.S. has yet to confirm this.

In the meantime, both the U.S. and Iran have claimed victory.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked at a press conference Wednesday if a future U.S. deal with Iran would involve its government handing over all of its enriched uranium.

He said that the material is currently “buried” and that the U.S. is “watching it.”

“We know exactly what they have, and they know that, and they will either give it to us, which the president has laid out — they’ll give it to us voluntarily, we’ll get it, we’ll take it, we’ll take it out — or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity,” Hegseth said, referring to the U.S. targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities last June.

One of Iran’s demands in order to end the war is the removal of all U.S. military forces from “all bases and positions in the region.” That demand would almost certainly be a nonstarter for the U.S.

Hegseth said Wednesday that U.S. forces would be “hanging around” in the region in the midst of the ceasefire to ensure compliance.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.

Trump celebrated the deal in a post on Truth Social as a “big day for World Peace,” just hours after threatening to wipe out the population of Iran.

“This could be the Golden Age of the Middle East,” he said.