Lebanon's deal with Israel requires Hezbollah to disarm. That might be difficult

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah’s leader on Saturday criticized a framework agreement that Israel and Lebanon signed a day earlier to end months of conflict between the militant group and Israel, raising concerns about its effectiveness.

Lebanon and Israel signed the deal in Washington on Friday without Hezbollah. The agreement links Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon to the Iran-backed militant group’s disarmament, something Hezbollah rejects.

Several previous ceasefire agreements that Lebanon has negotiated with Israel since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war were never implemented on the ground.

In a statement Saturday, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said his group will keep fighting until Israel is forced to leave Lebanon. The group's supporters protested in the streets of Beirut following the announcement of the agreement.

Despite the deal, the Lebanese state news agency reported an Israeli drone strike near the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

It also reported that the Israeli military released three Lebanese and three Syrian workers who were taken near the southern village of Ain Arab on Friday.

Details of the deal that the U.S. State Department released Saturday state that Lebanon and Israel aim to eventually end the state of war between them that began when Israel was created in 1948.

The deal says Israel will withdraw from Lebanon provided Hezbollah disarms.

It calls for Israel to initially withdraw from two small areas — called pilot zones. It did not say where those two initial zones will be. The Lebanese army will gradually assume full security responsibility over those areas. The two countries will agree to future pilot zones for Israel's withdrawal in the future, the agreement says.

The deal has a security annex that includes the details of the deployment of the Lebanese army and redeployments of Israeli troops. The security annex was not made public.

As part of the deal, Israel stresses that the disarmament of Hezbollah throughout Lebanon and additional security measures to be agreed upon between the two countries will eliminate any future need for Israeli army’s military action or presence in Lebanon.

“The important principle established in the agreement is that there will be no redeployment by Israel in southern Lebanon, no withdrawal, as long as the terrorist organization Hezbollah is not disarmed throughout Lebanon,” said Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Katz added that the Israeli military has been instructed “to prepare for an extended stay in the security zone” inside Lebanon.

The talks between Israel and Lebanon were separate from the interim deal that was signed earlier this month by the leaders of the U.S. and Iran to end the fighting in the Islamic Republic.

From Hezbollah’s point of view, the deal is nonexistent, Kassem said Saturday.

He called the agreement a “humiliation,” adding that linking Israel’s withdrawal to Hezbollah’s disarmament as a “very dangerous suggestion.”

The deal prompted one of the group’s officials, Hassan Fadlallah, to warn that it could result in civil war because Hezbollah won't give up its weapons and will resist any measures taken by the Lebanese army.

Judge Ahmed Rami al-Hajj, Lebanon's top public prosecutor, on Saturday told the heads of the country’s security agencies to take measures to prevent riots.

The deal states that both Lebanon and Israel recognize that the restoration of security in southern Lebanon through the deployment of the Lebanese army, the safe return of its civilian population, and the security of Israel’s northern communities, are essential to long-term stability and peace.

“Personally, I don’t think it will be lasting because the Lebanese military cannot really stand a chance against Hezbollah,” said Israeli citizen Ronit Belson while visiting the town of Metula along the border with Lebanon.

In Lebanon, people were divided with Rabie Sammour, a resident of the southern city of Sidon saying: “People just want to rest for good. I support the Lebanese authorities in the decision” taken.

Another Sidon resident, Khaled Ghannoum, said the deal “legitimized Israel’s occupation.”

In an apparent reference to Iran, that has sent billions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah over the past four decades, the deal states that Lebanon and the United States commit to preventing funds from flowing to any entity, organization, or individual affiliated with non-state armed groups and to take available legal measures to proscribe the activity of any such entity, organization or individual.

The deal states that the Lebanese government explicitly commits to prevent reconstruction funds from flowing to non-state armed groups and connected entities.

Mor reported from Metula, Israel. Associated Press journalist Ibrahim Hazboun contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

Paintings on a security wall on the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Saturday, June 27, 2026 after Israel and Lebanon sign a framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An Israeli flag on a destroyed building in southern Lebanon, as seen from northern Israel, Saturday, June 27, 2026 after Israel and Lebanon sign a framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli and Lebanese flags hang in a memorial site on the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Saturday, June 27, 2026 after Israel and Lebanon sign a framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli military APCs parked in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, Saturday, June 27, 2026 after Israel and Lebanon sign a framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others watch, as seated from left, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, counselor Dan Holler, and Lebanon's Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh, sign a framework agreement, described as a first step toward peace following months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, at the State Department, Friday, June 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela (AP) — The increasingly desperate search for survivors i n Venezuela entered a third day Saturday as people dug through the rubble of collapsed homes and apartment buildings after the devastating one-two punch of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes, knowing time is running out.

A mix of international rescue teams, Venezuelans looking for loved ones and neighbors used shovels, heavy equipment, ropes and bare hands atop mounds of toppled concrete throughout La Guaira, one of Venezuela's hardest-hit states. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours as crucial for retrieving people alive, though that can be extended if they have access to food and water.

The toll of Wednesday's quakes stood at at least 920 dead and more than 51,000 missing on Friday. People reported seeing few state rescue teams in the hardest-hit areas despite authorities projecting an image of a robust government response.

In Catia La Mar, Ezequiel Frontado peered down at dozen bodies lying on the street Saturday morning, covered with blankets that neighbors and rescuers had recovered from the rubble of nearby collapsed buildings. He was searching to see if any were his missing relatives.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on state television Saturday that more than 14,000 members of the military and police are patrolling the area, where access is now blocked and special permits are required to enter.

Rescue teams sent by governments across the world continued to arrive in Venezuela on Saturday. One runway at heavily damaged Simón Bolívar International Airport, which serves Venezuela’s capital, was operational as of Saturday, according to a senior U.S. official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters.

In the state of La Guaira, just north of the capital, Caracas, Nazareth Jiménez sobbed into a loved one's shoulder on Friday as she watched neighbors use hammers and power tools to try to cut through slabs of concrete in a building reduced to a mountain of debris. She was wracked with anxiety as she waited to see if her siblings, nephews, nieces and friends would emerge alive.

“My God, how are we going to get them out of there?” Jiménez murmured.

“We're making a call for help to the government and countries across the world,” she said, pleading for machinery capable of moving collapsed structures. “There are still people alive in there.”

Government forces distributed food and water to survivors in La Guaira, and Rodríguez said her government was mounting a full response during these “critical hours for rescuing people alive.”

The disaster poses a huge challenge for Rodríguez, the former vice president who took office in January after the capture and removal of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the United States. Venezuela has been facing economic disarray for more than a decade, and many people reject the legitimacy of the political movement Rodríguez represents.

The number of dead was expected to climb, and people reported tens of thousands of missing on independent digital databases. Those figures likely included people who have been incommunicado due to the lack of cellphone signals, and some reports may be duplicated.

The number of injured stood at more than 3,300 as of midday Friday, and authorities said they rescued 243.

The International Organization for Migration said up to 6.76 million people could be affected, some 2 million of them in Caracas alone. The destruction was amplified by the quick succession of shallow quakes, experts said.

Loyce Pace, the International Red Cross’ regional director for the Americas, said “people are still terrified to reenter what were their homes.”

Indeed, many continued to sleep on the street.

Omar Reyes said around 20 family members died.

“I’ve been left alone in this life,” Reyes said, walking through the rubble where two of his children were buried.

In the city of Maiquetia, people lined up outside stores and pharmacies that served them one by one behind closed doors. At one point a woman in a crowd threw herself to the ground to protect a package of diapers with her body, desperate to keep it.

Traffic and throngs of motorcyclists at times disrupted search efforts. Mexican soldiers and volunteers repeatedly asked for silence to try to hear signs of life under the rubble, but bikers — civilian and uniformed — continued to honk horns and rev engines to the first responders' frustration.

Some people began to carry off basic goods such as toilet paper and food from stores in Catia La Mar, adjacent to the country’s main airport. Others swarmed a civilian pickup truck that was giving out bread and water, until a soldier intervened. The parking lot of a pharmacy turned into a makeshift shelter with tarps, hammocks and tents.

A few miles (kilometers) away, Yuleidy Cadenas, 28, stood across the street from a collapsed public housing building, hoping her son, mother and brother would be pulled out alive.

She fled barefoot from another building as it collapsed Wednesday and found her mother’s 12-floor apartment tower had pancaked.

“I got on top of the rubble and told them to yell back, and nobody did, not my brother, nor my son or my mother,” Cadenas said.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press journalists Clara Preve in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

People search through donated clothing at a gymnasium serving as a shelter three days after earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Ezequiel Frontado looks at covered bodies while searching for missing relatives three days after earthquakes struck Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Rescue workers search through the rubble three days after earthquakes struck Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Rescue workers look for survivors three days after an earthquake struck in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble two days after an earthquake struck in La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Residents pull a body from the rubble two days after earthquakes struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Rescue workers place Daniel Cordero on a stretcher after pulling him from the rubble two days after an earthquake struck Catia la Mar, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents walks through the rubble two days after earthquakes struck Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Residents and rescue workers search through the rubble two days after an earthquake struck La Guaira, Venezuela, Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Pablo Arraez)