Lebanon’s prime minister visits shattered border village as deal with Israel begins

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's prime minister visited Wednesday a battered southern village as the implementation of a Washington-brokered Lebanese-Israeli agreement began, following months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The latest conflict started March 2, when the Lebanese militant group fired rockets toward Israel after the U.S.-Israeli February attacks that set off the Iran war. In response, Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing 1.2 million others.

The two sides, technically in a state of war nearly 80 years after Israel’s establishment, started rare direct talks championed by Washington.

They reached an agreement by late June, setting a plan for the deployment of Lebanese military forces in areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah had a military presence and influence, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, while disarming the militant group.

Hezbollah has refused the talks and disarmament calls.

Nawaf Salam’s visit to Zawtar Al Gharbieh came a day after President Joseph Aoun’s landmark White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, who made a surprise announcement, allowing American carriers to resume direct flights to Lebanon for the first time in 40-plus years.

Salam, alongside Lebanon’s defense minister and senior military officials, pitched a Lebanese flag near a destroyed building in the town, vowing the government will start rebuilding destroyed homes and infrastructure.

“We have insisted since the beginning that our goal is the complete Israeli withdrawal from all our territory,” Salam said. “What we are seeing today is just the beginning, but we remain determined and steadfast, and will continue to mobilize all political and diplomatic efforts to secure a full withdrawal from all of Lebanese territory.”

The army did not immediately allow civilians to enter as they cleared unexploded ordnance. Residents tried to storm the barrier in a desperate bid to enter the village and check on their homes and properties.

Some expressed frustration, downplaying the army’s deployment.

“The prime minister should have informed people that he was going to Zawtar and he should have taken the people, who have been waiting for the past two days, with him,” said Zaynab Ismail, a resident.

Lebanon and Israel agreed to establish two “pilot zones” in a series of villages in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is to turn over control to the Lebanese army after clearing the areas of any Hezbollah presence.

Israel hasn’t occupied any of the newly assigned zones in the latest conflict, though it has struck them and conducted ground operations. The Lebanese army has a limited presence there.

Trump, in his meeting with Aoun, did not address the “pilot zones” entering their implementation phase, but pledged to support Lebanon without going into details.

Aoun and the Lebanese government have urged the international community to invest in the Mediterranean country and its army to help rebuild its infrastructure and military capacity.

Lebanon’s top political leadership has criticized the group for dragging the country into another war, but also condemned Israel for its widespread bombing and ground invasion.

Hezbollah has condemned the government for holding direct talks with Israel and rejected the agreement, but the militant group has not tried to sabotage it through military means. Its leadership believes Israel cannot be pressured to withdraw its troops by diplomatic means only, and that Lebanon lacks the leverage of its key ally Iran in negotiations.

A Lebanese army armored personnel carrier deploys at the entrance to the southern village of Zawtar Al Gharbieh, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese army soldiers prevent residents from entering the southern village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh while deploying at the village entrance, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese army soldiers prevent residents from entering the southern village of Zawtar Al Gharbieh while deploying at the village entrance, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanese army soldiers stand near a woman after preventing her from entering the southern village of Zawtar Al Gharbieh, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

President Donald Trump greets Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun on his arrival at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

In this photo released by the Lebanese Government press office, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, center, raises a Lebanese flag during a visit to the southern village of Zawtar Al Gharbieh, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (Lebanese Government press office via AP)

HOBOKEN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 22, 2026--

Wiley (NYSE: WLY) today announced its membership in the Genesis Mission Consortium, the public-private partnership supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Genesis Mission, joining organizations including Nvidia, AWS, Microsoft, IBM, and AMD. Wiley is the only scientific publisher among the consortium's members and has been invited to demonstrate its work today at the Genesis Mission Annual Summit in Washington, D.C.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722097989/en/

The Genesis Mission is a Department of Energy initiative to build the American Science and Security Platform, an AI-driven infrastructure designed to accelerate scientific discovery and harness AI to deliver real-world impact on the most pressing science and technology challenges. Wiley’s participation builds on decades of engagement with the DOE and other federal science agencies on research infrastructure.

As a consortium member, Wiley plans to make its research intelligence tools available to researchers at all DOE national laboratories and will offer DOE leadership and industry partners an early look at potential applications at today's Summit. Wiley's planned contribution to the Genesis Mission draws on its editorial networks and domain expertise across the sciences and evidence-linked scientific content that supports provenance and reproducibility, alongside operational support to help integrate these capabilities into laboratory environments.

“The Genesis Mission is a terrific opportunity for Wiley to apply some of our early breakthrough work in AI and Data Analytics to a program of national importance,” said Matthew Kissner, CEO of Wiley. “We are proud to work alongside other members of the Genesis Mission Consortium to help ensure the AI systems shaping science are built on expert-validated workflows and grounded in our rich corpus of authoritative, peer-reviewed content. Accelerating scientific impact requires AI based on trusted evidence – that's the principle behind Wiley's AI platforms, workflows, and partnerships.”

Founded in 1807, Wiley is the largest U.S. scientific publisher and the world’s leading publishing partner to scientific societies, publishing the peer-reviewed research that underpins scientific progress across disciplines and upholding the provenance and credibility of the published scientific record. Wiley's participation in the Genesis Mission Consortium is the latest in a series of global partnerships and initiatives, including collaborations with OpenEvidence, IQVIA, Microsoft, Anthropic, and AWS to bring trusted, peer-reviewed content into leading AI platforms across medicine, life sciences, and research.

“Our membership in the Genesis Mission Consortium reflects Wiley's belief that trusted, peer-reviewed content must be at the foundation of any responsible AI infrastructure,” said Deirdre Silver, EVP & General Counsel of Wiley. “We're contributing our expertise, the application of trusted scientific knowledge, and the standards and frameworks that will define how science and AI come together to serve the public interest.”

Leaders and subject matter experts on Wiley’s AI & Data Analytics team will participate in Genesis Mission working groups including those focused on how AI models are validated against scientific evidence and how scientific data is managed. Wiley will also help shape the Consortium's foundational knowledge layer concept, drawing on content and data that are already among the most frequently cited, licensed, and integrated in scientific AI applications worldwide, extending that role into the federal research infrastructure supporting the DOE and its national laboratories.

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Wiley Joins U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission Consortium to Advance AI-Powered Scientific Discovery