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• Axios’ account of expletive-laden shouting match between Trump and Netanyahu dominates discourse
• Israel strikes hospital in historic Tyre as Beirut, Tel Aviv continue talks in Washington
BEIRUT / WASHINGTON: Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange fire on Tuesday, despite US President Donald Trump’s declaration that he had brokered a deal between the two sides.
The fighting came even as Israeli and Lebanese diplomats met in Washington for a fourth round of direct talks, described by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam as “the least costly choice for Lebanon”.
However, these developments were overshadowed by the sensational account of a purported phone call between Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, which reportedly devolved into an expletive-laden argument between the two men.
American news outlet Axios reported that Trump lashed out at Netanyahu over the latter’s escalation in Lebanon, calling him “crazy” and accusing him of ingratitude.
According to Axios, Trump told Netanyahu that following through on his threats to bomb Beirut would further isolate Israel around the world.
The US president also stated that he “helped keep Netanyahu out of jail”, which the publication said was a reference to his support during Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
“You’re f****** crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” the report quoted Trump as saying.
The publication also said that Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the f*** are you doing?”
“Another US official said Trump was concerned by the fact that Israel had killed so many civilians in
Lebanon, and objected to the Israelis knocking down buildings to take out a single Hezbollah commander,” Axios reported.
“One official said this was one of Trump’s worst calls with Netanyahu since he returned to office,” it added.
For its part, the Israeli prime minister office said after the call that Netanyahu told Trump that Tel Aviv would strike Beirut if Hezbollah “does not stop firing at our cities and citizens”.
He also said Israel would continue military operations in southern Lebanon, where ground forces are pushing toward the Zaharani River, their deepest incursion in Lebanon in 25 years.
Fighting continues
Despite Trump’s claim that Hezbollah had assured him it wouldn’t target Israel, both sides continued to trade attacks in Tuesday.
Trump had announced an agreement to halt some attacks on Monday, but neither side has publicly accepted it and Israel’s defence minister said the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs remained potential targets.
The deal, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington, would, at first, stop Israeli attacks on Beirut and Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmud Qomati told AFP in a written statement the group “will not accept a partial ceasefire”.
Near Sidon, in the south, rescuers recovered the bodies of six members of the same family, including two children and a woman, following an Israeli strike.
Further south in the historic city of Tyre, the Jabal Amel hospital, severely damaged by an Israeli attack nearby on Monday that wounded 39 staffers, resumed operations.
In the southern suburbs, which many residents had fled the day before, many shops were closed on Tuesday, while a military drone flew over the area at low altitude, according to an AFP journalist.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Tuesday that Israeli attacks had killed at least 3,468 people since March 2 — an increase of 35 compared to Monday.
Talks in Washington
Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon began a new round of direct talks at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday.
Participants include Israel’s ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese envoy Nada Hamadeh Moawad, as well as Daniel Holler, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Meanwhile, top US diplomat Marco Rubio described Hezbollah as the only impediment to a peace deal.
“Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow,” Rubio told a hearing of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
The US secretary of state said Washington wanted the talks to remain independent of those with Iran to end the wider Middle East war launched by the US and Israel against Tehran on February 28.
Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2026
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