Israel and Hezbollah agree to halt fighting, officials say, as US-Iran talks hang in the balance

Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group agreed to halt the heavy fighting in southern Lebanon that had threatened to unravel an interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran. That's according to officials who spoke Friday to The Associated Press. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah immediately confirmed the truce. It came after a heavy exchange of fire killed 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah and Israel went to war shortly after the outbreak of the wider conflict, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at civilian communities in northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.