A ceasefire in Lebanon — will it hold?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Israel and Lebanon have held their first direct talks in more than 30 years, and on Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced that they had reached a 10-day ceasefire. But months of fighting have reshaped parts of southern Lebanon. As people begin to return, what will they find? And can diplomacy hold while the reality on the ground remains fragile?
In this episode:
- Justin Salhani (@JustinSalhani), Al Jazeera Journalist
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Noor Wazwaz and Chloe K. Li with Spencer Cline, Tuleen Barakat, Catherine Nouhan, David Enders, and our host, Malika Bilal. It was edited by Tamara Khandaker and Sarí el-Khalili.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Rick Rush mixed this episode. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, talks of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. |
| 0:16.1 | Even if a ceasefire comes, what does it look like? |
| 0:18.2 | Will it look like the 2024 ceasefire where the Israelis |
| 0:21.1 | continue to attack for 15 months? After weeks of intense Israeli bombardment, what's left |
| 0:26.7 | for people to return to in Lebanon? I'm Malika Bilal and this is the take. |
| 0:40.2 | Hey everyone. |
| 0:44.8 | Whether you're watching this on YouTube or Spotify or listening on your favorite podcast app, |
| 0:46.2 | we want to hear from you. |
| 0:51.2 | Head over to your nearest comment section for the take and let us know what you think of the show. |
| 0:55.4 | Leave us a review and a story idea for what you'd like us to cover on an upcoming episode. I love getting to read your thoughts. And until then, here's today's show. |
| 1:06.3 | I'm Justin Salhani. I'm a senior producer with Al Jazeera's digital team in Beirut. |
| 1:11.6 | Well, Justin, welcome back to the take. So we're sitting down on Wednesday evening Beirut time, hearing reports that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon could be announced within hours. You're in Beirut. What are you hearing? |
| 1:29.3 | So essentially, it's still early. There's going to be an Israeli cabinet meeting tonight, and a decision may come from that. A Hezbollah MP |
| 1:35.3 | has said that there's the possibility of a one-week ceasefire that would be tied to the U.S.-Iranian negotiations. |
| 1:42.3 | That being said, there's still news coming out that the |
| 1:45.6 | Israeli military had decided yesterday of how to continue the war in Lebanon and in Iran. So for now, |
| 1:51.9 | it's still kind of hearsay and cross-talk. We're waiting to see what happens. On the ground, |
| 1:56.0 | though, I can tell you there's a, you know, I live next door to a school which has been turned |
| 2:00.4 | into a displacement |
| 2:01.0 | center and the people have been singing for the last couple of hours and dancing and |
| 2:04.9 | celebrating waving flags. So I think the messages are getting around. The hope is getting up. But |
... |
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