(File Photo: Source for Photo: Smoke rises to the sky in an area near Beaufort Castle following an Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group agreed Friday to halt the heavy fighting in southern Lebanon that had threatened to unravel an interim peace agreement between the United States and Iran, officials said. 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.

The agreement to end the Iran war calls for a halt to military operations in Lebanon and for its sovereignty to be respected. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a party to the deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until the threat is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon, which Iran says is also a condition of the wider agreement.

The deal aims to end the war between the U.S. and Iran, open the Strait of Hormuz to relieve the world economy, and relaunch talks on Iran’s nuclear program with a 60-day deadline for a final accord. But it already faces threats, chiefly from Lebanon, with the fighting there leading to a delay in the start of talks planned for Friday in Switzerland.