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Biden announces Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in deal brokered by US and France

Biden announces Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in deal brokered by US and France
Reuters
By Reuters
27 Nov 2024
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A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah will take effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

The accord, clearing the way for an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities, Biden said in remarks at the White House.

Fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border will end at 4am local time, Biden said.

“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” he said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.”

Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over 60 days as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there, Biden said.

“Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities,” he said.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said earlier said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah, declaring Israel would retain “complete military freedom of action”.

Netanyahu, who faces some opposition to the deal from within his coalition government, said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on the threat from Iran, replenish depleted arms supplies and give the army a rest, and to isolate Hamas, the militant group that triggered war in the region when it attacked Israel from Gaza last year.

“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” Netanyahu said.

“In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively.”

Netanyahu said Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied with Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.

“We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralised thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border,” he said.

Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal and it will be put to the whole cabinet for review. Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the deal, which Hezbollah approved last week.

The agreement, negotiated by US mediator Amos Hochstein, is five pages long and includes 13 sections, according to a senior Lebanese political source with direct knowledge of the matter.

Summary of key provisions



  • Halt to hostilities


The halt to hostilities is set to begin at 4am local time (0200 GMT) on Wednesday, Biden announced, with both sides expected to cease fire by Wednesday morning.

The senior Lebanese source said Israel was expected to “stop carrying out any military operations against Lebanese territory, including against civilian and military targets, and Lebanese state institutions, through land, sea and air.”

All armed groups in Lebanon – meaning Hezbollah and its allies – would halt operations against Israel, the source said.

  • Israeli troops withdraw


Two Israeli officials said the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days. Biden said the troops would gradually pull out and civilians on both sides would be able to return home.

Lebanon had earlier pushed for Israeli troops to withdraw as quickly as possible within the truce period, Lebanese officials told Reuters. They now expect Israeli troops to withdraw within the first month, the senior Lebanese political source said.

A Lebanese official told Reuters the deal included language that preserved both Lebanon’s and Israel’s rights to self-defence.

  • Hezbollah pulls north, Lebanese army deploys


Hezbollah fighters will leave their positions in southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River, which runs about 30km north of the border with Israel.

Their withdrawal would not be public, the senior Lebanese political source said. He said the group’s military facilities “will be dismantled”, but it was not immediately clear whether the group would take them apart itself, or whether the fighters would take their weapons with them as they withdrew.

The Lebanese army would deploy troops to south of the Litani to have around 5,000 soldiers there, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.

“The deployment is the first challenge – then how to deal with the locals that want to return home,” given the risks of unexploded ordnance, the source said.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, many of them from south Lebanon. Hezbollah sees the return of the displaced to their homes as a priority, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters.

Tens of thousands displaced from northern Israel are also expected to return home.

  • Monitoring mechanism


One of the sticking points in the final days leading to the ceasefire’s conclusion was how it would be monitored, Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab said.

A pre-existing tripartite mechanism between the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (Unifil), the Lebanese army and the Israeli army would be expanded to include the US and France, with the US chairing the group, Bou Saab said.

Israel would be expected to flag possible breaches to the monitoring mechanism, and France and the US would determine whether a violation had taken place, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Reuters.

A joint statement by Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said France and the US would work together to ensure the deal was applied fully.

  • Unilateral Israeli strikes


Israeli officials have insisted that the Israeli army would continue to strike Hezbollah if it identified threats to its security, including transfers of weapons and military equipment to the group.

An Israeli official told Reuters that US envoy Hochstein, who negotiated the agreement, had given assurances directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could carry out such strikes on Lebanon.

Netanyahu said in a televised address after the security cabinet met that Israel would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal.

The official said Israel would use drones to monitor movements on the ground in Lebanon.

Lebanese officials say that provision is not in the deal that it agreed, and that it will oppose any violations of its sovereignty.

Israeli hits Syria-Lebanon border crossings — report


Israeli strikes targeted the Arida and Dabousieh border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, Syrian state media Sana said late on Tuesday.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, but has previously said it targets what it believes are Iran-linked sites in Syria as part of a broader campaign to curb the influence of Iran and its ally Hezbollah in the region.

Israeli strike kills at least 13 sheltering at school in Gaza City, medics say


An Israeli air strike killed at least 13 Palestinians at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said on Tuesday.

They said that dozens of people were also wounded in the Israeli strike that hit the Al-Hurreya School in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, one of the oldest suburbs of Gaza City.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike on a house also in the Zeitoun suburb killed seven people and wounded others, medics said. Another strike killed at least one man in the southern city of Rafah, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israel on Tuesday to 21.

There has been no Israeli comment on either of the incidents.

Israel’s 13-month campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,200 people and displaced nearly all the enclave’s population at least once, according to Gaza officials.

The war erupted when Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli communities on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages. DM

Read more: Middle East crisis news hub

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