Israel approved Tuesday evening a ceasefire in its war in Lebanon with Hezbollah, which will come into force Wednesday morning according to Washington, after more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war between the Israeli army and the powerful Lebanese formation armed and supported by Tehran.
The truce, for which the United States and France have been working for weeks, will begin at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday, announced US President Joe Biden, who immediately welcomed the announcement of the agreement.
The ceasefire was approved in the evening by the Israeli security cabinet, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said.
Before this final green light, the latter specified that the duration of the ceasefire would depend of what will happen in Lebanon
.
In full agreement with the United States, we maintain complete freedom of military action
in Lebanon. He added: If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack.
A truce in Lebanon will allow Israel to focus on the Iranian threat
andintensifier
its pressure on Palestinian Hamas, against which it is leading a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for its unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, he highlighted.
Israel on Tuesday shelled the center of Beirut and its southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, like never before since it launched a massive bombing campaign targeting the movement in the neighboring country on September 23, then began operations there on September 30. on the ground in the south.
Shortly after Mr. Netanyahu’s statement, another strike targeted a building in the shopping district of Hamra, in the heart of Beirut, noted an AFP journalist. The Israeli army reported new projectile fire targeting the national territory from Lebanon.
A ceasefire in Lebanon should help end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier.
Israel was under international pressure to accept a deal.
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President Joe Biden confirmed that the ceasefire, for which the United States and France have been working for weeks, would come into effect overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Photo : Reuters / Nathan Howard
60 days
According to the American news site Axios, the American project negotiated in recent days provides for a 60-day truce during which Hezbollah and the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon to allow the Lebanese army to deploy there.
The plan includes the establishment of an international committee to monitor its implementation, Axios added, specifying that the United States would have given assurances of its support for Israeli military action in the event of hostile acts by Hezbollah.
International diplomacy relied on UN Security Council Resolution 1701.HIM which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and stipulates that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers can be deployed to Lebanon’s southern border.
A far-right figure allied to Mr. Netanyahu, Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security and member of the security cabinet, considered that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon was a historical error
.
This agreement does not meet the objective of the war: to bring the inhabitants of the north home safely
he reacted on Telegram.
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Strikes on Beirut have intensified in recent days. Here we see a woman near the rubble of a building, November 25, 2024.
Photo : Getty Images / IBRAHIM AMRO
Intensive bombings in Beirut
According to the Israeli army, more than 20 projectiles were fired from Lebanon against Israel during the day.
The war that has raged since October 2023 in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas has spread to Lebanon after a year of exchanges of fire on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which opened a front against it on October 8, 2023 in support of Hamas, to allow the return of some 60,000 inhabitants of the north driven out by its fire.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, nearly 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, most of them since September. The hostilities have displaced some 900,000 people, according toHIM.
On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians were killed in 13 months.
Earlier in the day, residents of northern Israel interviewed by AFP said they were opposed to a ceasefire: It would be a serious mistake until Hezbollah has been completely eliminated
judged Maryam Younnes, a 29-year-old student.
Gaza still under bombs
The Israeli army continues its strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 22 people were killed on Tuesday, according to Civil Defense, and where thousands of displaced people are trying to protect themselves from the rain and cold.
Winter is going to be horrible
warned Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), while the Gazans have not for 13 months no food, water or shelter
.
The war was sparked by the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip left at least 44,249 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by theHIM.
