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Israel approved a ceasefire Tuesday evening in its war in Lebanon with Hezbollah. It will come into force Wednesday morning according to Washington.
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November 26, 2024 – 10.15pm
(Keystone-ATS) The truce for which the United States and France have been working for weeks will begin at 4 a.m. local time (3 a.m. in Switzerland) on Wednesday, announced American President Jo Biden, who immediately welcomed the announcement of the agreement.
In a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron, he said Washington and Paris would ensure that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon was “implemented in its entirety.” The two heads of state remain “determined to ensure that this conflict does not provoke a new cycle of violence”, they added.
“Focus on the Iranian threat”
The ceasefire was approved in the evening by the Israeli security cabinet, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said. Before this final green light, the latter indicated that the duration of the ceasefire would depend “on what happens 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”, and to “intensify” its pressure on Palestinian Hamas, against whom 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 attacks there on September 30. ground operations 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.
« Plus d’excuses »
A ceasefire in Lebanon should help end the conflict in Gaza, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier. And Joe Biden affirmed that the United States would lead a new initiative to obtain a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel was under international pressure to accept a deal. 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 has relied on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and stipulates that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers can be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon.
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 historic error”. “This agreement does not meet the objective of the war: to bring the inhabitants of the north home safely,” he reacted on Telegram.
“Take revenge on the Lebanese”
Israel increased its aerial bombardments on Tuesday in the center of the Lebanese capital – where at least ten people were killed according to the Lebanese authorities – and its southern suburbs, after calls to evacuate. A Hezbollah MP, Amin Cherri, accused Israel of wanting to “take revenge on the Lebanese”.
According to the Israeli army, more than 20 projectiles were fired from Lebanon against Israel during the day.
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 to the UN. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians were killed in 13 months.
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