Lebanon truce between Israel and Hezbollah comes into effect

The long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into force on Wednesday at 4:00 a.m. in Lebanon (3:00 a.m. in Switzerland) after more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war. The Israeli army has 60 days to withdraw from Lebanon.

Clashes between the Israeli army and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Armed Movement have forced tens of thousands of people in Israel and hundreds of thousands more in Lebanon to flee their homes. They also led to bombings on Lebanon, killing thousands, and the deployment of Israeli soldiers across the border between the two countries to confront Hezbollah fighters.

The pro-Iranian movement, claiming to act in support of Hamas, opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

Several conditions

According to details provided by a senior American official on condition of anonymity, the Israeli army now has 60 days to gradually withdraw from Lebanon. As for Hezbollah, it must also withdraw from the southern border with Israel and move north of the Litani River. Hezbollah’s heavy weapons will have to be removed from this area. The Lebanese army and security forces will recover the positions of the Israeli army and Hezbollah. In accordance with international law, Lebanon and Israel retain the right to self-defense.

The American army and the French army will provide technical support to the Lebanese army, to which will be added a military committee to provide equipment, training and financing. The United States and France will also join the tripartite mechanism created after the 2006 war bringing together the United Nations interim force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Israel and Lebanon. This mechanism, now chaired by the United States, is intended to maintain “direct” communication between the different parties and to allow “each time a violation is noted, in particular a serious violation”, that it be “ treated immediately” to avoid escalation.

Before the final Israeli green light, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that the duration of the ceasefire would depend “on what happens in Lebanon.”

The Israeli army warned residents of southern Lebanon shortly after the ceasefire came into force not to approach the positions where it remains deployed.

According to Lebanese authorities, at least 3,823 people have been killed in Lebanon in total since October 2023, most of them in recent weeks. Hostilities there have displaced some 900,000 people, according to the UN. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians were killed in 13 months in clashes with Hezbollah, according to the authorities.

No comment from Hezbollah

The announcement of the agreement came after Israel on Tuesday shelled the center of Beirut and its southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, like never before since it launched a bombing campaign targeting the movement in the country on September 23. neighbor.

Less than an hour before the agreement came into force, at least two strikes targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to images broadcast by AFPTV, shortly after calls to evacuate an area in the center of the Lebanese capital and another in its southern suburbs by the Israeli army. Tuesday evening, Hezbollah for its part said it had launched drones against “sensitive military targets” in Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah did not directly participate in the truce negotiations, instead calling on Parliament head Nabih Berri to negotiate on its behalf. He has not yet commented on the agreement. The war in Lebanon has considerably weakened the pro-Iranian movement. Its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in a powerful Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, as were many of his senior officials.

“Focus” on Iran

Benyamin Netanyahu considers that the truce will allow Israel to “intensify” its pressure on Palestinian Hamasagainst whom he is leading a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The ceasefire will also allow Israel to “focus on the Iranian threat,” he said.

Monitoring the situation, live

According to Joe Biden, who hailed the ceasefire agreement as “a new beginning” for Lebanon and “good news,” the truce agreement was designed to give rise to a permanent cessation of hostilities between the two parties. Under the agreement, the Lebanese army must take control of the border area on the Lebanese side, and “what remains of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed […] to once again threaten the security of Israel.

The United States and France must ensure that the ceasefire agreement is “implemented in its entirety,” the American president and his counterpart Emmanuel Macron declared in a joint statement on Tuesday evening. (mbr/ats)

More information on the situation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza