Benjamin Netanyahu announces ceasefire agreement in Lebanon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that Israel would adopt “in the evening” a ceasefire in the war with Lebanese Hezbollah, which should put an end to more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war in Lebanon. He warned, however, that his country “will respond” if Hezbollah violates the truce and will retain freedom of action “total” in Lebanon.

The United States had earlier mentioned an agreement “close”while calling for caution, on a truce between Israel and the Lebanese movement supported by Iran, who entered into open war at the end of September on the sidelines of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

According to the American news site Axios, the agreement is based on an American project providing 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. It 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.

“Take revenge on the Lebanese”

At the end of the afternoon, the Israeli army carried out new strikes in neighborhoods in the heart of the capital Beirut, which residents fled in panic. It had earlier bombed a building housing displaced people there, killing at least seven people according to the Lebanese authorities. A Hezbollah MP, Amin Cherri, accused Israel of wanting “take revenge on the Lebanese” before a possible ceasefire.

The Israeli army also reported in the afternoon more than 20 projectiles fired from Lebanon against Israel. She also reported strikes in southern Lebanon and a ground operation in “the Litani River region”to the north of which Israel says it wants to push back Hezbollah.