by Maayan Lubell, Maya Gebeily and Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United States and France announced on Tuesday a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, who have been fighting for more than thirteen months.
This ceasefire intended to be “permanent” in the words of President Joe Biden will come into force on Wednesday at 4:00 a.m. (02:00 GMT), declared the American president from the White House.
The agreement, approved almost unanimously by the Israeli security cabinet, according to Benjamin Netanyahu's government, “will protect Israel from the threat posed by Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations operating from Lebanon”, assured Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a joint statement.
According to them, it will create “the conditions necessary for the lasting restoration of calm and will allow the safe return to their homes of inhabitants on both sides of the Blue Line”, the border between the two countries drawn by the United Nations.
At the start of the evening, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had accepted this agreement negotiated by the United States and France.
“We will apply the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation,” warned the Israeli Prime Minister during a televised address, at the end of a day punctuated by Israeli air raids on Beirut.
The agreement will allow Israel to focus on “the Iranian threat”, rest its army and increase the isolation of Hamas, said the head of the Israeli government, assuring that the Jewish state had brought back Hezbollah, a target of a vast military offensive since September, “decades ago”.
“We have (…) eliminated its main leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters and erased years of terrorist infrastructure near our border,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“In full coordination with the United States, we maintain complete freedom of military action. If Hezbollah were to violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we would strike very firmly,” he said.
60 DAYS
According to an American official, the agreement provides for the gradual departure within sixty days of the Israeli army from South Lebanon and the deployment of regular Lebanese forces in this stronghold of Hezbollah, which will have to redeploy its forces above the right bank of the Litani, a river located about thirty kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border.
“The United States and France will work with Israel and Lebanon to ensure that this arrangement is fully implemented and enforced,” Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron said in their joint statement.
The two countries “also commit to playing a leading role in supporting international efforts to strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces and foster economic development throughout Lebanon in order to promote stability and prosperity in the region,” adds the joint text.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be ready to deploy at least 5,000 troops in the south of the country after the Israeli withdrawal, adding that the United States could play a role in the reconstruction of the infrastructure destroyed by Israel.
After almost a year of exchanges of rocket and missile fire on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israel launched a vast offensive against Hezbollah last September, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and decimating its leadership, relentlessly shelling the alleged strongholds of the Shiite organization from Beirut to the Bekaa plain, launching ground raids in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military campaign in Lebanon has displaced more than a million people.
Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, and rocket fire from Hezbollah in support of Palestinian Hamas, at least 3,823 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, a large majority of them since September. , according to a report provided Tuesday by the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Around 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel, southern Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights over the past year, according to Israel.
(Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
Related News :