Israel ‘agrees to ceasefire with Hezbollah’ after Benjamin Netanyahu pledges assist: Peace deal ‘to be signed after months of bitter combating’
Israel’s security cabinet has approved the US-led ceasefire deal to end the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon after months of bitter fighting, an official said tonight.
The cabinet convened to vote on the decision today as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his approval after weeks of back and forth.
The deal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities with the Iranian proxy group in Lebanon that could form the basis of a lasting truce.
An Israeli official told CNN that the security cabinet had finally approved the deal on Tuesday evening.
Netanyahu urged that the deal would allow thousands of families to return to northern Israel after months displaced by the conflict on the northern border.
He stressed that the fragile ceasefire would depend on ‘what happens’ and that Israel would maintain ‘full’ freedom to act in Lebanon.
He added that a truce would allow Israel to ‘focus on the Iranian threat’ and put pressure on Hamas after more than a year of conflict.
The veteran Israeli prime minister spoke on Tuesday after weeks of discussions over a US-led deal mediated with Hezbollah by the government of Lebanon.
The agreement is understood to be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Hezbollah in Israel in 2006.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 26
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon on November 26
Israeli soldiers work on a tank, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, by Israel’s border with Lebanon in northern Israel, November 26, 2024
Israeli forces have been locked in intense clashes with Hezbollah since late September, escalating their campaign by land and air with a ground offensive into the south after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.
What is Resolution 1701?
UN Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah with the agreement that all Israeli forces would withdraw to be replaced by Lebanese and UNIFIL peacekeepers.
Keeping a distance between the two groups, long threatened by the presence of the other, is still considered to be the brightest prospect for long-term stability between Israel and Lebanon.
The Resolution called for the disarmament of all armed groups including Hezbollah in the region, stipulating that only UNIFIL and the Lebanese military could station armed forces south of the Litani River.
Hezbollah and other armed groups in southern Lebanon have not withdrawn, per the agreement. It did agree to disarm south of the river, but not to pull out of southern Lebanon altogether.
It then continued to grow and rearm itself ‘exponentially’, per Foreign Policy.
When Israel announced it would enter Lebanon again on October 1, 2024, it cited the UN’s failure to uphold the resolution as its casus belli.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israel cannot enforce the Resolution itself. But with 60,000 civilians displaced from northern Israel by the conflict, the government finds itself under huge pressure at home.
The 15 parties present in 2006 voted unanimously for the resolution. None voted against and none abstained.
Lebanese officials echoed support for a deal after months caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati demanded an ‘immediate’ implementation of the ceasefire as Israel continued to pound central Beirut’s Hamra district.
To date, the Lebanese health ministry estimates that at least 3,823 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them since September.
American officials, leading the talks, spoke optimistically of progress towards a deal tonight, ahead of the vote.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon were ‘in the final stages’.
He added that a deal could help end the Gaze conflict ‘by de-escalating tensions in the region’, despite Netanyahu’s comments.
Israel’s security cabinet convened to discuss a proposed ceasefire today as strikes continued to rock Beirut.
Blinken said that after months of ‘intensive diplomatic effort’ with partners including France, working with Lebanon and Israel, he hoped to reach a conclusion ‘very soon’.
‘It will make a big difference in saving lives and livelihoods in Lebanon and in Israel. It will make a big difference in creating the conditions that will allow people to return to their home safely in northern Israel and in southern Lebanon,’ he said.
Israel has sought to oust Hezbollah from its strongholds in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut with some 60,000 people displaced from northern Israel by the conflict.
In recent months, its military has killed nearly all of the group’s leaders. But international pressure mounts to de-escalate amid fears of the conflict spilling into a regional war.
The proposal under discussion to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River.
The withdrawals would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, who have been largely sidelined in the war, to patrol the border area along with an existing U.N. peacekeeping force.
The deal echoes the existing Resolution 1701, that critics say did little to keep Hezbollah at bay.
When Israel entered Lebanon earlier this year, it cited perceived inaction from the United Nations to keep Hezbollah from expanding beyond its agreed borders.
Hezbollah never ended its presence in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon says Israel regularly violated its airspace and occupied small patches of its territory.
But under the 2006 agreement, Israel was also not supposed to intervene directly to push Hezbollah back.
Netanyahu spoke tonight of a ‘paradigm shift in security for Israel’, and will hope to convince Israelis that the new deal will pave the way for a stronger resolution than 1701 that overcomes its shortcomings.
A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) armoured vehicle drives through the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on November 25, 2024
Smoke billows from buildings after the Israeli army launched an airstrikes on the Dahieh district in Beirut in Lebanon ,on Tuesday on November 26, 2024
People inspect the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shayyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 26, 2024
A person gestures as people protest demanding the release of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, ahead of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 26
In anticipation of a final approval of a ceasefire, Amelia Whitworth, Head of Policy, Campaigns and Youth at global children’s charity Plan International UK, told MailOnline: ‘We welcome the news of a ceasefire in Lebanon.
‘Today’s agreement must act as a vital step towards a sustained, permanent ceasefire – both in Lebanon and across Gaza and the wider Middle East region.
‘The horrors must stop immediately: all children deserve to enjoy their childhood free from the threat of violence.”
Ms Whitworth noted that the ‘extreme violence’ had already seen more than 3,000 people killed, including at least 200 children.
The number of internally displaced people within Lebanon has reached almost 900,000, while more than half a million have fled the country.
Lebanon was home to thousands of displaced people from regional conflicts including the Syrian Civil War before fighting broke out.
Between September 23 and October 25, nearly 350,000 Syrians returned to war-torn Syria to avoid the conflict in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities report.
