WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah came into effect at 0200 GMT on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted a deal brokered by the United States and France.
The agreement paves the way for an end to the conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border that has killed thousands of people since the start of the war in Gaza last year.
Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal by a 10-1 vote. He said he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and that the fighting would end at 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).
“This is designed to end the animosity once and for all,” Biden said. “The remnants of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten Israel’s security again.”
Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over 60 days as the Lebanese army takes control of the area near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there, Biden said.
“Citizens on both sides will soon be able to return to their communities safely,” he said.
Hezbollah has not officially commented on the ceasefire but its chief Hassan Fadlallah told Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV that while it supports the extension of the Lebanese government’s mandate, the group will emerge from the war strong.
“Thousands will join the party … Disarmament has been a failed Israeli proposition,” said Fadlallah, who is also a member of the Lebanese parliament.
Iran, which supports Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Houthi rebels who have attacked Israel from Yemen, has not publicly called for a ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on social media X that the agreement “is the culmination of many months of efforts with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in cooperation with the United States.”
Lebanon’s Mikati issued a statement welcoming the agreement. Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be deploying at least 5,000 soldiers in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
Netanyahu said he was ready to use the ceasefire but would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.
He said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on the threat from Iran, give the military a chance to rest and resupply, and isolate Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that unleashed war in the region when it attacked Israel from Gaza last year.
‘BRING BACK THE YEARS’
“By fully cooperating with the United States, we maintain full military independence. If Hezbollah violates the agreement or tries to rearm, we will definitely strike,” Netanyahu said.
Hezbollah, allied with Hamas, was much weaker than it was at the beginning of the conflict, he added.
“We pushed it back decades, eliminated … its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, eliminated thousands of fighters, destroyed years of terrorist infrastructure along our border,” he said.
A senior American official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the US and France will join the UNIFIL peacekeeping force that will work with the Lebanese army to prevent violations of the ceasefire agreement. American troops will not be used, the official said.
Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser in the Biden administration, told CNN that Washington would be watching for any breach of the agreement.
“The implementation of this agreement will be the key and we will monitor all efforts to interfere with the two parties committed to as part of this plan today,” he said.
Biden, who leaves office in January, said his administration will continue to push for a cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza, as well as an agreement to freeze relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In the hours before the ceasefire ended, hostilities flared as Israel stepped up its airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 deaths.
The Israeli military said it struck “parts of Hezbollah’s financial management and systems” including a currency exchange office.
Hezbollah also continued to fire rockets into Israel.
The Israeli air force intercepted three missiles in Lebanon, the military said, during a barrage of missiles on Tuesday night that prompted warnings in about 115 areas.
Alia Ibrahim, the mother of twin girls from the southern village of Qaaqaiyat al-Snawbar, who fled Beirut nearly three months ago, said she hoped Israeli officials, who have expressed conflicting views on the ceasefire, would stick to the deal.
“My village – they destroyed part of it. “In the few seconds before they announced that the weapons will be stopped, they destroyed part of our village,” he said. “God willing, we can return to our homes and our country.”
A poll by Israel’s Channel 12 TV found that 37% of Israelis support the ceasefire, compared to 32% who oppose it.
Opponents of the deal in Israel include opposition leaders and mayors of towns near the Israeli-Lebanon border, who want an uninhabited area on the Lebanese side of the border.
Both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have stressed that the return of displaced civilians in southern Lebanon is a key point of the agreement.
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a right-wing member of Netanyahu’s government, said in X that the agreement does not guarantee the return of Israelis to their homes in the north of the country and that the Lebanese army does not have the power to defeat Hezbollah.
“In order to go to Lebanon, we must have our belt,” said Ben-Gvir.
