Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah reached a cease-fire agreement on Tuesday, paving the way for the end of a war that has killed thousands of people since it was sparked by the Israel-Hamas war.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, said on Tuesday that he was ready to follow through on a deal to end the fighting with Lebanon and that Hezbollah would be “responsible for any violation.” The plan was not official until it was approved by the whole Cabinet.
“In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action,” he said. “Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively.”
Given that Israel agreed, President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron were able to make a joint statement calling for a cease-fire. Three days from now, guns along the border between Israel and Lebanon will be silent.
There will be no fighting for sixty days. During that time, Israel can slowly pull its troops out of southern Lebanon while Hezbollah moves its forces closer to Israel’s border.
The agreement is not likely to change the war in Gaza that began 14 months ago in a meaningful way.
Biden spoke Tuesday from the White House Rose Garden to announce the cease-fire. He said that the deal was a reminder that “peace is possible.”
Biden said that since the war started, more than 70,000 Israelis and 300,000 Lebanese have had to live as refugees in their own countries. Biden said that the fight between Israel and Hezbollah was “the deadliest” in decades.
“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” he said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed − I repeat, will not be allowed − to threaten the security of Israel again.”
In the middle of September, Israel started an offensive in Lebanon. This came after months of border attacks that started when Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Lebanese health ministry says that since then, Israel has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon. Over a million people have been forced to leave their homes. People who live in northern Israel have had to leave their homes and go south because of Hezbollah’s thousands of rocket attacks over the past year.
It is important to Biden that this conflict does not turn into another cycle of violence. He also said that the people of Gaza, like the people of Lebanon, “deserve a future of security and prosperity” and “an end to the fighting and displacement.”
In order to bring home the American hostages still held in Gaza, Biden is trying to get an end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas before his term as president ends on January 20.
“Far too many civilians in Gaza have suffered far too much, and Hamas has refused for months and months to negotiate a good-faith cease-fire and a hostage deal,” said Biden.
“So now Hamas has a choice to make: Their only way out is to release the hostages, including American citizens which they hold, and in the process bring an end to the fighting, which would make possible a surge of humanitarian relief.”
Shaking Beirut ‘to its core’
As part of its offensive, Israel invaded the ground and killed several Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s longtime leader. An attack with exploding pagers hurt thousands of people.
Netanyahu said that Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and works with Hamas, was not nearly as strong as it was at the start of the conflict.
“We have set it back decades, eliminated … its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border,” he added. “We targeted strategic objectives across Lebanon, shaking Beirut to its core.”
About 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Another 251 people were taken back to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel started a military campaign to get rid of Hamas.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says that Israel has killed at least 44,000 people there.
The International Criminal Court says that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza and has issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Netanyahu says that the claim is false.
It was necessary for Israel to focus on its biggest enemy, Iran, for the cease-fire to give Israeli forces “a breather” and “to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas.”
From the start of the war, Hamas knew it could count on Hezbollah to fight with it. Hezbollah is no longer a threat, so Hamas is on its own.
Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran did not say anything right away.
A group made up of the UN, the Israeli and Lebanese armies, France, and the US will keep an eye on the cease-fire agreement.
Even though Israel and Hezbollah agreed to stop fighting, Israel still bombed southern Beirut on Tuesday and Hezbollah kept firing rockets at northern Israel.
The health ministry of Lebanon says that 31 people were killed in strikes by Israel on Monday everywhere in Lebanon.
The deal was approved by Israel’s security cabinet, but some far-right ministers in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were against it.
Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting on a small scale for many years. The conflict in Gaza has spread to Lebanon, making things worse between Israel and Hezbollah more than they have been since 2006, when they last fought a major war.
