Towards a peace agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in the epoch of conflict: Scott Neuman, David Estrin, and Lauren Frayer
Scott Neuman was in Tel Aviv, Israel. Daniel Estrin contributed from Tel Aviv, as well as Lauren Frayer from Lebanon.
He also said the United States remains ready to conclude an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would normalize relations with Israel and include a security pact and economic assurances, with a pathway for a Palestinian state.
“It’s going to be difficult for Netanyahu to sell this” to the northern Israeli evacuees, Amos Harel, a former nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a journalist at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
“The Security Cabinet approved the United States’ proposal for a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon this evening, with a majority of 10 ministers in favor and one opposed,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement late Tuesday.
The announcement came during some of the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in months, with Israeli airstrikes hitting Beirut and Israeli troops pushing deeper into southern Lebanon on Tuesday, as Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.
Almost 14 months of the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon has killed more than 3,700 people, many of them civilians, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and close to 1 million people have been displaced across Lebanon, according to the United Nations.
Israel has pledged to aggressively respond to any breach of the terms. “Any violation of the ceasefire will be met with fire,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters. He said Israeli “soldiers are still positioned in southern Lebanon, in villages and areas from which the forces will gradually withdraw in accordance with the agreement.”
“In full coordination with the United States, we are maintaining full military freedom of action,” Netanyahu said in his TV address. “If Hezbollah tries to rearm, we will strike and we have an agreement with them.”
“This understanding, which outlined a roadmap for the cessation of hostilities, was reviewed by me this evening, and I consider it a key step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon and enabling the return of displaced people to their homes and towns,” Mikati said. It contributes to stability in the region.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden Tuesday, Biden explained that the deal will take effect 4 a.m. Wednesday. Then over the next 60 days, the Lebanese army and state security forces will take control of their territory, and Israel will gradually withdraw. The United States, France and other countries will work to help ensure the agreement is implemented, but no U.S. troops will be deployed in southern Lebanon, he said.
Despite warnings from the Israeli military not to return to their villages until the troops are out, many of them have already done so.
“This agreement is not good because it does not require the Lebanese army and government to disarm Hezbollah,” Avigdor Lieberman, an opponent of Netanyahu who is a lawmaker in Israeli parliament, said Monday before the vote.
The Israeli-Israel Interaction in the Gaza Strip, and its Implications for the Security of the Middle East, as reported by UNICEF
This peace must be maintained with urgent work. The agency said that children and families need to be able to return to their communities safely.
In a statement on the ceasefire, UNICEF said it hopes the agreement “will bring an end to the war which has killed more than 240 children, injured around 1,400, and upended the lives of countless others.”
Many of the people who were displaced in Lebanon may not return home for months as Israel has destroyed parts of the country, according to a senior analyst. In 2000 Israel withdrew from the Blue Line in southern Lebanon.
Hamas, the militant group that Israel has been fighting in Gaza, thanked Hezbollah for its “pivotal role … in support of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian resistance, and the great sacrifices,” including the death of Nasrallah.
There are worries in Gaza. Wala Hanuna was displaced by the Israeli military offensive and thought that they would be able to wreak more destruction on the territory. She said that they read about the Israeli army going to Gaza. “Maybe the war will continue for another year, with no one thinking how we will get out of this.”
Still, some Israelis remain skeptical. “This deal, we still know nothing about it,” Avraham Moreno, displaced from Shlomi, a village on the border with Lebanon, tells NPR. “We have very, very mixed feelings, even though we really want to return home.”
Saudi Arabia said it hoped the ceasefire “will lead to the implementation of [U.N.] Security Council Resolution 1701,” referring to a previous agreement renewing UNIFIL’s mandate at the end of a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia called for “the preservation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and stability and the return of the displaced to their homes in safety and security.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry hopes the ceasefire will contribute to the de-escalation phase in the region. It called for Israel to allow complete access to humanitarian aid and stop violations in the West Bank in light of the terrible humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip.
“The stated intent is that at the smallest infraction, they will go through the motions of reporting this to the [U.S.-led international] supervisory committee and [if] Israel doesn’t get satisfaction, they will take action on their own,” he says.
“All of this is going to be about enforcement,” says Lipner, who is a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council. There will not be any exceptions in the future.
In addition, the agreement calls for Lebanese government authorities to prevent Hezbollah or any other armed group from carrying out attacks on Israel. It further requires Lebanon’s military and security forces be the only armed group allowed to operate in southern Lebanon, and that Lebanese authorities prevent the reestablishment and rearming of any non-state armed group in the country.
“There is a good deal here that had to come because of the international pressure. He said we have a place to go back to. “Lebanon have nowhere to return to because of the destruction that Israel has inflicted,” he said.
A man who was displaced from Kiryat Shmona told NPR that he thought Hezbollah had been taught a lesson.
For now, Israel is discouraging its residents from returning to their abandoned homes in the border area. There will be a period of 30 to 60 days of renovations after Hezbollah fire before Israel brings back Israeli residents, according to the Education Minister.
In southern Lebanon, Patricia Taleb, 24, was driving Wednesday to reach the home she was forced to abandon earlier. “We know that this is the end days of the war. We know that ultimately it’s going to be OK,” she told NPR.