UNICEF in the aftermath of the ceasefire: Bringing an end to the conflict in Syria and threatening the return of the displaced
Scott Neuman was in Tel Aviv. Lauren Frayer and Daniel Estrin contributed from Tel Aviv.
The peace must be sustained now that the urgent work has started. Children and families must be able to return to their communities safely, especially those displaced in shelters and host communities,” the agency said.
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.”
The fighting has limited access to the south of Lebanon, where an estimated 188,000 people live in more than 1,000 government-assigned collective shelters. “The heavy bombardments have also had a devastating impact on public services and infrastructure,” the agency said.
David Wood, a senior analyst on Lebanon at the Crisis Group, says that many of the displaced might not be able to return to their homes in Lebanon for months because Israel has demolished entire villages near the Blue Line border. Israel withdrew from the Blue Line in 2000.
The Security Council of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank: An Israeli-Mexican War and a Warning to the Lebanon’s Armed Forces
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.
The military commanders will warn the evacuated residents in southern Lebanon to stay clear of their positions because of the upcoming deadline for the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. And though it is not included in the text of the agreement obtained by NPR, Israeli political and military leaders have repeatedly said they must nonetheless retain the capacity to strike targets in Lebanon if they perceive them to be a threat.
In a statement, the presidents of France and the US said the deal will stop the fighting in Lebanon and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah. They said it will allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes along the border.
Following the end of the last round of major hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, UN Security Council resolution 1701 was supposed to ensure that Hezbollah was unable to rebuild its military capacities in the south of Lebanon. While the United Nations is in the area, the attempt to restrain Hezbollah’s armed capabilities close to the Israeli border failed even though there is a force in the area.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Cairo hopes the ceasefire “will contribute to the beginning of the de-escalation phase in the region.” It urged Israel to allow full access to humanitarian aid without obstacles in order to alleviate the humanitarian crises in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
He says that the intention is that if Israel does not get satisfaction from the report, they will take action on their own.
“This is going to be all about enforcement, that’s what I’ll tell you,” says Lipner, who is based in Jerusalem. “They’re telegraphing that there will not be any exceptions [as] in the past.”
The agreement also requires the government of Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah and any other armed group from attacking 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.
The 60-day period outlined in the agreement will allow Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from an area south of the Litani River which will create a buffer between the group and northern Israel. Israeli forces are expected to similarly withdraw to the Israeli side of the border.
“There is a good deal here that had to come because of the international pressure. And we have somewhere to return to,” he said. Alluding to the devastation that Israel has inflicted on southern Lebanon, he added: “The Lebanese have nowhere to return to.”
After the attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire since then. The fighting — which intensified eight weeks ago, when Israel initiated a ground invasion of southern Lebanon aimed at eliminating Hezbollah fighters and weapons capabilities from the border region — has killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health officials, and around 80 people in northern Israel, according to Israeli officials.
For now, Israel is discouraging its residents from returning to their abandoned homes in the border area. Education Minister Yoav Kisch said on Israel Army Radio there will be a 30- to 60-day period of renovating buildings and institutions damaged by Hezbollah fire before Israel initiates a return of Israeli residents.
In southern Lebanon, Patricia Taleb, 24, was driving Wednesday to reach the home she was forced to abandon earlier. The war is about to end. She told NPR that they know that it’s going to be okay.
Many of the people of Lebanon started to return to their homes despite warnings not from the Israeli military.
Israel has fulfilled its military objectives, primarily eliminating Hezbollah infrastructure, says Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute. “On the border, it’s pretty much destroyed,” Slim says. Their military command council and top political leadership have been wiped out. These blows will be life threatening to Hezbollah, which is going to take a long time to recover from.
TEL AVIV, Israel, and BEIRUT — Celebratory gunfire rang out in the Lebanese capital Beirut overnight Tuesday to mark the start of a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon to end almost 14 months of fighting.
The deal concludes with language focused on efforts that the United States and France say they will lead to help develop and lift Lebanon’s long struggling economy, as well as commitments to ensure civilians in both countries can return safely to their homes and land.
Under the terms of this week’s agreement, the army will be able to have full control of its borders in order to prevent unauthorized arms entry into the country, and it will be able to seize other military equipment located north of the Litani River.
Hezbollah fighters notably supported Assad’s own forces during the years-long Syrian civil war that began in 2011 and still continues in sporadic pockets of that country’s north. In recent months, Israeli aircraft have repeatedly targeted locations inside Syria that commanders say have been involved in this smuggling, and right up until the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday strikes continued on sites inside Lebanon tied to that cross-border trade.
Peter Harling, director of the Synaps Network said that the army might beDeploying the same Lebanon army to areas where it was before. “But for now, there’s absolutely no basis to believe that this will have an effect in reality.”
The fact these proposals are not part of the agreement and the Lebanese army will instead take nominal control of the country’s south represents success for Hezbollah, according to Dr. Amal Saad, a leading Hezbollah expert and lecturer in politics and international relations at Cardiff University in the UK. “Lebanon and Hezbollah were able to force it upon Israel in a way that was very tactical,” he says. Amos Hochstein has put forward a number of different amendments and proposals over the course of the past two months.
The United States lead envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein, had recently floated plans with both Israeli and Lebanese officials for a multinational force — separate from the United Nations — to oversee the region’s security, alongside an Israeli suggestion for a buffer zone inside Lebanon’s sovereign territory, over which Israel’s forces might temporarily hold sway.
The U.S., France, Italy and other NATO countries will work together to move 10,000Lebanon’s army troops to southern Lebanon as quickly as possible. The committee, known by its acronym MTC4L, began infantry training courses over this past summer, and the U.S. and France have vowed to expand international support for further training and recruitment.
But having reviewed this week’s agreement, Noe anticipates it is unlikely to function as well as the original one did in the late 1990s, because the Israelis will be able to define an “offensive” action on their own terms. “It seems as if we’re just going to see sort ofIsraeli military strikes in Lebanon in the coming period, as they see fit,” Noe predicted.
The oversight system that was set up after an Israeli incursion into Lebanon was established in 1996, according to Nicholas Noe, director of the Beirut Exchange Foundation. Though different in its scope, it was widely judged as successful at reducing civilian conflicts during what proved to be an ongoing low-intensity conflict between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces — something that will be crucial given the expected return of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Lebanese civilians to this region.
At the end of the last big conflict between the two, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1701, a resolution that was central to the deal. The weakened nature of the State of Lebanon is a key challenge, though the country’s powerful parliamentary speaker, Nabih Nabih, said Thursday that a parliamentary vote would be held to choose a new president.
Both sides of the conflict have tried to portray the ceasefire as a success and have sought to highlight their military achievements to their respective domestic audiences.
The Israeli military said Thursday one of its aircraft struck a storage site for Hezbollah rockets, one of the first large-scale skirmishes that could reoccur in the coming months as Hezbollah and Israel withdraw to the respective positions agreed upon. The actions of Israel on Thursday were not offensive and did not mean the truce had been broken.
But if there are any violations of the ceasefire, both Lebanon and Israel will be required to report them to this group through processes that have not yet been established, which may leave it open to interpretation.
There is no way to enforce the rules, says a professor at the American University of Beirut. “It’s not an enforcement mechanism because the Americans are directly involved.”