By Dan M. Berger
Contributing Writer
Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a cease-fire that is set to end more than a year of cross-border air and rocket attacks and two months of Israel’s ground war to drive the Hezbollah terrorist group away from Israel’s northern frontier.
The cease-fire was set to go into effect at 4 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday).
The deal calls for Israel to evacuate Lebanese territory within 60 days, and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area.
Lebanon has committed to having its army continue Israel’s work of destroying Hezbollah’s fortifications near the Israeli border, including tunnels meant to enable an Oct. 7-style attack.
A committee of five countries will monitor the agreement’s phases and its full implementation. The committee will also enforce the deal and prevent violations. If the committee fails to get Hezbollah to enforce fire discipline, Israel will have a free hand to act.
President Joe Biden, in announcing the deal, emphasized that Hezbollah will not be allowed to threaten Israel’s security over the next 60 days, nor rebuild its terrorist infrastructure. “Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin to rebuild their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses and their very lives. We’ve determined this conflict will not be just another cycle of violence.”
Biden pledged no U.S. troops would be deployed to southern Lebanon, but that the United States, France, and others would provide “necessary assistance” to implement the deal “fully and effectively.”
“Let me be clear: If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defense consistent with international law, just like any other country,” Biden said on Wednesday.
Biden called for a similar cease-fire in Gaza to end the suffering there and said Hamas “has a choice to make.” The terrorist group must release the hostages, including the Americans among them, to end the fighting and bring about a “surge of humanitarian relief.”
The deal was reached after Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, traveled to Lebanon and then Israel to confer with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, empowered by Hezbollah to negotiate on its behalf, and then with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Reports emerged on Sunday that a deal was close. Netanyahu was in agreement and planned to present it to his cabinet on Monday.
The agreement aims to end the fighting, which has killed over 3,500 Lebanese — more than half Hezbollah fighters, according to the Israel Defense Forces — more than 70 Israelis plus 50 IDF soldiers killed in the offensive. The war forced between 60,000 and 80,000 residents of Israeli border communities from their homes for more than a year.
Under the agreement, Hezbollah must withdraw its forces north of the Litani River. That would put the terrorist group 10 to 15 miles from most of Israel’s northern frontier.
This is not the first time Israel has sought this withdrawal. It is called for as well in U.N. Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, to wind down a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel. But it was never implemented.
The United Nations has said it was not its peacekeepers’ responsibility to enforce it. That responsibility belonged to Lebanon, which didn’t enforce it. The Lebanese army never occupied the south Lebanon border zone. Hezbollah heavily fortified it over the years, building tunnels and bases often within sight of U.N. peacekeeping troops. And it moved sympathizers there from other parts of the country.
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia designated a terrorist group by the United States and at least 20 other countries, possesses significant influence in Lebanon and is considered the de facto government in Shia strongholds such as along Israel’s frontier, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs where it is headquartered.
It and its allies hold nearly half the seats in Lebanon’s parliament, and they have corresponding presences in the civil service and military.
Israeli military strategists say Hezbollah has prepared for an attack on Israel for years and that Hamas in the Gaza Strip got the idea for its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel from the Lebanese group.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
