AFTER months of skirmishes and thousands of casualties, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire deal on Tuesday, brokered by US- and France and residents in cars heaped with belongings streamed back toward southern Lebanon despite warnings from the Israeli and Lebanese military that they stay away from certain areas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, also stressed that the “length” of this ceasefire will depend on “what happens in Lebanon.” “With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack”, Netanyahu noted. He gave three reasons for having a ceasefire at this point. “The first reason is to focus on the Iranian threat, and I won’t expand on that.

 

The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission. And the third reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas. From day two of the war, Hamas was counting on Hezbollah to fight by its side. With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own. We will increase our pressure on Hamas and that will help us in our sacred mission of releasing our hostages”. The US- and France-brokered deal, approved by Israel late Tuesday, calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance. Israel says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah should it violate the terms of the deal.

 

The deal would not address the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is still fighting Hamas militants in response to the group’s cross-border raid into southern Israel in October 2023. But President Joe Biden on Tuesday said his administration would make another push in the coming days to try to renew efforts for a deal there. Hours before the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon took effect, Israel launched broad strikes that shook the Lebanese capital Beirut and a volley of rockets from Hezbollah set off air raid sirens across a large swath of northern Israel. But after the ceasefire took effect early Wednesday, quiet appeared to take hold, prompting waves of Lebanese to head home. Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned displaced Lebanese not to return to their villages in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese military asked displaced returning to southern Lebanon to avoid frontline villages and towns near the border where Israeli troops are still present until they withdraw. But some videos circulating on social media show displaced Lebanese defying these calls and returning to villages in the south near the coastal city of Tyre. Israeli troops were still present in parts of southern Lebanon after Israel launched a ground invasion in October.

 

On the highway linking Beirut with south Lebanon, thousands of people drove south with their belongings and mattresses tied on top of their cars. Traffic was gridlocked at the northern entrance of the port city of Sidon. Residents will return to vast destruction wrought by the Israeli military during its campaign, which flattened villages where the military said it found vast weapons caches and infrastructure it says was meant to launch an Oct 7-style attack on northern Israel. More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. Hezbollah emerges from the war battered and bloodied, with the reputation it built by fighting Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war tarnished. Yet its fighters still managed to put up heavy resistance on the ground, slowing Israel’s advance while continuing to fire scores of rockets, missiles and drones across the border each day. “This is a moment of victory, pride and honour for us, the Shia sect, and for all of Lebanon,” said Hussein Sweidan, a resident returning to Tyre in southern Lebanon, who said he saw the ceasefire as a victory for Hezbollah. Sporadic celebratory gunfire was heard at a main roundabout in the city, as people returning honked the horns of cars and residents cheered.

 

Some Israelis are concerned the deal doesn’t go far enough In Israel, the mood was far more subdued, with displaced Israelis concerned that the deal did not go far enough to rein in Hezbollah and that it did not address Gaza and the hostages still held there. “I think it is still not safe to return to our homes because Hezbollah is still close to us,” said Eliyahu Maman, an Israeli displaced from the northern Israeli city of Kyriat Shmona, which is not far from the border with Lebanon and was hit hard by the months of fighting. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel, more than half civilians, as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon. 

 

 

INDIA on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon and said it hoped that these developments will lead to “peace and stability” in the wider region. The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah began early Wednesday morning, according to reports. “We welcome the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that has been announced. We have always called for de-escalation, restraint and return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy. We hope these developments will lead to peace and stability in the region,” the Ministry of External Affair said. bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb UN welcomes agreement UNITED NATIONS, Nov 27 (IANS) bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb THE United Nations welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, a senior UN official said in a statement. The agreement marks the starting point of a critical process, anchored in the full implementation of resolution 1701 (2006), to restore the safety and security that civilians on both sides of the Blue Line deserve, said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, on Tuesday, ‘Xinhua’ news agency reported. Considerable work lies ahead to ensure the agreement endures, Hennis-Plasschaert said, adding, “Nothing less than the full and unwavering commitment of both parties is required.”