Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in Lebanon, US says

The Israeli prime minister says he is asking his ministers to approve a ceasefire agreement to end the current war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a TV address, he said Israel would “respond forcefully to any violation”.

The Iran-backed armed group and Israel have traded near daily cross-border fire since October 2023. But the fighting escalated in late September as Israel intensified aerial bombardments and launched a limited ground invasion.

The conflict has been Lebanon’s deadliest in decades, killing more than 3,823 people since last year according to local figures.

Netanyahu said that how long the ceasefire lasted would depend on what happened in Lebanon.

“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. We will continue united until victory,” he said.

He also said ending the fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon would allow Israel to increase pressure on Hamas in Gaza and focus on “the Iranian threat”.

“When Hezbollah is out of the picture, Hamas is left alone in the fight. Our pressure on it will intensify,” Netanyahu said.

France, which administered Lebanon for more than 20 years in the last century, and is a long-term ally, is expected to be involved in the monitoring of the truce.

There will be an immediate 60-day ceasefire which will see the pull-out of both Israeli forces and Hezbollah’s armed presence from Lebanon’s south, the BBC’s US partner CBS says.

Hezbollah fighters and weapons will withdraw from south of the Litani River – a boundary established during the the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces launched another flurry of air strikes on Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least seven people.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel and many Western countries – after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

It says it wants to ensure the safe return of about 60,000 residents of northern Israeli areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah launched in support of Palestinians the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The war has been devastating for Lebanon, where, in addition to the 3,823 people killed and 15,859 injured, one million residents have been displaced in areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

The World Bank’s estimate is of $8.5bn (£6.8bn) in economic losses and damage. Recovery will take time, and no-one seems to know who will pay for it.

Hezbollah, too, has been devastated. Many of its leaders have been killed, including long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah, while its infrastructure has been heavily damaged.

How it will look after the war remains unclear. The group has been severely weakened, some would say humiliated, but it has not been destroyed.

In Lebanon, it is more than a militia: it is a political party with representation in parliament, and a social organisation, with significant support among Shia Muslims.

Hezbollah’s opponents will probably see it as an opportunity to limit its influence – it was often described as “a state within a state” in Lebanon before the conflict – and many fear this could lead to internal violence.