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AND ceasefire agreement which took effect on Wednesday could end more than a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanese The militant group Hezbollah is raising hope and renewing difficult issues in the conflict-ridden region.
The OUR– i France-brokered deal, approved by Israel late on Tuesday, calls for an initial two-month ceasefire and requires Hezbollah to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon while Israeli troops are to return to their side of the border. It offers both sides a way out of hostilities that have driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese and 50,000 Israelis from their homes.
Israel’s intense bombing campaign has killed more than 3,700 people, many of them civilians, Lebanese officials say. More than 130 people were killed on the Israeli side.
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But while it could significantly ease tensions that have inflamed the region, the deal does not directly help resolve the much deadlier war raging in Gaza since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Hezbollah, which began firing a barrage of rockets at Israel the next day in support of Hamas, previously said it would continue to fight until the fighting in Gaza ends. With the new ceasefire, it reneged on that promise, effectively leaving Hamas isolated and fighting the war alone.
Here’s what you need to know about the interim ceasefire agreement and its possible implications:
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Terms of agreement
The agreement reportedly calls for a 60-day ceasefire that would see Israeli troops withdraw to their side of the border, while requiring Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a wide swath of southern Lebanon. US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the deal was due to come into force at 4am local time (11am AEDT) on Wednesday.
Under the agreement, thousands of Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers will be deployed in the region south of the Litani River. A US-led international council would oversee compliance by all parties.
Biden said the deal was “intended to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
Israel asked for the right to act if Hezbollah violated its commitments, but Lebanese officials refused to write that into the proposal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the military would attack Hezbollah if the UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, did not implement the deal.
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Prolonged uncertainty
Hezbollah has indicated it will give the cease-fire deal a chance, but one of the group’s leaders said the group’s support for the deal depends on clarity that Israel will not renew its attacks.
“After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed by Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chairman of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Qatari satellite news network. Al Jazeera.
“We want an end to aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state” of Lebanon, he said.
The European Union’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on Tuesday that the deal had resolved Israel’s security issue.
Where the fighting was abandoned by both sides
After months of cross-border bombardment, Israel is able to score major victories, including killing Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, most of his senior commanders, and destroying the militants’ extensive infrastructure.
A complex attack in September that involved the explosion of hundreds of walkie-talkies and pagers used by Hezbollah was widely attributed to Israel, signaling an incredible breakthrough by the militant group.
The damage done to Hezbollah has not only hit its ranks, but also the reputation it built by fighting Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war. Still, its fighters managed to put up strong resistance on the ground, slowing Israel’s advance, continuing to fire scores of rockets, missiles and drones across the border on a daily basis.
The cease-fire offers relief to both sides, giving Israel’s overstretched military a break and allowing Hezbollah leaders to praise the group’s effectiveness in holding its ground despite Israel’s vast weapons advantage.
But the group is likely to face a backlash, as many Lebanese accuse it of tying their country’s fate to that of Gaza in the service of key ally Iran, causing major damage to Lebanon’s already ailing economy.
No answer for Gaza
Until now, Hezbollah has insisted that it will stop its attacks on Israel only when it agrees to end the fighting in Gaza. Some in the region are likely to view the deal between the Lebanon-based group and Israel as a capitulation.
In Gaza, where officials said the war has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, Israeli strikes have inflicted heavy casualties on Hamas, including the killing of the group’s top leaders. But Hamas fighters are still holding dozens of Israeli hostages, giving the militant group a bargaining chip if indirect ceasefire talks resume.
Hamas is likely to continue to demand a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in any such deal, while Netanyahu on Tuesday reiterated his pledge to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.
Pictures capture the exact moment an Israeli missile hits a building in Beirut
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were driven out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007 and who hopes to one day rule the territory again as part of an independent Palestinian state, starkly recalled the war’s intractability on Tuesday, demanding urgent international intervention.
“The only way to stop the dangerous escalation we are witnessing in the region and maintain regional and international stability, security and peace is to resolve the issue of Palestine,” he said in a speech at the UN read by his ambassador.
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