A ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon came into effect at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, bringing an end to almost 14 months of Hezbollah-initiated fighting across the northern border, which began the day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.
- The agreement, which Israel’s national security cabinet approved in a vote of 10 ministers to one on Tuesday night, will reportedly provide for a 60-day transition period, during which the IDF will withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, while the Lebanese Army will deploy some 5,000 troops south of the Litani river, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel.
- Hezbollah forces will leave southern Lebanon, and its military infrastructure will be dismantled. The US has also reportedly provided a side letter specifying Israel’s rights to respond to violations of the ceasefire, should there be any.
A copy of the ceasefire deal was not published before it came into effect.
While Hezbollah has said that it accepts the ceasefire proposal, a senior official with the terror group said Tuesday that it had yet to see the agreement in its final form.
A ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon came into effect at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, bringing an end to almost 14 months of Hezbollah-initiated fighting across the northern border, which began the day after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.
- The agreement, which Israel’s national security cabinet approved in a vote of 10 ministers to one on Tuesday night, will reportedly provide for a 60-day transition period, during which the IDF will withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, while the Lebanese Army will deploy some 5,000 troops south of the Litani river, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel.
Hezbollah forces will leave southern Lebanon, and its military infrastructure will be dismantled. The US has also reportedly provided a side letter specifying Israel’s rights to respond to violations of the ceasefire, should there be any.
A copy of the ceasefire deal was not published before it came into effect.
While Hezbollah has said that it accepts the ceasefire proposal, a senior official with the terror group said Tuesday that it had yet to see the agreement in its final form.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire appeared to hold early Wednesday morning, with signs of celebration in Beirut, a day after Israel carried out its most intense wave of airstrikes in the Lebanese capital since the start of the fighting.
As the ceasefire came into effect, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, warned Lebanese civilians to not yet return to villages in southern Lebanon.
- “With the ceasefire agreement coming into effect, and in accordance with its provisions, the IDF continues to be prepared in its positions in southern Lebanon,” Adraee said.
- “Do not move towards the villages that the IDF evacuated or towards IDF forces in the area. For your protection and the safety of your families, avoid reaching the area.”
He added that the IDF would inform them “of the safe date to return to your homes.”
Nevertheless, Reuters reported that streams of cars carrying people displaced by the months of fighting were seen heading south, just over an hour after the ceasefire took effect.
Bursts of gunfire could be heard across Beirut after the ceasefire took effect, although it was not immediately clear if the shooting was celebratory, as gunfire has also been used in recent weeks to alert residents who may have missed Israeli evacuation warnings.
Both Israel and Hezbollah continued fighting in the hours leading up to the ceasefire, and earlier on Tuesday, the IDF said it had struck 20 sites within two minutes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after issuing evacuation warnings.
Seven buildings targeted in the strikes were used by Hezbollah for the management and storage of funds, the IDF said, including headquarters, vaults and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, known to be used by the terror group as a quasi-bank.
The other 13 sites included a Hezbollah aerial forces center, an intelligence division command room, weapon depots, and other military infrastructure, the IDF said.
Hezbollah too, continued to launch rockets and drones at Israel in the hours leading up to the ceasefire, setting off alarms across central and northern Israel.
Long-range rocket fire at around 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday set off alerts in Pardes Hanna, Hadera, Harish and several nearby towns, as well as communities close to the Lebanon border. The IDF said a short while later that air defenses had successfully downed three missiles. There were no reports of injuries as a result of the missile fire.
Meanwhile, the IDF continued to issue evacuation warnings for additional buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah assets, and air strikes were reported in the capital less than an hour before the truce came into force.
- At the same time, the Syrian Red Crescent reported that a volunteer had been killed and another had been injured in alleged Israeli strikes on the Lebanon-Syria border.
According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, Israeli warplanes had hit the Arida and Dabousiya border crossings with Lebanon, in the Tartus Governorate.
Some 18 people were injured in the strike on the Arida border crossing, SANA reported, and an unspecified number of people were injured at the Dabousiya crossing, as well.
In a statement, the Red Crescent said that its volunteers had been “performing their humanitarian duty of rescuing the wounded early on Wednesday” when the strikes were launched.
The strikes were said by the medical organization to have damaged several ambulances and work points.
There was no immediate comment from the IDF regarding the reports.
The US Central Command also said on Tuesday night that it had carried out an airstrike in Syria, targeting “an Iranian-aligned militia weapons storage facility.”
In a brief statement, it said that the strike was a response to an attack on US forces in the area the previous day and that its purpose was to “degrade their [Iranian-aligned forces] ability to plan and launch future attacks on US and Coalition forces who are in the region.”
CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Kurilla warned that the US “will not tolerate any attacks on our personnel and coalition partners.”
“We are committed to taking all necessary actions to ensure their protection,” he added.
- The impact of the strike was not immediately clear, CENTCOM said, but noted that there had been no reports of civilian casualties.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, in support of its fellow Iran-backed terror group, drawing Israeli reprisals and leading to the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Fighting intensified in late September, with Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s leadership and launching a limited ground incursion on October 1 that has seen soldiers search villages for rockets and other arms held by the terror group, and tackle its terror tunnels and other infrastructure.
Source: TOI