Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Rubble lies at the site of the historic ‘Al-Manshiya’ building damaged in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, near the Roman ruins of Baalbek, in the eastern city of Baalbek, Lebanon, November 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli military on Thursday (November 28, 2024) said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel’s aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.

The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers.

On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”

Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.

A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.

The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.

Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.

More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.

Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.

In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.

The IDF says it remains and acting in southern Lebanon to enforce violations of the ceasefire

Israeli soldiers upload a military vehicle onto a truck on the second day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, near a road close to the Israel-Lebanon border on November 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to launch a military invasion of Lebanon on October 1 — Israel’s fourth invasion of the neighbouring country — he said his main objective was to let the over 60,000 northern Israelis, who were displaced by Hezbollah rockets, return to their homes. Almost two months later, he accepted a ceasefire with Hezbollah, agreeing to withdraw all Israeli troops to the south of the Lebanese border. The future of the displaced residents remains uncertain. Hezbollah still possesses thousands of drones and rockets and the capability to fire them. Then why did Mr. Netanyahu accept the ceasefire?

Let’s first look at the ceasefire deal, which was mediated by the U.S. and France. According to the agreement, Hezbollah would withdraw its troops and weapons to the north of the Litani River, and Israel would withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Army would be deployed in the south, between the Litani and the Israeli border, to monitor and enforce the ceasefire. The withdrawals would take 60 days. Israel says if Hezbollah violates the terms of the agreement or tries to rearm itself, it reserves the right to resume fighting. The displaced residents of both southern Lebanon and northern Israel should be allowed to gradually return to their homes, as per the agreement.

Three reasons 

Mr. Netanyahu gave three reasons, explaining the rationale behind the ceasefire. He believes a ceasefire with Hezbollah would allow Israel to focus more on Iran, Israel’s main regional rival; two, Israel can focus on resupplying its own forces who are increasingly facing the fatigue of the two-front war (in Lebanon and Gaza) and three, Israel can isolate Hamas in the ongoing war in Gaza. Israel’s leaders, including its newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz, say Hezbollah is not the same organisation it used to be. Two months of intense bombing and ground attacks have destroyed much of its capabilities, they argue. But the reality is much more complicated.

To be sure, Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah. First, the pager and walkie-talkie explosions across Lebanon hit Hezbollah’s rank and file. Then Israel carried out massive bombings decapitating Hezbollah’s senior leadership. Several top commanders, including the charismatic Hassan Nasrallah, who had led Hezbollah for three decades, were killed. The south Beirut Shia neighbourhood of Dahiye, a Hezbollah stronghold, was subjected to massive bombings. So were the villages in south Lebanon, closer to the Israeli border. Israel also forced Hezbollah to decouple Lebanon from Gaza. The Shia militant group started firing rockets into Israel in October 2023, days after Israel launched its retaliatory war on Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attack, declaring “solidarity with the Palestinians”. Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah chief killed by Israel, had said in the past that Hezbollah would declare a ceasefire only if Israel declared a ceasefire in Gaza. But today, Hezbollah declared a ceasefire in return for Israel’s ceasefire and withdrawal from Lebanon. Israel’s war on Gaza continues, and the ceasefire is a climb-down for Hezbollah.

Israel’s failure 

Yet, Israel failed to meet its declared objectives in Lebanon. Mr. Netanyahu had earlier said Israel would continue fighting against Hezbollah until its objectives were met. But on December 24, a few days before the ceasefire was announced, Hezbollah had fired more than 250 rockets into Israel. Israeli troops did not make much territorial gains in southern Lebanon even after two months of fighting. Worse, they failed miserably in destroying or deterring Hezbollah’s rocket capabilities. The high-security locations hit by Hezbollah rockets and drones included a private residence of Prime Minister Netanyahu and a military base in Binyamina. Israel was also taking heavy casualties in Lebanon. In October alone, Israel lost some 35 soldiers in southern Lebanon. So unlike in Gaza, where the remainder of Hamas is operating like a loose insurgency from the ruins of the strip, Israel was facing intense heat in Lebanon. The Biden administration, which fully backed Israel’s war on Gaza, had also heaped up pressure on Israel over Lebanon.  

When the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 came to an end, the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 demanded a full withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Lebanon and Hezbollah from the south. It had also demanded the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south and called for the disarmament of Hezbollah. The latest ceasefire agreement is rooted in Resolution 1701. Israel withdrew in 2006, but Hezbollah only grew stronger, by stockpiling more weapons, deepening its presence in the south and building itself as a powerful political and social actor in Lebanon’s fractious polity. Today, Hezbollah has been weakened, but is far from being defeated. Expecting the Lebanese army, which is an inferior fighting force to Hezbollah, to enforce the ceasefire would be myopic, given the past experiences. Mr. Netanyahu might try to sell the ceasefire as a victory for Israel. But facts on the ground offer a different picture.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres looks on during a joint statement with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, in Sao Bento Palace, Lisbon, Portugal, on November 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that took effect earlier on Wednesday (November 27, 2024) was “the first ray of hope” in the regional conflict after months of escalation.

“It is essential that those who signed the ceasefire commitment respect it in full,” he said in a short televised statement during a visit to his native Lisbon, adding that the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon was ready to monitor the ceasefire.

He also reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“I received an auspicious sign yesterday, the first ray of hope for peace amid the darkness of the past months,” he said, referring to the agreement.

“It is a moment of great importance, especially for civilians who were paying an enormous price of this spreading conflict.”

A Lebanese army soldier and people stand on rubble at a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, Lebanon. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of targets belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah before the start of a ceasefire on Wednesday (November 27, 2024).

The strikes hit “dozens of Hezbollah command centres, launchers, weapons storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure sites in Beirut, Tyr, and Nabatiyeh,” it said, adding the air force also struck “several smuggling routes between Syria and Lebanon, which Hezbollah used to smuggle weaponry”.

Men wave as they sit amidst the rubble of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on November 27, 2024, as displaced people make their way back to their homes in the south of Lebanon after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Long-displaced residents of south Lebanon started returning to their homes amid celebrations hours after a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group took effect early Wednesday (November 27, 2024) morning.

The ceasefire has brought relief across the Mediterranean nation, coming after days of some of the most intense airstrikes and clashes since the war began, though many wondered if the agreement to stop fighting would hold. Israel has said it will attack if Hezbollah breaks the ceasefire agreement, which was announced Tuesday (November 26, 2024).

Thousands of people made their way into southern Lebanon, defying a warning from the Israeli military to stay away from previously evacuated areas.

At least 42 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Tuesday, according to local authorities. Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel on Tuesday, triggering air raid sirens in the country’s north.

The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire marks the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but it does not address the devastating war in Gaza.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel a day after Hamas’ attack. The fighting in Lebanon escalated into an all-out war in September with massive Israeli airstrikes across the country and an Israeli ground invasion of the south.

In Gaza, more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the nearly 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Beirut, Lebanon:

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon took effect on Wednesday after more than a year of fighting that has killed thousands of people.

The truce, which began at 4:00 am (0200 GMT), should bring to a halt a war that has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel and hundreds of thousands more in Lebanon to flee their homes.

The war has seen swathes of Lebanon pounded by air strikes, and Israeli troops deployed across the border to battle Hezbollah militants.

It began with Hezbollah launching cross-border strikes in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

US President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his ministers had agreed to a halt.

The United States is Israel’s key ally and military backer, and Biden hailed the deal as “good news” and a “new start” for Lebanon.

Netanyahu thanked Biden for his involvement in brokering the deal, and said it would allow Israel to focus on Hamas in Gaza and Iran.

Under the terms of the Lebanon truce, Israel will maintain “full” freedom to act against Hezbollah should the Iran-backed group pose any new threat, Netanyahu said.

Lebanon says at least 3,823 people have been killed in the country since exchanges of fire began in October 2023, most of them in the past several weeks, when Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.

On the Israeli side, the hostilities with Hezbollah have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.

The hours before the truce took effect were some of the most violent in the war.

Israel conducted a spate of strikes on the heart of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, while Hezbollah claimed attacks on northern Israel after the truce was announced.

Hezbollah did not participate in any direct talks for the truce, with Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri mediating on its behalf.

It has yet to formally comment on the truce.

Focus on Iran

The war in Lebanon has left Hezbollah massively weakened but not crushed.

It lost its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive air strike in September, as well as a string of top commanders in other raids.

A truce in Lebanon, Netanyahu said, will permit Israel to redirect its efforts back to Gaza, where it has been at war with Hamas since October of last year.

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

The agreement will also enable “focusing on the Iranian threat” and give Israel’s military time to resupply, he added.

Iran is the main backer of both Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as other regional proxies that profess to be at war with Israel.

Iran itself has fired two barrages of missiles and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, most of which were intercepted by Israel or its allies.

Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, and Israeli officials have said they are fighting so they can return safely.

Some northern residents questioned whether that would be possible under a ceasefire.

“In my opinion, it would be a serious mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah has not been completely eliminated,” said Maryam Younnes, 29, a student from Maalot-Tarshiha.

‘Blown away’

In Lebanon, the war has forced nearly 900,000 people to flee their homes, the UN says.

Biden said the ceasefire deal was designed to be a “permanent cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hezbollah.

Under the agreement, the Lebanese army would take control of the border area on their side and “what is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations will not be allowed… to threaten the security of Israel again”, he said.

Hezbollah was the only armed group that refused to surrender its weapons after the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war ended.

To date, the group has maintained a strong presence in parts of Lebanon and its arsenal is believed to be more powerful than the national army’s.

Divided Lebanon has been in crisis for years and will struggle to return to a semblance of normalcy even after a truce.

The United States and France would ensure the deal was fully implemented, Biden said.

Netanyahu said in his speech that Israel would maintain “full” freedom to act, even after the ceasefire.

The announcements followed a flurry of strikes on central Beirut as well as on Hezbollah’s bastion in the southern suburbs.

One strike hit the normally busy Hamra district, home to residential buildings, restaurants, offices, shops, the American University of Beirut and its associated hospital.

Earlier, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that three strikes hit the central Nweiri neighbourhood and destroyed a “four-storey building housing displaced people”.

The health ministry said one of those strikes killed seven people and wounded 37 others.

“We were blown away and the walls fell on top of us,” said Rola Jaafar, who lives in the building opposite.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

A ceasefire to end hostilities between Israel and Lebanon will protect Israel from the threat of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah and create the conditions for a “lasting calm”, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

“The announcement today will cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations operating from Lebanon,” the two leaders said in a joint statement.

Earlier, the Israeli government approved the truce with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hailing “many weeks of tireless diplomacy”, Biden and Macron said the deal “will create the conditions to restore lasting calm and allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes” on both sides of the border.

The United States and France will work “to ensure this arrangement is fully implemented, and enforced, and remain determined to prevent this conflict from becoming another cycle of violence”, they added.

Paris and Washington will meanwhile also lead international efforts for “capacity-building” of the Lebanese army, they said.

The two countries will also seek to support economic development throughout Lebanon “to advance stability and prosperity in the region”, the joint statement said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beirut:

Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah are set to implement a ceasefire on Wednesday as part of a U.S.-proposed deal for a 60-day truce to end more than a year of hostilities.

The text of the deal has not been published and Reuters has not seen a draft.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved the deal and it will be put to the whole cabinet for review. Lebanon and Hezbollah have agreed to the proposal and the Lebanese cabinet will meet on Wednesday to formalise its approval.

The deal, negotiated by U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein, is five pages long and includes 13 sections, according to a senior Lebanese political source with direct knowledge of the deal.

Here is a summary of its key provisions.

HALT TO HOSTILITIES

The halt to hostilities is set to begin 12 hours after an anticipated announcement on Tuesday night, with both sides expected to cease fire by Wednesday morning, two senior Lebanese political sources with direct knowledge of the deal said.

One of them said Israel was expected to “stop carrying out any military operations against Lebanese territory, including against civilian and military targets, and Lebanese state institutions, through land, sea and air.”

All armed groups in Lebanon – meaning Hezbollah and its allies – would halt operations against Israel, the source said.

ISRAELI TROOPS WITHDRAW

Two Israeli officials said the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days.

Lebanon had earlier pushed for Israeli troops to withdraw as quickly as possible within the truce period, Lebanese officials told Reuters. They now expect Israeli troops to withdraw within the first month, the senior Lebanese political source said.

HEZBOLLAH PULLS NORTH, LEBANESE ARMY DEPLOYS

Hezbollah fighters will leave their positions in southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border with Israel.

Their withdrawal will not be public, the senior Lebanese political source said. He said the group’s military facilities “will be dismantled” but it was not immediately clear whether the group would take them apart itself, or whether the fighters would take their weapons with them as they withdrew.

The Lebanese army would deploy troops to south of the Litani to have around 5,000 soldiers there, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.

“The deployment is the first challenge – then how to deal with the locals that want to return home,” given the risks of unexploded ordnance, the source said.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, many of them from south Lebanon. Hezbollah sees the return of the displaced to their homes as a priority, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters.

Tens of thousands displaced from northern Israel are also expected to return home.

MONITORING MECHANISM

One of the sticking points in the final days leading to the ceasefire’s conclusion was how it would be monitored, Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters.

A pre-existing tripartite mechanism between the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese army and the Israeli army would be expanded to include the U.S. and France, with the U.S. chairing the group, Bou Saab said.

Israel would be expected to flag possible breaches to the monitoring mechanism, and France and the U.S. together would determine whether a violation had taken place, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Reuters.

UNILATERAL ISRAELI STRIKES

Israeli officials have insisted that the Israeli army would continue to strike Hezbollah if it identified threats to its security, including transfers of weapons and military equipment to the group.

An Israeli official told Reuters that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who negotiated the agreement, had given assurances directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could carry out such strikes on Lebanon.

Netanyahu said in a televised address after the security cabinet met that Israel would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal.

The official said Israel would use drones to monitor movements on the ground in Lebanon.

Lebanese officials say that provision is not in the deal that it agreed, and that it would oppose any violations of its sovereignty.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)