Israel and Hezbollah agree to a ceasefire in the early hours, and people in Lebanon go back to the south

Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire on Wednesday after both sides agreed to it. This was a rare diplomatic win in the Middle East, which has been in two wars for over a year.

The army of Lebanon, which is in charge of keeping the ceasefire in place, said it was getting ready to move to the south of the country, which Israel heavily bombed in its fight against the Iran-backed militant group, as well as to cities and towns in the east and Hezbollah strongholds in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The military asked people in border towns to wait to go home until the Israeli military leaves. The Israeli military has been at war with Hezbollah several times and has pushed into Lebanon about 6 km (4 miles).

Israel said it had seen Hezbollah members coming back to places close to the border and had fired at them to stop them from getting closer. There were no signs that the event would make the truce less effective.

The deal will end a conflict between Israel and Lebanon that started with the Gaza war last year and has killed thousands of people. It is a major victory for the United States in the last days of President Joe Biden’s term.

While the plan is still being worked out, Israel will likely be able to focus more on the conflict in Gaza. Israel has promised to destroy its longtime enemy, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which led the attacks on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023.

“Strikes must be replaced with talks and deals.” “This has been done in Lebanon, and it needs to be done as soon as possible in the Gaza Strip,” said Jean-Noel Barrot, the foreign minister of France, on France Info radio.

Samir Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, told Reuters that his group “appreciates” Lebanon’s right to find a solution that protects its people and hopes that the Gaza war can stop.

Najib Mikati, who is acting as Prime Minister of Lebanon, asked Israel to fully commit and “withdraw from all the regions and positions it occupied” just hours after Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire.

Along the southern port city of Tyre, which was heavily bombed in the days before the ceasefire, cars and vans full of beds, suitcases, and even furniture poured through. Since the fighting got worse two months ago, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese had to leave their homes.

Israel has said that its military goal was to make sure the safe return of about 60,000 Israelis who had to leave their homes along the northern border when Hezbollah began firing rockets at them to back Hamas in Gaza.

As people began to return to their homes in Lebanon after fleeing, some cars flew national flags and others honked. One woman could be seen making the success sign with her fingers.

It’s possible that many of the villages the people were going back to have been destroyed.

Hussam Arrout, a father of four who said he had to leave the southern suburbs of Beirut because he was fired and was originally from the village of Mays al-Jabal on the southern border. He said he couldn’t wait to go back to his family home.

“Israelis haven’t fully pulled back; they’re still on the edge.” We chose to wait until the army told us it was safe to go in. “After that, we’ll start the cars right away and go to the village,” he said.

“PERMANENT CEASE”

Biden announced the end of the fighting at the White House on Tuesday, not long after Israel’s security cabinet voted 10-1 in favor of the deal.

“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” he said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.”

Biden said that Israel will slowly pull back its troops over the course of 60 days while Lebanon’s army takes control of land close to Israel’s border. This is to stop Hezbollah from rebuilding its infrastructure there after an expensive war.

He also said that his government was trying to get a calm in Gaza, which was hard to get, and that it was possible for relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel to get back to normal.

Egypt and Qatar, along with the US, have tried and failed to help bring about a ceasefire in Gaza. They were happy about the peace in Lebanon. The foreign ministry of Qatar said on Wednesday that they hoped it would lead to a similar deal to end the war in Gaza.

As well as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthi rebels who struck Israel from Yemen, Iran said it was glad for the ceasefire.

However, Hezbollah hasn’t officially said anything about the ceasefire. However, a senior official named Hassan Fadlallah told Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV that the group backed the expansion of the Lebanese government’s power and that they would be stronger after the war.

Israel has given Hezbollah a number of blows, most notably by killing its veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that they fired at several cars carrying suspects to stop them from getting to a no-go zone in Lebanon. The suspects then left the area.

Jerusalem Katz, the defense minister, said that he told the soldiers to “act firmly and without compromise” if it happened again.

Netanyahu said that the ceasefire would let Israel focus on the danger from Iran, give the army a chance to rest and restock, and keep Hamas out of the picture.

He also said that Hezbollah was a lot weaker than it had been at the start of the war.

“We pushed them back decades.” Nasrallah, the axis of the axis, was taken out. Some of the group’s top leaders were killed, and most of their rockets and missiles were destroyed, Netanyahu said.