Quebec Premier François Legault wants Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to get her house in order. Speaking to reporters in Quebec City on Nov. 26, Legault talked about the violent demonstrations […]

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UN peacekeeper (UNIFIL) vehicle drives in Bent Jbeil, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, southern Lebanon, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher

A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after the two sides struck a deal brokered by the US and France, but Israel warned local residents not to return to the border area yet.

The ceasefire agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region wracked by conflict for months, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed Islamist group in years, but Israel is still fighting its other arch foe the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases, and even furniture streamed through the heavily-bombed southern port city of Tyre, heading south where hundreds of thousands of people had been forced to flee their homes by the violence.

However, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson cautioned southern Lebanon residents against moving south of the Litani river from 5 pm local (1500 GMT) to 7 am (0500 GMT), noting that Israeli forces were still present in the area.

Lebanon’s army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it began deploying additional troops south of the Litani, into a region heavily bombarded by Israel in its battle against Hezbollah. The river runs about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel‘s border.

Israel‘s attacks have also struck eastern cities and towns and Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Israeli troops have pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon in a series of ground incursions launched in September.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli forces can remain in Lebanon for 60 days and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border, after four Hezbollah operatives were detained in the area.

The Lebanese army urged returning residents not to approach areas where Israeli forces were present for their own safety.

The ceasefire deal, which is designed to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, is a major achievement for the US in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Diplomatic efforts will now turn to Gaza, where Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities. However, there were no hopes of peace returning any time soon to the Palestinian enclave.

Israel has said its military aim in Lebanon had been to ensure the safe return of nearly 70,000 Israelis who fled from their communities along the northern border when Hezbollah started firing rockets at them almost daily in support of Hamas in Gaza.

In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.

Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed.

Hussam Arrout, a father of four, said he was itching to return to his home.

“The Israelis haven’t withdrawn in full, they’re still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we’ll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village,” he said.

‘PERMANENT CESSATION’

Announcing the ceasefire, Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel‘s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote.

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

Israel will gradually withdraw its forces as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there after a costly war, Biden said.

He said his administration was also pushing for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group “appreciates” Lebanon’s right to reach an agreement which protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US would start its renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday.

Iran reserves the right to react to Israeli airstrikes on Iran last month but also bears in mind other developments in the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

Araghchi told reporters during a trip to Lisbon that Iran welcomed Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement in Lebanon and hoped it could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday Israeli forces fired at several vehicles with suspects to prevent them from reaching a no-go zone in Lebanese territory and the suspects moved away.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to “act firmly and without compromise” should it happen again.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the group would retain the right to defend itself if Israel attacked.

The ceasefire would give the Israeli army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas, said Netanyahu.

“We have pushed them [Hezbollah] decades back. We eliminated [the late Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles,” he said.

The post Israel-Hezbollah Truce Holds After Ceasefire Takes Effect first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Soldier stands guard next to poster with images of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and late senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs in Lebanon, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

A ceasefire deal agreed to by Lebanon and Israel expands the area expected to be free of Hezbollah‘s arms and spells out the Lebanese security forces entitled to carry weapons, sharpening language from prior UN resolutions on the matter in ways that appear to corner the Lebanese terrorist organization, diplomats and analysts said.

The deal, published by Lebanon‘s cabinet on Wednesday, runs to just over five pages of printed text and includes a map of southern Lebanon.

The area to be free of Hezbollah weaponry is delineated by a red line labelled “New 2024 line” that runs east-west across Lebanon.

It starts from a point on the coast about 25 km (15 miles) north of the Israeli border and runs eastward, mostly along the Litani River but then diverging from it north of the town of Yohmor, thus going beyond the area that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 said would be free of non-state arms.

Resolution 1701 ended the last round of conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

The expanded zone includes Beaufort Castle, a Crusader-era fortress considered strategic because it commands a view onto the Israeli border, said retired army brigadier general Hassan Jouni.

The 2006 resolution also said there would be “no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon” deployed across Lebanese territory.

The new ceasefire deal goes further, stipulating that only “official military and security forces” in Lebanon are authorized to carry arms.

It specifically names those forces as the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security, Lebanese customs, and municipal police.

“Naturally it means a seriousness with implementation, so that there is no obscurity around this that could be interpreted in a different way,” said Jouni.

“It serves the interest of the Lebanese state and its official institutions, but it is not to the interest of Hezbollah.”

Officials in both the Beirut government and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which wields enormous political influence in Lebanon, have long referred to cabinet statements since 2008 enshrining the right to “resistance” as de facto official approval for Hezbollah‘s arsenal.

Two Lebanese officials told Reuters they did not find the added language in the new deal cause for concern, and said the most important achievement was a halt to the war.

But diplomats said the wording could give Israel more leverage than after 2006 to prevent Hezbollah from re-arming or redeploying fighters or weapons.

“Lebanon either didn’t have any other option, or they think they can outsmart it,” one diplomat from the region said.

A senior Western diplomat said Israel had such an upper hand, following months of heavy strikes that eliminated much of Hezbollah‘s top leadership and displaced more than 1.2 million people, that it could effectively dictate terms.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah was asked by a reporter on Wednesday about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements that Israel retained military freedom of action and would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal.

Fadlallah said the group would retain the right to defend itself if Israel attacked.

The post Lebanon Truce Expands Area Free of Hezbollah Arms, Sharpens Terms of UN Resolution first appeared on Algemeiner.com.