JERUSALEM- The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahuannounced this Tuesday that his security cabinet will agree “tonight” on a ceasefire to end the clashes with the movement Hezbollah, after two months of open war in Lebanon.
USAthe European Union, the United Nations and the G7 have been pressing for days for a ceasefire between Israel and the powerful Lebanese formation, armed and backed by Iran.
“This afternoon I will present to the cabinet for approval a draft ceasefire in Lebanon. The duration of the ceasefire depends on what happens in Lebanon,” Netanyahu declared on television.
Israel, however, maintains, “in full agreement with the United States,” “complete freedom of action” in Lebanon and will respond if Hezbollah violates the agreement, he added.
A truce in Lebanon will allow Israel to “focus on the Iranian threat,” continued the leader, after meeting with the ministers that make up the country’s security cabinet.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nayib Mikati urged the international community to “act quickly” to “immediately implement” the ceasefire, after a day of violent Israeli bombing in Beirut, the capital.
A commercial district in the city center was bombed after Netanyahu’s announcement and Israel calling on residents to evacuate the area, an AFP cameraman said.
Israel began a bombing campaign against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on September 23 and launched a ground operation in the south of the country a week later.
The declared objective of the Hebrew State is to allow the return of the 60,000 displaced from northern Israel by the incessant exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel will intensify “pressure” on this Palestinian Islamist movement, Netanyahu announced after reporting the ceasefire in Lebanon.
The president will have to convince his far-right allies. His Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, considered on Monday that a ceasefire would be a “big mistake.”
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, had said shortly before that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah should help end the conflict in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. .
“Truce”
According to the American website Axios, the agreement is based on a US project that provides for a 60-day truce. During that time, Hezbollah and the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon to allow Lebanese troops to deploy to the area.
According to Axios, the United States would have given guarantees about its support for Israeli military actions in the event of hostile acts by Hezbollah.
The mediation is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and which stipulates that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers can be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon.
The Israeli army claimed that more than 20 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at Israel on Tuesday.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, nearly 3,800 people have died in the country since October 2023. The hostilities also displaced nearly 900,000 people, according to the UN. On the Israeli side, 47 civilians and 82 soldiers died in 13 months.
Bombings leave 22 dead in Gaza
The Israeli army continues its attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, where at least 22 people were killed on Tuesday, according to the Civil Defense.
With the arrival of winter, thousands of displaced people try to protect themselves from the rain with negligible means.
“We try everything we can to prevent rainwater from seeping into the tents so that the children don’t get soaked,” said Ayman Siam, father of a refugee family in Gaza City, in the north of the territory.
The war broke out after the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,207 people, mostly civilians, data based on official figures, including hostages killed or in captivity.
The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation in Gaza has left at least 44,249 dead, according to data from the territory’s Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
