Israel approves cease-fire with Hezbollah

Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah reached a cease-fire deal on Tuesday, providing a path to end a war that's killed thousands of people since it was first ignited by the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he was ready to implement a cease-fire deal with Lebanon and would "respond forcefully to any violation" by Hezbollah. The proposal was pending endorsement of the full Cabinet.

"In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action," Netanyahu said. "Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively."

Israeli approval paved the way for a cease-fire declaration by President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, who brokered the deal, in a joint statement. Guns on the Israel-Lebanon border would go silent on Wednesday.

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Fighting is set to cease for 60 days, allowing time for Israel to gradually withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon while Hezbollah moves its forces farther from Israel's border.

The agreement is not expected to have any material impact on the war in Gaza that started 14 months ago.

Biden announced the cease-fire in a speech Tuesday from the White House Rose Garden, calling the deal a reminder that "peace is possible."

Biden said more than 70,000 Israelis and 300,000 Lebanese have been forced to live as refugees in their own countries since the war began. Biden called the conflict "the deadliest" between Israel and Hezbollah in decades.

"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 ? I repeat, will not be allowed ? to threaten the security of Israel again."

Israel launched an offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following months of tit-for-tat border attacks that started when Hezbollah attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.

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Since then, Israel has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health ministry figures. More than 1 million people have been uprooted from their homes. Over the past year Hezbollah has launched thousands of rockets at northern Israel, forcing Israelis who live in communities there to flee south.

"We're determined this conflict will not just be another cycle of violence," Biden said, adding that the people of Gaza, like those in Lebanon, "deserve a future of security and prosperity" and "an end of the fighting and displacement."

Biden is pushing to secure an Israel-Hamas cease-fire before his presidential term ends on Jan. 20 that will bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza, including some Americans.

"Far too many civilians in Gaza have suffered far too much, and Hamas has refused for months and months to negotiate a good-faith cease-fire and a hostage deal," Biden said. "So now Hamas has a choice to make: Their only way out is to release the hostages, including American citizens which they hold, and in the process bring an end to the fighting, which would make possible a surge of humanitarian relief."

Shaking Beirut 'to its core'

As part of its offensive, Israel launched a ground invasion, killed several Hezbollah leaders ? including longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah ? and injured thousands of people in an attack using exploding pagers.

Netanyahu said Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied to Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.

"We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border," he said. "We targeted strategic objectives across Lebanon, shaking Beirut to its core."

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Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded by launching a military campaign to eliminate Hamas. Israel has killed at least 44,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza. Netanyahu disputes the allegation.

Netanyahu said the cease-fire was needed to redirect Israel's focus to its arch-nemesis Iran, to give Israeli forces "a breather" and "to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas."

Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, said the militant group would confirm the deal signed by the Lebanese government matched conditions it had agreed to. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state,” he told Al Jazeera.

The cease-fire agreement will be monitored by a group made up of the United Nations, the Israeli and Lebanese armies, and France and the U.S..

Even as Israel and Hezbollah agreed the cease-fire, Israeli conducted airstrikes on southern Beirut on Tuesday and Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern Israel.

On Monday, 31 people were killed across Lebanon in Israeli strikes, according to figures from Lebanon's health ministry. While the deal was approved by Israel's security Cabinet, several far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government opposed it.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in low-level hostilities for years. The spillover of the Gaza conflict to Lebanon is the largest escalation involving Israel and Hezbollah since 2006, when they last fought a major war.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel, Hezbollah agree to cease-fire in Lebanon