Joe Biden Announces Ceasefire Deal to End Fighting Between Israel and Hezbollah

Israel and Hezbollah agreed on a highly awaited ceasefire to the 14-month-old war in Lebanon as Joe Biden described it as an "historic" moment as he announced the deal from the White House.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has backed an imminent ceasefire in his country's war with the Lebanese group after his full cabinet approved the deal on Tuesday evening despite opposition from far-right allies.

Speaking live on television after the Israeli security cabinet voted on the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, Netanyahu said he was ready to implement the deal but added that Israel would retain "complete military freedom of action" in the event of an infringement by Hezbollah.
"We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory," Netanyahu said.

In remarks from the White House Rose Garden, Biden said: "Under the deal reached today, effective at 4am tomorrow, local time, the fighting across the Lebanese Israeli border will end.".

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

"Today's announcement is a critical step… and so I applaud the courageous decision made by the leaders of Lebanon and Israel to end the violence," he continued. "It reminds us that peace is possible. Say that again, peace is possible."

Biden said that US troops would not be committed to the border between Israel and Lebanon, but that "we, along with France and others, will provide the necessary assistance to make sure this deal is implemented fully and effectively.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the deal, terming it "the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States.".

In a statement posted online, Macron said the deal should "turn the page for Lebanon" but cautioned: "We must not forget that war continues to plague Gaza, where France will continue its efforts for an end of hostilities, the liberation of hostages and massive delivery of humanitarian aid."

He added: "This agreement should also pave the way for a ceasefire that has been too long in coming to stand before the immeasurable suffering of the people of Gaza."

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying: "We must seize this moment. It must be a turning point that builds momentum towards a lasting peace across the Middle East."

Even as the deal was to be announced, Israel intensified its airstrikes campaign against the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other parts of the country, killing 18 people according to the country's health authorities.

The deal comes after months of international lobbying from the Biden administration, which had launched desperate efforts to halt the fighting but regularly came up short after promising that a deal was imminent.

The US is likely to be one of the key security guarantors of the deal. The signing of a ceasefire comes with less than two months left in the lame duck Biden administration, meaning that the president-elect, Donald Trump, could continue to support or upend the deal when he enters office on 20 January.

A senior White House administration official confirmed that Trump's national security team had been briefed on the plans for the ceasefire and said that the president-elect's administration was expected to maintain support for it.

"They seem to be supporting it," the administration official said. "And for the obvious reason that I think they agreed this is good for Israel, as prime minister Netanyahu just said, it is good for Lebanon, as their government has said, and it is good for the national security of the United States. And most important, doing it now versus later, we'll save countless lives on both sides."

Netanyahu said there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire: to focus on the threat from Iran; replenish depleted arms supplies and rest tired reservists; and to isolate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that triggered war in the region when it attacked Israel on 7 October last year.
For Israel, Hezbollah dropped its demand that a ceasefire in Lebanon was contingent on ending the fighting in Gaza.

According to Netanyahu, as a weakness of the group after 13 months into fighting, "We have set [Hezbollah] back decades, eliminated … its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralised thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border.

The agreement is set to take effect at 0200GMT Wednesday. Biden administration officials said negotiations continued as late as Monday evening and while the talks were "very constructive," that "nothing is done until everything is done. Nothing's all negotiated till everything is negotiated."

But he refused to threaten to pull out from Netanyahu's ruling coalition, suggesting the Israeli prime minister may be able to keep any discontent on his ruling coalition's right wing under control.

Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in an attempt to bolster its client Hamas, which had launched its surprise attack against Israel one day earlier, igniting the regional firestorm.

The conflict on the blue line – a demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel – escalated in late September, when hundreds of Hezbollah pagers exploded in an attack attributed to Israel. Israel then killed much of Hezbollah's leadership in airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Under the terms of the deal, Israel will totally withdraw from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah will redeploy its heavy arms north of the Litani River, some 16 miles (25km) north of the border.

"We don't mean that at the end of the 60 days, the Israeli troops will withdraw, but rather, by the time we reach somewhere in the 50 to 60 days, all Israeli troops will be gone," said the administration official. "So it will be a phased withdrawal in different sectors where the Israelis are."

The Lebanese army will be deployed in the buffer border zone along with the existing UN peacekeeping force during the 60-day transition phase. After the 60-day withdrawal period, border disputes that have long been in existence will be discussed.

The process will be overseen by a US-led supervisory mechanism acting as a referee on breaches. A letter of assurance apparently not part of the agreed deal reportedly ensures US cover for Israeli freedom of action if Hezbollah attacks Israel again or moves its forces or weaponry south of the Litani.

The agreement takes the contours of UN security council resolution 1701 that ended the 36-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, but was never fully implemented.

The deal will not have any direct impact on the fighting in Gaza, where US efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have not led to a deal. The negotiations over Tuesday's ceasefire were reportedly facilitated by a decision to decouple them from the Gaza talks, where the conflict remains intractable.

But asked about whether a Gaza ceasefire deal may follow, Biden said: “I think so. I hope so. I’m praying.”