Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he would recommend his cabinet adopt a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people.
In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would present the ceasefire to cabinet ministers with a vote expected later on Tuesday, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting.
“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” Netanyahu said.
“In full co-ordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively.”
He added that there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire — to focus on Iran, replenish depleted arms supplies and give the army a rest, and finally to isolate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that triggered war in the region when it launched an attack on Israel from Gaza last year.
It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released.
The Israeli airstrikes and evacuation warnings suggested Netanyahu aims to inflict punishment on Hezbollah in the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold. Hezbollah, meanwhile, had resumed its rocket fire into Israel, triggering air raid sirens across the country’s north.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, in support of the Palestinian militant group. That has set off more than a year of fighting and escalated into all-out war in September, with massive Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon and an Israeli ground invasion of the country’s south.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israeli military bases, cities and towns, including some 250 projectiles on Sunday.
It’s not clear how the Lebanon ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, where more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the 13-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
More to come.
