A ceasefire deal to end 13 months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has taken effect.
The US and France said the agreement would “cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations operating from Lebanon”.
This resolution follows intense negotiations led by the United States and France, who have emphasized the importance of stabilizing the region.
According to their joint statement, the agreement is designed to halt hostilities in Lebanon while providing Israel with enhanced security against threats posed by Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations that operate within Lebanese territory.
The deal is seen as a significant step toward restoring peace and preventing further escalation in the already volatile area.
However, Hezbollah claimed that it has achieved a significant victory against Israel, citing tactical successes on the battlefield and bolstered morale among its ranks.
The group claims that its operations have successfully countered Israeli military actions and assert dominance in specific engagements, framing this as a significant accomplishment in the ongoing conflict.
Hezbollah had set one task for itself when it launched rockets at Israel on 8 October 2023: force a ceasefire in Gaza. On Wednesday, after more than 13 months of fighting, Hezbollah stopped firing rockets and signed its own ceasefire with Israel – and Israel’s campaign in Gaza raged on.
When Hezbollah entered the fray last year, alarm bells began to ring across the region. The largest militia in the world boasted of 100,000 battle-hardened fighters, and western thinktanks estimated it had an arsenal of 150,000 rockets pointed at Tel Aviv.
In his first televised appearance after starting a war with Israel, Nasrallah explained that he had opened a “support front” to put pressure on Israel and draw its resources away from Gaza. He spoke of an equation which was to govern the tit-for-tat fighting that Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in for the better part of a year. A missile for a missile, a fighter for a fighter.
From the start, the proportions of Nasrallah’s equations seemed tipped against him. Tallies showed that for every rocket Hezbollah lobbed over the border, Israel responded with four strikes. The number of dead Hezbollah fighters climbed into the hundreds, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed remained at a dozen.
Still, he seemed to be in control. The world watched as Hezbollah slowly unveiled a new arsenal of weaponry it had been building since 2006, including drones that evaded Israel’s famous Iron Dome missile defence system, and an anti-aircraft missile that forced an Israeli jet to retreat. This was only “10%” of Hezbollah’s capabilities, Nasrallah promised.
