While the deal has not yet been officially announced, it is believed that the 60-day cessation of hostilities aims to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, with the hope that it could form the basis of a lasting truce. <\/p>\n
Resolution 1701 was adopted to end a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, and had kept relative calm in the area for nearly two decades. That lasted until the day after Hamas\u2019 October 7 attack on Israel last year, when Hezbollah attacked in solidarity, beginning more than a year of conflict. <\/p>\n
The resolution stipulated that Israel must withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon, and that the only armed groups present south of the Litani river should be the Lebanese military and UN peacekeeping forces. <\/p>\n
In a symbolic milestone earlier Tuesday, Israeli soldiers reached the Litani river for the first time the military began ground operations in Lebanon in September. <\/p>\n
In the hours before the vote, Israel drastically stepped up its strikes on Beirut, targeting central areas of the city \u2013 not just its Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs \u2013 for the first time in the conflict. At least 10 people were killed in the strikes on central Beirut, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. <\/p>\n
In a pre-recorded televised address Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah was \u201cno longer the same\u201d after Israel\u2019s offensive, and gave three reasons why he is now pursuing a ceasefire. <\/p>\n
First, to allow Israel to \u201cfocus on the Iranian threat,\u201d Netanyahu said. Second, to replenish the country\u2019s military forces and equipment, which he said had been depleted in part by \u201cbig delays\u201d in the supply of weapons and munitions. And third, to leave Hamas isolated in Gaza, without Hezbollah able to fight alongside it, he said. <\/p>\n
Although the deal represents a significant breakthrough \u2013 after months of negotiations that a US State Department spokesperson described as \u201cincredibly frustrating\u201d \u2013 it is not yet clear whether the deal will lead to a lasting peace. <\/p>\n
Before the vote, the deal was met with fury from the more extreme wing of Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, and trepidation from residents of northern Israel, many of whom have been displaced by the conflict, along with residents of southern Lebanon across the border. <\/p>\n
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday called the deal a \u201chistoric mistake\u201d that failed to achieve the war\u2019s main goal of returning displaced Israelis to their homes in the north. Ben Gvir has also long worked to thwart potential ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Mayors of Israel\u2019s northernmost communities were outraged by reports that Netanyahu\u2019s government was set to approve the deal, with one calling it a \u201csurrender agreement\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace on a historic scale.\u201d <\/p>\n
Avihay Shtern, the mayor the Kiryat Shmona \u2013 where Hezbollah fire has forced residents out of their homes \u2013 urged Israeli leaders to \u201cstop and think about the children of Kiryat Shmona\u201d before approving the ceasefire deal. <\/p>\n
In his address, Netanyahu stressed that Israel will respond \u201cforcefully\u201d if Hezbollah violates the agreement and attempts to rearm. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack,\u201d Netanyahu said in a fiery speech. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional developments.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While the deal has not yet been officially announced, it is believed that the 60-day cessation of hostilities aims to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, with the hope that it could form the basis of a lasting truce. Resolution 1701 was adopted to end a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}