(Bloomberg) -- A cease-fire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah started early Wednesday, after the sides reached a deal following weeks of US-mediated talks.
The development is a first step toward ending a conflict that’s killed thousands of people and forced more than a million to flee their homes. The US hopes it calms the Middle East and paves the way toward fresh peace initiatives for the Gaza Strip, where conflict between Israel and Hamas continues to rage.
The 60-day truce began at 4 a.m. local time and there were no reports of early violations. There were some celebrations in Beirut, Lebanon’s heavily-bombed capital, and many civilians left for the south of the country, the epicenter of a conflict that began around 14 months ago and escalated in September when Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati and US President Joe Biden all made announcements late on Tuesday that a deal had been reached.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed organization that’s one of the most powerful militias in the world, and Israel continued to attack each other in the hours before the agreement. Israel launched multiple strikes on Beirut, including in central areas that had previously been left alone, and Hezbollah fired drones and missiles at Israeli territory.
Biden, speaking at the White House, said the truce would “end the devastating conflict.” The US, along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, he said, would make a new push for a cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, another Iran-backed militant group.
Hezbollah agreed to a US-drafted agreement days ago and a deal was clinched when Israel’s security cabinet approved it after a meeting that began around 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
Oil and gold prices have fallen this week on optimism about a cease-fire, with investors predicting it will ease geopolitical tensions, including these between Israel and Iran, a major energy producer. The Israeli shekel has strengthened and prices for the government’s credit-default swaps, which some bond traders buy as insurance against a default, have dropped.
Netanyahu, in the face of opposition from some Israeli politicians who wanted to continue the campaign and crush Hezbollah, urged colleagues to accept the cease-fire. That would enable Israel, he said, to focus on the threat from Iran itself. He also alluded to the strain of sustaining a war that involved Israel sending ground troops into southern Lebanon in late September and bombing large areas of the country.
“The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks,” Netanyahu said.
He vowed that Hezbollah, ideologically opposed to Israel’s existence, would not be able to regroup and that Israel would respond forcefully to any violation of the truce.
“With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action,” Netanyahu said.
The warring sides will now start negotiations for a permanent peace. Those will probably include complicated issues such as the demarcation of the Israel-Lebanon border and whether Hezbollah, which is also a political party, can maintain its military forces.
The truce came after one of Biden’s main Middle East envoys, Amos Hochstein, shuttled between Israel and Lebanon in an effort to end the conflict before Donald Trump takes over the White House in January. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organizations by the US and many other countries.
While the agreement drew objections from some hardline nationalists in Israel, Biden cast it as a step toward a more lasting peace in the region. Along with the effort to bring the conflict with Hamas to an end, he said the US also wanted to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia and establish a “credible pathway” to a Palestinian state.
“I believe this agenda remains possible, and in my remaining time in office I’ll work tirelessly to advance this vision for an integrated, secure, and prosperous region, all of which strengthens America’s national security,” Biden said in a speech in the Rose Garden.
Still, there’s little appetite within Israel for a two-state solution. Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, is against the idea, with some members saying Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023 proves an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank would threaten Israel’s security.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage when they raided southern Israeli communities and a musical festival from Gaza. It was the worst day for Israel, in terms of deaths, since its creation as a state in 1948.
Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza has reduced much of it to rubble and killed around 44,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the Palestinian territory. The United Nations has said many of the 2 million people in Gaza are facing starvation and that law and order has broken down, making it difficult for aid groups to distribute food and medicine.
Hezbollah started attacking Israel with drones and missiles on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas’ incursion. Israel retaliated by striking Hezbollah’s positions, mostly in southern Lebanon. The conflict was largely contained until September when Israel stepped up attacks on Hezbollah and assassinated most of its senior figures, including long-standing leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Around 3,100 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes and the ground offensive in the past two months, while 1.2 million — more than a fifth of the population — have been displaced. About 50 Israeli troops have been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, while many civilians have died from Hezbollah fire.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from each side of the Israel-Lebanon border. Netanyahu has made enabling the return of northern Israelis to their homes a priority, something which drove his government to escalate operations against Hezbollah.
As part of the cease-fire, Hezbollah is meant to remove its fighters and weapons from the border region in southern Lebanon, with UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese military patrolling the area to ensure they don’t return. Hezbollah forces are supposed to move north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border.
That was the requirement of a UN resolution, known as 1701, that ended a 2006 war between the two sides.
One key obstacle to a cease-fire was Israel’s insistence on being able to continue striking Hezbollah positions if it thought the group was breaching the terms of any agreement.
Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, said his government was committed to ensuring that won’t happen. It will, he said, strengthen the presence of the Lebanese army — which is separate from Hezbollah — in the south.
Netanyahu warned that the duration of the truce depends on developments in Lebanon. “If Hezbollah chooses to re-arm, we’ll attack,” he said.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the accord, saying it was “a serious mistake.”
“A cease-fire at this stage will not return the residents of the north to their homes, will not deter Hezbollah and in fact will miss a historic opportunity to strike them hard and bring them to their knees,” he said.
About 3,100 people have been killed in Lebanon by the Israeli strikes and ground offensive in the past two months, and 1.2 million — more than a fifth of the population — have been displaced.
“The deal to end the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel is an important outcome but won’t easily translate into a deal to end the war in Gaza or quell broader tensions in the region because each of these conflicts have taken on a life of their own,” said Brian Katulis, a former US official now at the Middle East Institute. “It’s good news to see the fighting come to an end but the core regional tensions remain high.”
--With assistance from Dan Williams, Kateryna Kadabashy and Youssef Diab.
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