Men carry Hezbollah flags and a picture depicting late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as they drive past damaged buildings at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on November 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah began at 7.30 am IST on Wednesday (Nov. 27, 2024) appeared to be holding under a deal brokered by the U.S. and France. Following the announcement of the truce, people in both countries started returning to homes in the border area shattered by 14 months of fighting.

The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire deal and thanked both the US and France for their efforts.

In the first statement by Hezbollah’s operations centre since the truce was announced, the group made no direct mention of the ceasefire and vowed to continue its resistance.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the ceasefire was “the first ray of hope” in months of Middle East conflict.

The Blue Line was set by the UN in 2000 after the end of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon and now serves as a de facto border between the two countries.

What is UNSC resolution 1701?

The UN Security Council resolution 1701 is the agreement that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 and it stipulates that the only armed groups in the area south of Lebanon’s Litani River should be the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping forces (UN Interim Force in Lebanon – UNIFIL). It also prohibits Israel from encroaching on Lebanese territory by land, sea or air.

Present situation in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s army, entrusted with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it had begun deploying additional troops south of the Litani River into a region heavily bombarded by Israel. The river meets the sea about 30 km (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Israel also struck eastern cities and towns and the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Israeli troops pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon in ground incursions launched in September. Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can remain in Lebanon for 60 days.

Israel-Lebanon conflict

The ceasefire aims to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed at least 3,768 people in Lebanon since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Diplomatic efforts will now turn to shattered Gaza, where Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities. However, there were no hopes of peace returning any time soon to the Palestinian enclave.

(With inputs from Reuters, Graphic News, and AP)