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Israeli Security Cabinet approves truce with Lebanon

The ceasefire is set to go into effect at 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday and last for sixty days.

By Akiva Van Koningsveld, JNS

The Israeli Security Cabinet voted on Tuesday evening to approve a 60-day truce with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

An unnamed Israeli official told CNN that Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet, which is responsible for defense-related decisions and composed of senior ministers, voted in favor of the agreement with Lebanon.

Earlier on Tuesday, the channel cited an Israeli source familiar with the matter as saying that the prime minister was seeking to bring the deal before the Security Cabinet only, rather than the full Cabinet.

Hebrew media has quoted officials as saying that the potential move would be legally sound, as a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah is considered a security question rather than a political one.

According to the reported terms of the agreement, Israel Defense Forces troops are expected to gradually withdraw from Southern Lebanon over a 60-day “transition period,” while the country’s official Lebanese Armed Forces is deployed to the border region.

Jerusalem has pledged to halt “any offensive military action against targets in Lebanon, including on the ground, in the air and at sea.”

Hezbollah has promised to relocate its “military infrastructure” north of the Litani River, located some 18 miles north of the border with Israel.

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The deal includes an oversight committee, which the United States will lead, to monitor implementation and address potential violations.

The ceasefire is set to go into effect at 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, per NBN, which is part of the Hezbollah-aligned Amal movement.

An unnamed Israeli official likewise told Axios that the truce is expected to take effect on Wednesday morning, after U.S. President Joe Biden announces it on Tuesday night.

As the Israeli Security Cabinet met to approve the deal on Tuesday evening, air-raid sirens were activated across the Galilee and Haifa regions, warning of more rocket and missile fire from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the IDF issued evacuation orders for structures in the Lebanese cities of Tyre and Sidon, announcing that the Israeli military would “soon act against Hezbollah infrastructure located in the area.”

Hassan Fadlallah, a Lebanese lawmaker representing Hezbollah’s March 8 Alliance, told the Reuters wire agency earlier on Tuesday that the terrorist organization would “remain active” after the war ends, including to help rebuild areas destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

A Hezbollah official told Qatar’s Al Jazeera following the Israeli approval that the terror group still needs to “examine the points that Netanyahu agreed to before the [Lebanese] government signs tomorrow.”

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Authorities in northern Israel have canceled public gatherings until Thursday, anticipating a flare-up in violence ahead of the truce.

On Sunday, Hezbollah fired more than 240 projectiles at Israel, marking one of the most intense days of hostilities since the Lebanese terror group joined the war in support of Palestinian Hamas on Oct. 8, 2023.

Lawmakers of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee sent an urgent request to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday afternoon to reveal the terms of the agreement under discussion.

“Following publications about Israel’s intention to sign a deal in the north, we, representatives of the undersigned coalition and opposition parties, demand to summon Defense Minister Israel Katz, to present the principles of the agreement,” the coalition Knesset members Amit Halevi (Likud) and Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism) stated.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a senior member of the Security Cabinet, informed Netanyahu of his four demands for supporting the agreement, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.

The Religious Zionism leader reportedly pressed the premier to call a Cabinet vote on every withdrawal from Lebanon, respond to Lebanese violations of the deal within 48 hours, hold the government in Beirut responsible for any attack from Lebanese territory and ban rebuilding destroyed infrastructure in Southern Lebanon.

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Hezbollah has attacked the Jewish state nearly daily for more than a year, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones across the border.

More than 60,000 residents of Israel’s north remain internally displaced due to the ongoing cross-border attacks from Lebanon. The attacks have killed at least 76 people in Israel, including 31 IDF soldiers and six foreign nationals. More than 700 have been wounded.

Jerusalem has escalated attacks on Hezbollah since adding the return of displaced citizens to northern Israel to its official war goals on Sept. 17.

On Sept. 30, the IDF announced that ground forces had moved to “limited, localized and targeted raids” inside Lebanon. More than 40 IDF troops were killed by Hezbollah terrorists during the two-month-long ground maneuver, according to official military data.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the 2006 Lebanon War but was never enforced, mandated the complete removal of Hezbollah south of the Litani River and banned the presence of armed groups in Lebanon except for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.