A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah came into effect at 0200 GMT (7:30 AM Indian time) on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France. Bursts of gunfire could be heard across Beirut after the ceasefire took effect. It was not immediately clear if the shooting was celebratory, as gunfire had also been used to alert residents who may have missed evacuation warnings issued by Israel’s military. This triggered a wild speculation: "Israel has ended the ongoing war?"
What are the key elements of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire? Here is a summary of its key provisions.
The agreement, negotiated by US mediator Amos Hochstein, is five pages long and includes 13 sections, according to a senior Lebanese political source with direct knowledge of the matter. The ceasefire promises to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year.
Halt to hostilities
The halt to hostilities is set to begin at 4 am local time (0200 GMT) on Wednesday, Biden announced, with both sides expected to cease fire by Wednesday morning.
The senior Lebanese source said Israel was expected to "stop carrying out any military operations against Lebanese territory, including against civilian and military targets, and Lebanese state institutions, through land, sea and air." All armed groups in Lebanon - meaning Hezbollah and its allies - would halt operations against Israel, the source told news agency Reuters.
Israeli troops withdraw
Two Israeli officials said the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days. Biden said the troops would gradually pull out and civilians on both sides would be able to return home. Lebanon had earlier pushed for Israeli troops to withdraw as quickly as possible within the truce period, Lebanese officials told Reuters. They now expect Israeli troops to withdraw within the first month, the senior Lebanese political source said. A Lebanese official told Reuters the deal included language that preserved both Lebanon's and Israel's rights to self-defence.
Hezbollah pulls North, Lebanese Army deploys
Hezbollah fighters will leave their positions in southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometres north of the border with Israel. Their withdrawal will not be public, the senior Lebanese political source said. He said the group's military facilities "will be dismantled" but it was not immediately clear whether the group would take them apart itself, or whether the fighters would take their weapons with them as they withdrew.
The Lebanese army would deploy troops to south of the Litani to have around 5,000 soldiers there, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel, a Lebanese security source told Reuters. "The deployment is the first challenge - then how to deal with the locals that want to return home," given the risks of unexploded ordnance, the source said.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, many of them from south Lebanon. Hezbollah sees the return of the displaced to their homes as a priority, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters. Tens of thousands displaced from northern Israel are also expected to return home.
Monitoring mechanism
One of the sticking points in the final days leading to the ceasefire's conclusion was how it would be monitored, Lebanon's deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters. A pre-existing tripartite mechanism between the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese army and the Israeli army would be expanded to include the US and France, with the US chairing the group, Bou Saab said.
Israel would be expected to flag possible breaches to the monitoring mechanism, and France and the US together would determine whether a violation had taken place, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A joint statement by Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said France and the US would work together to ensure the deal is applied fully.
Israel can strike Lebanon if...
Israeli officials have insisted that the Israeli army would continue to strike Hezbollah if it identified threats to its security, including transfers of weapons and military equipment to the group. An Israeli official told Reuters that US envoy Amos Hochstein, who negotiated the agreement, had given assurances directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could carry out such strikes on Lebanon.
Netanyahu said in a televised address after the security cabinet met that Israel would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal. The official said Israel would use drones to monitor movements on the ground in Lebanon. Lebanese officials say that provision is not in the deal that it agreed, and that it would oppose any violations of its sovereignty.
(With inputs from agency)
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