Israel and Hezbollah have agreed a highly anticipated ceasefire to the 14-month-old war in Lebanon in what Joe Biden called a “historic” moment as he announced the deal from the White House.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had endorsed an imminent ceasefire in the country’s war with the Lebanese group after his full cabinet approved the deal on Tuesday evening despite opposition from his far-right allies.
In televised remarks after the Israeli security cabinet met to vote on the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, Netanyahu said he was ready to implement the deal, but added that Israel would retain “complete military freedom of action” in the event of an infringement by Hezbollah.
“We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” Netanyahu said.
In remarks from the White House Rose Garden, Biden said: “Under the deal reached today, effective at 4am tomorrow, local time, the fighting across the Lebanese Israeli border will end.”.
“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed, I emphasize, will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again,” he said.
“Today’s announcement is a critical step… and so I applaud the courageous decision made by the leaders of Lebanon and Israel to end the violence,” he continued. “It reminds us that peace is possible. Say that again, peace is possible.”
Biden said that US troops would not be committed to the border between Israel and Lebanon, but that “we, along with France and others, will provide the necessary assistance to make sure this deal is implemented fully and effectively.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the deal, which he said was “the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States”.
In a statement posted online, Macron said the deal should “turn the page for Lebanon” but cautioned: “We must not forget that war continues to plague Gaza, where France will continue its efforts for an end of hostilities, the liberation of hostages and massive delivery of humanitarian aid.”
He added: “This accord should also open the way for a ceasefire which has taken too long to arrive in the face of the immeasurable suffering of the people of Gaza.”
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying: “We must seize this moment. It must be a turning point that builds momentum towards a lasting peace across the Middle East.”
Even as the deal was set to be announced, Israel stepped up its campaign of airstrikes against the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other areas of the country, killing 18 people according to the country’s health authorities.
The deal follows months of international lobbying from the Biden administration, which had launched desperate efforts to halt the fighting but regularly came up short after promising that a deal was imminent.
The US is expected to be a key security guarantor of the deal. The signing of a ceasefire comes with less than two months left in the lame duck Biden administration, meaning that the president-elect, Donald Trump, could continue to support or upend the deal when he enters office on 20 January.
A senior White House administration official confirmed that Trump’s national security team had been briefed on the plans for the ceasefire and said that the president-elect’s administration was expected to maintain support for it.
“They seem to be support it,” the administration official said. “And for the obvious reason that I think they agreed this is good for Israel, as prime minister Netanyahu just said, it is good for Lebanon, as their government has said, and it is good for the national security of the United States. And most important, doing it now versus later, we’ll save countless lives on both sides.”
Netanyahu said that there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire: to focus on the threat from Iran; replenish depleted arms supplies and rest tired reservists; and to isolate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that triggered war in the region when it attacked Israel on 7 October last year.
Importantly for Israel, Hezbollah dropped its demand that a ceasefire in Lebanon was contingent on ending the fighting in Gaza.
Netanyahu noted what he said was the group’s weakness after 13 months of fighting, saying: “We have set [Hezbollah] back decades, eliminated … its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralised thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border.”
The deal is expected to go into force at 0200GMT Wednesday. Biden administration officials said that negotiations had continued as late as Monday evening and that while the discussions were “very constructive”, that “nothing is done until everything is done. Nothing’s all negotiated till everything is negotiated.”
Israeli television reported that the security cabinet had approved the proposal and that it would be put to the wider cabinet later on Tuesday evening. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, is also expected to give a statement later on Tuesday.
The far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on social media that he opposed the agreement, calling it a “historical mistake”. He said Israel “must not trust anyone but ourselves” and predicted that it would soon lead to renewed fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But he did not threaten to withdraw from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, indicating that the Israeli prime minister may be able to contain any discontent on the right wing of his ruling coalition.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its ally, Hamas, the day after the Palestinian group attacked Israel, triggering the regional conflagration.
The conflict on the blue line – a demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel – escalated in late September, when hundreds of Hezbollah pagers exploded in an attack attributed to Israel. Israel then killed much of Hezbollah’s leadership in airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Under the deal’s terms, Israel will withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah will move its heavy weaponry north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the border.
“We don’t mean that at the end of the 60 days, the Israeli troops will withdraw, but rather, by the time we reach somewhere in the 50 to 60 days, all Israeli troops will be gone,” said the administration official. “So it will be a phased withdrawal in different sectors where the Israelis are.”
During the 60-day transition phase, the Lebanese army will deploy to the buffer border zone alongside the existing UN peacekeeping force. Longstanding border disputes will be discussed after the 60-day withdrawal period.
The process will be monitored by a US-led supervisory mechanism that will act as a referee on infringements. A letter of assurance that was not formally part of the deal reportedly guarantees US support for Israeli freedom of action if Hezbollah attacks Israel again or moves its forces or weaponry south of the Litani.
The agreement follows the contours of UN security council resolution 1701, which ended the 36-day Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 but was never fully implemented.
The deal will not have any direct effect on the fighting in Gaza, where US efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have not led to a deal. The negotiations over Tuesday’s ceasefire were reportedly facilitated by a decision to decouple them from the Gaza talks, where the conflict remains intractable.
But asked about whether a Gaza ceasefire deal may follow, Biden said: “I think so. I hope so. I’m praying.”
