Israel’s security cabinet on Tuesday approved a US-backed cease-fire deal with Hezbollah, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approving the proposal that could soon end nearly 14 months of war in Lebanon.
The historic vote calls for a 60-day pause in the fighting as both the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah terrorists clear out of southern Lebanon, CNN reports.
Netanyahu said in a television address that he backs its approval and will now present the cease-fire to the entire cabinet in Jerusalem for its final stamp of approval.
Netanyahu said the agreement comes after Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership, ranks, infrastructure and hidden bunkers along the border.
The deal would see a five-nation monitoring committee, led by the US, oversee the de-escalation and allow hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Israel and Lebanon to return to their homes after more than a year of daily missile attacks.
The cease-fire deal also includes assurances for Israel to maintain a military presence near the border and retaliate against any future Hezbollah attack.
The agreement calls on the Lebanese army to be proactive in clearing the border of the terrorist group as Hezbollah moves north of the Litani River, hindering its capabilities to conduct daily attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah officials announced last week that they approved of the US-backed deal and were waiting Israel’s response.
However, Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, said the militant group has not yet seen the ceasefire agreement in its final form.
“We want an end to the aggression, of course,” he said — while warning: “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.”
The full terms of the deal have yet to be released, and it remains unclear when exactly it will go into effect.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the end of the fighting in Lebanon would be key to also ending the war in Gaza.
“One of the things that Hamas has sought from day one is to get others in on the fight, to create multiple fronts… and as long as it thought that was possible, that’s one of the reasons it has held back from doing what is necessary to end the conflict,” Blinken said at Tuesday’s G7 meeting in Italy.”
“If it sees that the cavalry is not on the way, that may incentivize it to do what it needs to do to end this conflict.”
Hours before Netanyahu announced the cease-fire agreement, Hezbollah and Israel traded fire across the border, with the IDF hitting more than 180 targets in southern Lebanon.
The IDF touted that the airstrikes hit command centers, weapon depots, and other Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut and other parts of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, fired dozens of rockets at Western Galilee and northern Israel, with additional drone alerts triggered as far south as Haifa.
The fighting has left more than 3,500 dead in Lebanon, according to the country’s ministry of health, which does not differentiate between terrorists and civilians.
In Israel, more than 72 people have been killed by Hezbollah’s attacks, including 30 IDF soldiers and reservists.
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