DaysofPal- A cease-fire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah went into effect hours after US President Joe Biden announced a proposal to end the “devastating” conflict, promising to put an end to nearly 14 months of cross-border fighting that has killed thousands.
The ceasefire began at 4 am on Wednesday, hours after Israel carried out its most intense wave of air strikes in the capital Beirut since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023.
“The fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end, this is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said when announcing the agreement on Tuesday night.
“Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin to rebuild their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses, and their very lives,” Biden said.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese Army and state security forces would deploy to southern Lebanon while Israel would “gradually withdraw” its forces over the course of the following 60 days.
Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly issued a statement in which they emphasized that they “will work with Israel and Lebanon to ensure this arrangement is fully implemented and enforced.”
The ceasefire announced on Tuesday is a major step toward ending nearly 14 months of fighting, during which Israel killed nearly 4,000 people, wounded nearly 16,000, and uprooted over a million in Lebanon, sparked by the ongoing Israeli genocide in besieged Gaza.
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