The bombings stopped at 4 a.m. in Lebanon on the night of Tuesday November 26 to Wednesday November 27, to give way to a fragile ceasefire negotiated for weeks between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. Less than an hour before, however, Israeli army missiles were still pounding the positions of the Lebanese Islamist group in the center of Beirut. On the southern border of Lebanon, Benjamin Netanyahu’s army has begun its retreat, but is asking the Lebanese returning to the evacuated areas not to approach its remaining positions. The Lebanese army is gradually regaining possession of its territory, from which 900,000 people have been displaced, according to the authorities.
Information to remember:
⇒ A ceasefire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has come into force
⇒ The Lebanese army calls on displaced people to wait before returning to border villages
⇒ Hamas says it is also “ready” for a truce in Gaza
Ceasefire begins in Lebanon
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah announced last night by Benjamin Netanyahu came into force early this Wednesday, November 27 in Lebanon, after more than a year of cross-border hostilities and two months of open war between the Israeli army. and the armed Lebanese movement supported by Iran. The truce has been valid since 4:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. in France).
At dawn, residents of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa plain began returning to their villages, forming convoys of vehicles, the official Lebanese Ani agency reported. The Israeli army nevertheless warned residents of southern Lebanon not to approach the positions where it remains deployed. “You are prohibited from heading towards villages that the IDF has ordered to evacuate or towards IDF forces in the area,” the army said. The Lebanese army, which announced that it had taken “the necessary measures” to redeploy in the south of the country, also called on citizens “to wait before returning to the villages and towns located on the front in which the forces of the Israeli enemy have penetrated, awaiting their withdrawal.
Hamas also “ready” for a truce in Gaza
A senior Hamas official on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire concluded in Lebanon and affirmed that the Palestinian Islamist movement was also “ready” for a truce with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. “The announcement of the ceasefire in Lebanon is a victory and a major success for the resistance,” this member of the Hamas political bureau declared to AFP, after the entry into force, before dawn, of the truce in Lebanon, where the Israeli army was fighting Hezbollah. “We have informed the mediators in Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that Hamas is ready for a ceasefire agreement and a serious agreement to exchange prisoners,” he added, however accusing Israel of ‘to hinder any agreement.
Benyamin Netanyahu considers that the truce in Lebanon will allow Israel to “intensify” its pressure on Palestinian Hamas, against which it is leading a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip. “When Hezbollah is out of the game, Hamas is left alone in Gaza. Our pressure will intensify, and this will contribute to the sacred mission of freeing our hostages,” he said on television on Tuesday. At least 22 people were killed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to Civil Defense.
The United States welcomes a “new beginning”, Iran “the cessation of Israeli aggression”
American President Joe Biden welcomed the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday, “a new beginning” for Lebanon and “good news” for which the United States and France had been working for weeks. According to Joe Biden, the truce agreement was designed to result in a permanent cessation of hostilities between the two parties. “In the coming days, the United States will again lead an effort with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and other countries to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages and the end of the war without Hamas in power,” Joe Biden said.
The United States and France must ensure that the ceasefire agreement is “implemented in its entirety,” Joe Biden and his counterpart Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement on Tuesday evening. “This agreement must open the way to a long-awaited ceasefire in the face of the incommensurable suffering of the population of Gaza,” noted the French president. “The restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty requires the immediate election of a President of the Republic,” he also declared in a video message on X.
Iran for its part welcomed during the night “the cessation of Israeli aggression” in Lebanon, but “firmly supports the government, the nation and the Lebanese resistance”, indicated Iranian diplomacy in a press release. For its part, Hezbollah did not participate directly in the truce negotiations, instead calling on Parliament head Nabih Berri to negotiate on its behalf, and has not, so far, commented on the agreement.
Final strikes before the break
A few hours before the ceasefire came into force, Israel on Tuesday shelled the center of Beirut and its southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, like never before since the start of their open war. At least two strikes targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut less than an hour before the start of the truce, shortly after calls to evacuate. Tuesday evening, Hezbollah for its part said it had launched drones against “sensitive military targets” in Tel Aviv.
Damascus also announced that six people were killed in Israeli strikes on border crossings between Lebanon and Syria early Wednesday, before the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah came into force. . “The aggression killed six people, including two soldiers” and four civilians, “and injured 12 other individuals including children, women and workers of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent,” Damascus detailed in a statement.