People in Beirut watch on as Netanyahu announced the ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah [Getty/file photo]
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon took effect on Wednesday after more than a year of fighting that has killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon.
The truce, which began at 4:00 am (0200 GMT), should bring to a halt a war that has hundreds of thousands into displacement in the country, and plunged the region into further chaos.
The Israeli army warned soon after the ceasefire began that residents of south Lebanon should not approach Israeli army positions and villages its forces had ordered to be evacuated.
“With the entry into force of the ceasefire agreement and based on its provisions, the IDF remains deployed in its positions inside southern Lebanon,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
“You are prohibited from heading towards the villages that the IDF has ordered to be evacuated or towards IDF forces in the area.”
The war has seen swathes of Lebanon pounded by air strikes, which intensified in September, before Israel invaded Lebanon early last month.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the ceasefire agreement on Tuesday, and pledged to work alongside France to help implement it.
The United States is Israel’s key ally and military backer, and Biden hailed the deal as “good news” and a “new start” for Lebanon.
Netanyahu thanked Biden for his involvement in brokering the deal, and said it would allow Israel to focus on Hamas in Gaza and Iran.
Under the terms of the Lebanon truce, Israel will maintain “full” freedom to act against Hezbollah should the group violate the ceasefire, Netanyahu said.
At least 3,823 people have been killed in the country since exchanges of fire began in October 2023, most of them since September.
The hours before the truce took effect were some of the most violent in the war.
Israel conducted a spate of strikes on the heart of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, while Hezbollah claimed attacks on northern Israel after the truce was announced.
Air strikes also hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Wednesday, according to AFPTV, less than an hour before the truce came into force.
The Israeli army about two hours earlier ordered the evacuation of areas of central Beirut and the southern suburbs of the capital.
Hezbollah did not participate in any direct talks for the truce, with Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri mediating on its behalf.
It has yet to formally comment on the truce.
Ceasefire conditions
The conditions of the ceasefire include complete Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon, with and civilians on both sides being able to return home.
Hezbollah and other armed groups will also leave their positions in southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River, which runs about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border with Israel.
In return, Israel will not carry out any land, air or sea attacks on Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Lebanese army and security forces will be deployed into south Lebanon, and will be the only entities allowed to carry weapons.
Their withdrawal will not be public. 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.
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, Lebanon’s deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab said.
