The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to approve a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon this afternoon. However, just hours before the Security Cabinet meeting to vote on the truce, disagreement between the parties over the possibility of Israel has freedom of action resumption of attacks if the agreement is not respected is still on the table.
At 5:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. Spanish time) The Security Cabinet, which brings together Israel’s top ministers and security and intelligence leaders, will meet in Tel Aviv to, according to sources close to the negotiations, “discuss and approve” the deal.
Israeli bombings in Lebanon have caused more than 3,500 dead last year, and displaced 1.2 million people. In Israel, 78 people were killed (including 47 civilians), while some 60,000 people were displaced following the exchange of fire with Hezbollah.
Here are the main points of the agreement, according to leaks in Hebrew media:
1. Disarmament of the South in 60 days
– Israel and Hezbollah reportedly agreed to a disarmament of southern Lebanon in a first phase of 60 days, during which Israeli troops will withdraw and Hezbollah will withdraw north of the Litani River, comply with the withdrawal of armed personnel from the Blue Line stipulated by UN Security Council Resolution 1701, established after the 2006 war.
– The Lebanese army will instead deploy thousands of soldiers in the emptied area. The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom collect this American troops under the command of US Central Command (Centcom) will supervise and coordinate relations between the Israeli and Lebanese armed forces during the first days of the agreement.
– The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, FINALwill assist in cleaning the area. Its peacekeepers were injured during several incidents with Israeli troops, although the last four, Italians, were slightly injured on November 22 by the impact of a rocket attributed by Israel to Hezbollah.
– THE French troops will also be involved in this work monitoring.
2. International supervisory body
– The agreement also envisages the creation of an international organization, led by the United States, monitor compliance with the ceasefire, in which four other countries will also be involved, United Kingdom, Germany, Franceand predictably a fifth Arab country.
– Israel opposed France’s presence in the group, following tensions between the two countries after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, suggested in October an arms embargo against Israel to force it into a truce that would also cover Gaza.
– He Channel 12 Israeli television assures that the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, He imposed on Israel the presence of France in the group as a condition of the agreement.
– Lebanon opposed the United Kingdom, even if the Israeli concession to the French presence facilitated its agreement.
3. Israel’s right to resume its attacks
– Israel demands freedom to attack Lebanon again if the agreement is not respected in three cases: the rearmament of Hezbollah, the preparation of an attack against Israeli territory or the return of militiamen from the pro-Iranian group to the south of the country.
– Israeli media suggests that the army can attack if there is an immediate threat to Israel, while in the rest of the cases the international committee will be responsible for acting accordingly.
– Concerning rearmament, Israel intended to be able to attack Lebanon again if the conflict continued. Iran sends weapons to Hezbollah via Syria. According to the Channel 12the United States is putting pressure on the Jewish state to carry out its attacks in this direction on Syrian territory.
– Lebanon undertakes to supervise the purchase and manufacture of weaponss in the country so that they do not reach the Shiite group.
– The leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qasemassured that guaranteeing Israel “freedom of action” represents a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and that the group will only accept an agreement that represents a “complete and exhaustive” end to the war.
4. Negotiate the border
– At the end of the period of 60 days of disarmamentIsrael and Lebanon will negotiate border demarcation between the two countries, since there currently exists a demarcation line, the Blue Line, established by the UN after the 2006 war.
– Israel assures that it does not intend to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, but He will not return Hezbollah prisoners either taken during the conflict in Lebanon.
– The parties, also with the mediation of the American Amos Hochstein, have already reached an agreement in 2022 to demarcate their maritime border and share gas deposits in Mediterranean waters.
