What we know about the US-brokered truce ending Israel-Hezbollah fighting

BEIRUT: Israel and Hezbollah implemented a ceasefire on Wednesday (Nov 27) as part of a United States-proposed deal for a 60-day truce to end more than a year of hostilities. 

The text of the deal has not been published. US President Joe Biden announced the deal, saying it was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the deal, which Hezbollah approved last week.

The deal, negotiated by US mediator Amos Hochstein, is five pages long and includes 13 sections, according to a senior Lebanese political source with direct knowledge of the deal.

Here's what we know about the deal.  

HALT TO HOSTILITIES

The ceasefire went into effect at 4am local time on Wednesday in Israel and Lebanon (2am GMT), at which point "all fire will stop from all parties", said a senior US official with knowledge of the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to a senior Lebanese political source with direct knowledge of the deal, Israel was expected to "stop carrying out any military operations against Lebanese territory, including against civilian and military targets, and Lebanese state institutions, through land, sea and air". 

All armed groups in Lebanon - meaning Hezbollah and its allies - would halt operations against Israel, the source said. 

ISRAELI TROOPS WITHDRAW

Two Israeli officials said the Israeli military would withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days. 

Lebanon had earlier pushed for Israeli troops to withdraw as quickly as possible within the truce period, Lebanese officials told Reuters.

They now expect Israeli troops to withdraw within the first month, the senior Lebanese political source said.

HEZBOLLAH PULLS NORTH, LEBANESE ARMY DEPLOYS

Hezbollah must also withdraw from the southern border with Israel and move further north up the Litani River - something it has not done despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for it in 2006 (UN Resolution 1701).

Their withdrawal will not be public, the senior Lebanese political source said. He said 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.

"Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt," emphasised Biden in comments explaining the deal.

The Lebanese army would deploy troops to south of the Litani to have around 5,000 soldiers there, including at 33 posts along the border with Israel, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.

"The deployment is the first challenge - then how to deal with the locals that want to return home", given the risks of unexploded ordnance, the source said.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, many of them from south Lebanon. Hezbollah sees the return of the displaced to their homes as a priority, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters. 

Tens of thousands displaced from northern Israel are also expected to return home.

MONITORING MECHANISM

One of the sticking points in the final days leading to the ceasefire's conclusion was how it would be monitored, Lebanon's deputy speaker of parliament Elias Bou Saab told Reuters.

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, Bou Saab said.

Israel would be expected to flag possible breaches to the monitoring mechanism. France and the US together would determine whether a violation had taken place, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Reuters. 

Biden said that the US and its allies would "provide the necessary assistance to make sure this deal is implemented fully and effectively".

However, that does not mean US boots on the ground, he said.

Instead, "if Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defence consistent with international law", Biden stated.

UNILATERAL ISRAELI STRIKES 

Israeli officials have insisted that the Israeli army would continue to strike Hezbollah if it identified threats to its security, including transfers of weapons and military equipment to the group. 

An Israeli official told Reuters that US envoy Amos Hochstein, who negotiated the agreement, had given assurances directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could carry out such strikes on Lebanon. 

Netanyahu said in a televised address after the security Cabinet met that Israel would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal. 

The official said Israel would use drones to monitor movements on the ground in Lebanon. 

Lebanese officials say that provision is not in the deal that it agreed, and that it would oppose any violations of its sovereignty.

WHAT NEXT FOR LEBANON?

Given that "Hezbollah is extremely weak at this moment, both militarily and politically", the ceasefire presents "the opportunity for Lebanon to reestablish its sovereignty over its territory", the US official said.

"Over the next 60 days, the Lebanese Army and the State Security Forces will deploy and take control of their own territory once again," Biden stated in his comments, calling it a "new start" for Lebanon.

WHAT DOES THE DEAL MEAN FOR GAZA?

The ceasefire in Lebanon could become "a stepping stone towards getting a ceasefire deal in Gaza and bringing the hostages home", the US official said.

In large part that will be because the Palestinian militant group Hamas - which attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, prompting the invasion of Gaza - will realize that "Hezbollah has decided to abandon them and delink the two conflicts", he said.

"There's no one coming for their support anymore. I think that's a powerful change of reality on the ground ... If anyone in Hamas thought that there was broad support for their cause, I think today they have learned that that is not the case," the official said.