Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in Lebanon, US says

There will be an immediate 60-day ceasefire which will see the pull-out of both Israeli forces and Hezbollah’s armed presence from Lebanon’s south, the BBC’s US partner CBS says.

Hezbollah fighters and weapons will withdraw from south of the Litani River – a boundary established during the the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces launched another flurry of air strikes on Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least seven people.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel and many Western countries – after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

It says it wants to ensure the safe return of about 60,000 residents of northern Israeli areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah launched in support of Palestinians the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

The war has been devastating for Lebanon, where, in addition to the 3,823 people killed and 15,859 injured, one million residents have been displaced in areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

The World Bank’s estimate is of $8.5bn (£6.8bn) in economic losses and damage. Recovery will take time, and no-one seems to know who will pay for it.

Hezbollah, too, has been devastated. Many of its leaders have been killed, including long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah, while its infrastructure has been heavily damaged.

How it will look after the war remains unclear. The group has been severely weakened, some would say humiliated, but it has not been destroyed.

In Lebanon, it is more than a militia: it is a political party with representation in parliament, and a social organisation, with significant support among Shia Muslims.

Hezbollah’s opponents will probably see it as an opportunity to limit its influence – it was often described as “a state within a state” in Lebanon before the conflict – and many fear this could lead to internal violence.