French President Emmanuel Macron said on X the deal was “the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States”.
Hezbollah has not formally commented on the ceasefire but senior official Hassan Fadlallah told Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV that while it supported the extension of the Lebanese state’s authority, the group would emerge from the war stronger.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discusses the ceasefire.Credit: AP
“Thousands will join the resistance ... Disarming the resistance was an Israeli proposal that fell through,” said Fadlallah, who is also a member of Lebanon’s parliament.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and the Houthi rebels who have attacked Israel from Yemen, said it welcomed the ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said he would respond forcefully to any violation of the deal by Hezbollah, declaring Israel would retain “complete military freedom of action”.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be ready to deploy at least 5000 troops in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw, and that the US could play a role in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong welcomed the deal, saying it should be the catalyst for an end to conflict in the Middle East.
The site of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday.Credit: AP
“We’ve been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza for over 11 months now, and we see every week the death toll rising, more children, more women,” she told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“But today we are very pleased to see that there is a ceasefire with Hezbollah and that the people of Lebanon and Israel can know some peace.”
Foreign ministers from the G7 threw their support behind the ceasefire but sidestepped whether to enforce an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.
In the final communique from their meeting in Fiuggi, Italy, they demanded Israel “facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms” to Palestinians in Gaza, warning that its year-long assault had led to unprecedented food insecurity.
Biden expressed hope that the pause in more than 13 months of fighting would be a catalyst to also end the war in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC.Credit: Bloomberg
He stressed that Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce.
In his address, Netanyahu said there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire: to focus on Iran; replenish depleted arms supplies and give the army a rest; and to isolate Hamas, the militant group that launched an attack on Israel from Gaza in October last year.
He said Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied to Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.
“We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralised thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border,” he said.