The world is happy with the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Israel will strike if Hezbollah does not follow a truce in Lebanon, a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem

Willem Marx reported from London. Daniel Estrin contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Jawad Rizkallah contributed from Beirut. Franco Ordoez is from Washington, D.C.

He also said the United States remains ready to conclude an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would normalize relations with Israel and include a security pact and economic assurances, with a pathway for a Palestinian state.

Amos Harel, a former senior fellow at the Brookings institute, and a journalist at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said that Netanyahu would be hard pressed to sell this to the evacuees.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that a majority of the Security Cabinet approved the US proposal for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Israel also stepped up airstrikes across Lebanon in recent months, which damaged homes and infrastructure, and killed top Hezbollah officials — including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, its senior commander in the south, Mohammed Nasser, and rocket and missile commander Ibrahim Qubaisi.

Almost 14 months of the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon has killed more than 3,700 people, many of them civilians, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and close to 1 million people have been displaced across Lebanon, according to the United Nations.

Netanyahu said before the vote that Israel has destroyed most of Hezbollah’s fighting capabilities and killed many senior officials. He warned that Israel has the right to attack Hezbollah again.

“In full coordination with the United States, we are maintaining full military freedom of action,” Netanyahu said in his TV address. We will strike if Hezbollah does not follow the agreement.

Mikati said he considers the understanding a key step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon and aiding the return of displaced people. “It also contributes to promoting regional stability.”

The truce, brokered by the United States and France, went into effect at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The fighting continued up to the zero hour, with Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon far into the night.

Despite warnings from the Israeli military, many people in the south of Lebanon began trying to return to their homes.

The agreement doesn’t require the government of Lebanon and the army of Hezbollah to disarm the group, according to Lieberman who is a lawmaker in the Israeli parliament.

The UNICEF–Between Gaza-Israel Interaction is Important: Security Council Resolution 1701 and the Defense of the Blue Line at the Gaza Strip

“Urgent work must now begin to ensure this peace is sustained. Children and families must be able to return to their communities safely, especially those displaced in shelters and host communities,” the agency said.

In a statement on the ceasefire, UNICEF said it hopes the agreement “will bring an end to the war which has killed more than 240 children, injured around 1,400, and upended the lives of countless others.”

“Many of the country’s displaced may not be able to return home for months as Israel has razed entire villages near the ‘Blue Line’ border,” according to David Wood, a senior analyst on Lebanon at Crisis Group. The Blue Line is between Lebanon and Israel.

Hamas, the militant group that Israel has been fighting in Gaza, thanked Hezbollah for its “pivotal role … in support of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian resistance, and the great sacrifices,” including the death of Nasrallah.

And in Gaza, there are worries as well. Wala Hanuna was displaced by the Israeli military’s nearly 14-month offensive in the territory and worried that it would cause more destruction. She said that they read the news that the Israeli army would go to Gaza. “Maybe the war here will last another year, with no one thinking how we will get out of this.”

Some Israelis are still skeptical. “We have no idea about the deal except to say we are displaced from Shlumi, a village on the border between Lebanon and Egypt,” Avraham tells NPR. Even though we really want to return home, we have very, very mixed feelings.

Saudi Arabia said it hoped the ceasefire “will lead to the implementation of [U.N.] Security Council Resolution 1701,” referring to a previous agreement renewing UNIFIL’s mandate at the end of a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia called for Lebanon’s sovereignty and security to be preserved, as well as the return of the displaced to their homes.

Both Jordan and Egypt said that Israel’s attacks on Gaza should stop. Jordan called the Lebanon ceasefire “an important step.”

“The stated intent is that at the smallest infraction, they will go through the motions of reporting this to the [U.S.-led international] supervisory committee and [if] Israel doesn’t get satisfaction, they will take action on their own,” he says.

“This is all going to be about the enforcement,” says Shalom Lipner, a Jerusalem-based Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council. “They’re telegraphing that there will not be any exceptions [as] in the past.”

In addition, the agreement calls for Lebanese government authorities to prevent Hezbollah or any other armed group from carrying out attacks on Israel. Lebanon’s military and security forces are only allowed to be in southern Lebanon because they are the only armed group, and no other groups can be in the country.

“There is a good deal here that had to come because of the international pressure. And we have somewhere to return to,” he said. Alluding to the devastation that Israel has inflicted on southern Lebanon, he added: “The Lebanese have nowhere to return to.”

Orna Peretz told NPR he thinks Hezbollah has been taught a lesson, which it never suffered in its entire lifetime.

Israel is discouraging its residents from coming back to their abandoned homes at the border. Education Minister Yoav Kisch said on Israel Army Radio there will be a 30- to 60-day period of renovating buildings and institutions damaged by Hezbollah fire before Israel initiates a return of Israeli residents.

The woman was forced to abandon a home in southern Lebanon, and was driving Wednesday to get there. This is the end of the war for us. She told NPR that they know it’s going to be okay.