A cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, a terrorist group based in Lebanon and supported by Iran, was signed Tuesday, marking the end of a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives since it began with the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, declared on Tuesday that he was ready to implement a cease-fire deal with Lebanon and that Hezbollah would face harsh consequences for any infraction. The entire Cabinet needed to approve the plan.

“We maintain full military freedom of action in full coordination with the United States,” Mr. Netanyahu said. We will take a strong stance if Hezbollah breaks the deal or tries to re-arm.

French President Emmanuel Macron and President Joe Biden jointly announced a cease-fire with Israeli approval. Guns along the border between Israel and Lebanon would cease firing on Wednesday.

As Hezbollah presses its soldiers closer to Israel’s border, fighting is predicted to stop for 60 days, allowing Israel to gradually remove its troops from southern Lebanon.

The 14-month-old Gaza War is unlikely to be significantly impacted by the agreement.

In an address from the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, Biden declared the cease-fire, calling it a reminder that peace is achievable.

Since the start of the war, Biden said, 300,000 Lebanese and over 70,000 Israelis have been compelled to live as refugees in their own countries. Biden called the war between Israel and Hezbollah the bloodiest in decades.

Mr. Biden said that this is intended to be a long-term end to hostilities. I reiterate that the remnants of Hezbollah and other terrorist groups will not be permitted to pose a danger to Israel’s security in the future.

After months of border conflict that started when Hezbollah assaulted Israel in support of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza, Israel commenced an offensive in Lebanon in mid-September.

Since then, Israel has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon, according to estimates from the health ministry. Over a million individuals have lost their houses as a result. Hezbollah has been launching thousands of missiles at northern Israel over the past year, forcing residents to flee south.

The people of Gaza, like those of Lebanon, deserve a future of security and prosperity in addition to an end to the war and displacement, Biden stated, adding that we are determined that this crisis will not be just another cycle of violence.

Before his tenure as president ends on January 20, Biden is working to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would allow the return of the remaining hostages in Gaza, including a number of Americans.

According to Biden, Hamas has been refusing to negotiate a cease-fire and a hostage agreement in good faith for months on end, and far too many civilians in Gaza have suffered. Now, Hamas must decide: The only way out is to free the hostages, including the American citizens they are holding, and stop the fighting in order to allow for a flood of humanitarian aid.

Rocking Beirut to its foundationA ground invasion was part of Israel’s offensive, which also killed multiple Hezbollah commanders, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and injured thousands more with detonating pagers.

Netanyahu asserted that Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is affiliated with Hamas, was much weaker than it had been when the conflict began.

He told reporters, “We have destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, set it back decades, killed its top leaders, and destroyed years of terror infrastructure near our border.” We shook Beirut to its foundation by focusing on vital targets around Lebanon.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel retaliated by attacking Hamas militarily. The health ministry, which is managed by Hamas, claims that Israel has murdered at least 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has been placed under arrest by the International Criminal Court on allegations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. Netanyahu disputes the assertion.

According to Netanyahu, the cease-fire was required to split the fronts, isolate Hamas, and provide Israeli forces a respite while refocusing Israel’s attention on its bitter adversary Iran. Since the start of the war, Hamas had relied on Hezbollah to fight alongside it. Now that Hezbollah is no longer involved, Hamas is on its own.

Neither Iran nor Hamas nor Hezbollah responded immediately.

The cease-fire agreement will be supervised by the United States, France, the Israeli and Lebanese armed forces, and the United Nations.

Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern Israel on Tuesday, while Israel began airstrikes on southern Beirut despite the cease-fire agreement between the two groups.

31 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Monday, according to the country’s health ministry. Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal, but several far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration were against it.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in low-level conflicts for years. Since Israel and Hezbollah last engaged in a major fight in 2006, the spillover from the Gaza conflict to Lebanon represents the most dramatic escalation between the two groups.

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