President Joe Biden lauded Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for agreeing to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that would put a pause to the fighting with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Speaking Tuesday from the Rose Garden at the White House, President Biden said the agreement "heralds new start” for Lebanon's sovereignty and security in the Middle East.
"Under the deal reached today, effective at 4 a.m. tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end. Will end," he said. "This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities."
Watch: President Biden delivers remarks on Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon
Join me as I deliver remarks from the Rose Garden on the Middle East. https://t.co/SuvkUrJr5T
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 26, 2024
The announcement came after Netanyahu and his cabinet approved the ceasefire deal, saying it is now up to Hezbollah to decide whether to accept the agreement and lay down its arms.
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Netanyahu's endorsement of the ceasefire deal came as Israeli warplanes struck across Lebanon, killing at least 23 people. The airstrikes and evacuation warnings were in a sign that Netanyahu aims to inflict punishment on Hezbollah in the final moments before any ceasefire takes hold.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, had resumed its rocket fire into Israel, triggering air raid sirens across the country's north.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, in support of the Palestinian militant group. That has set off more than a year of fighting escalated into all-out war in September with massive Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon and an Israeli ground invasion of the country’s south.
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Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israeli military bases, cities and towns, including some 250 projectiles on Sunday.
It’s not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, where more than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded in the 13-month war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
