Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire but say it would require a “complete cessation” of fire by Hezbollah, according to a joint statement after US-led talks in Washington, DC.
The two countries, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed on Wednesday to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.
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The development came despite continued cross-border attacks earlier in the day as Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli soldiers and Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people in southern Lebanon.
Just hours after the agreement was announced, air raid alarms were reported in northern Israel with a “suspicious aerial target” identified, but no casualties were reported.
A joint statement said the ceasefire was “contingent on a complete cessation” of fire by Hezbollah as well as the removal of the group’s operatives from southern Lebanon.
“This is not the announcement of a brand-new ceasefire; this is asserting respect for a ceasefire that was actually agreed just last month in May, which was a 45-day extension to an already existing ceasefire that was there before,” Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo said, reporting from Washington, DC.
“The fact that Hezbollah, as a group, has not been part of this negotiation makes them kind of a wild card and leaves questions unanswered as to how any sort of framework that could result from these negotiations would be implemented,” he added.
The meetings in Washington were the fourth round of direct talks between Lebanese and Israeli diplomats since fighting escalated on March 2 when Hezbollah renewed attacks against Israel in support of Iran, which led to intensified Israeli bombardments and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
Both sides will meet for more talks the week of June 22, the statement said, “with a view towards reaching a comprehensive agreement”.
Iran’s reaction
Earlier in the day, United States President Donald Trump said he wanted to separate talks on the conflict in Lebanon and those on the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Tehran, however, insists the conflicts are linked, and its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that any attack on Beirut would trigger a “full-scale resumption” of war.
Araghchi also said on Wednesday that lines of communication with the US were still open but “no tangible progress” has been made in negotiations to end the Middle East war.
“Communications with the Americans have not been cut off, and messages have been exchanged regarding the need to stop aggression against Beirut, but no tangible progress has been made in the negotiation process,” the Tasnim News Agency quoted him as telling Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV.
“Returning to the negotiating table is conditional on ensuring the rights of the Iranian people, ending the war in Lebanon and stopping tensions in the region.”
The Israeli military said it intercepted a “hostile aircraft” and two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon on Wednesday.
Hezbollah said that “in response to the Israeli enemy army’s violation of the ceasefire”, its fighters targeted soldiers in northern Israel with a rocket barrage.
Early on Thursday, the pro-Iranian group said it aimed a “salvo of rockets” at Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the southern Lebanese town of Qantara and also targeted an Israeli command position near Beaufort Castle, also known as Qalaat al-Shaqif, with two drones.
A truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon was meant to take hold on April 17 but has never been observed. Both sides have justified their attacks with the other’s alleged violations.
Among the Israeli attacks on Wednesday was one targeting a car on the main highway out of the capital, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said.
The NNA also reported strikes on more than 20 locations in the south, some after Israel’s military issued displacement orders to residents of several villages.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said an Israeli attack on al-Hawsh near the city of Tyre killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.
The ministry also said an Israeli strike elsewhere in the south targeted an ambulance, killing two paramedics from the Risala Scouts Association, which is affiliated with the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah.
The ministry circulated images of a badly damaged ambulance with medical masks spilling out of the vehicle and scattered on the road.
A third paramedic was later reported killed in an attack that the NNA said targeted an ambulance team affiliated with the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee in the town of Zibdine.
At least 130 emergency and health workers have been killed since March 2.
Lebanon’s army said a soldier was also killed in an Israeli attack while an officer and a soldier were wounded in a separate attack on a military vehicle.
The force denounced what it called Israel’s “deliberate targeting of army personnel, vehicles and positions”.
Deaths in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on Gaza City apartments overnight killed at least nine people, including four children, according to sources at al-Shifa Hospital.
Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili, reporting from Gaza, said people were caught off guard as the attacks struck without any warning while many were asleep.
“According to initial reports, at least nine Palestinians were killed in the strikes, and rescue teams rushed to the scene as a large fire broke out at one of the impacted sites,” he said.
“Witnesses described chaotic scenes as a family, including children, women and elderly people, were trapped inside burning apartments,” our correspondent added.
He said rescue crews struggled to reach those who were trapped, and medics stated that several survivors suffered severe burns.
