Israel and Lebanon have reached a ceasefire agreement that ends more than a year of fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah. WSJ’s Jared Malsin takes us inside the deal and explores what it could mean for the region. Further Reading: -Israel Says Cease-Fire Takes Effect in Lebanon -Israel Approves Cease-Fire With Lebanon Aimed at Ending Hezbollah Conflict Further Listening: -The Risk of an All-Out War in the Middle East -Exploding Pagers and the Risk of a Spreading War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What led to the ceasefire in Lebanon?
For weeks, life in Lebanon has been punctuated by the sounds of surveillance drones, sirens, and explosions. As the Israeli military attacked the militant group Hezbollah. Then today, it all stopped. Because Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire.
There was palpable relief in Lebanon today. People have been waiting for this for a long time.
Our colleague Jared Malson has been reporting in Beirut.
So I was out in the southern section of Beirut, which is called Dahia in Arabic, which is where most of the Israeli airstrikes in the city have taken place. And now you have people coming back to a neighborhood that has been shaken by the bombing, fires that were still burning, firefighters trying to put out those blazes.
You had the supporters of Hezbollah driving through the street on motorcycles and cars waving the yellow Hezbollah flags. People coming back to homes only to find out that they'd been bombed on the very last night of the bombing. So it was a very surreal scene.
How will this ceasefire end? change the wider war going on in the Middle East?
It de-escalates one of the fronts in this multipolar conflict that we've seen in the Middle East.
And to be clear, this deal is regarding the conflict in Lebanon only. The war in Gaza continues.
Yes, and that is significant. The war in Gaza continues. Israel's tensions with Iran continue. Israel's continued bombing of Syria, where they're trying to cut off Hezbollah's supply lines and kind of roll back Iranian influence across the region. All of that is expected to continue.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of the ceasefire for Lebanon?
And it's a big deal in the sense that they came under a lot of pressure from Lebanese society to stop this. There was a lot of suffering here, a lot of people who had to leave their homes, whose homes were destroyed, a lot of people killed and injured. Obviously devastating for the economy.
So what is Hezbollah getting out of this deal?
What they get is calm. They have suffered a huge setback in this war with basically a generation of their leaders being killed in these airstrikes. It has brought this pressure from regular Lebanese people who, when you talk to a lot of them, will say, you know, why is this happening? You know, what does this have to do with Lebanon? Why are we getting involved in another country's problems?
And there's a sense that they needed to regroup. And there's both the military pressure and pressure from Lebanese people.
Coming up, what this deal means for people in Israel and Lebanon. The deal says both sides have a right to defend themselves. What does that mean?
That is a really important question. So for the Israelis, one thing that they've insisted on throughout the negotiations is this so-called freedom of action where they want to be able to strike Hezbollah in response to perceived threats from them in order to maintain their security.
A lot of the negotiations that unfolded over the last couple of months were around this point, and they apparently got some kind of guarantees from the US that are separate from the actual bilateral deal itself. They would have that ability. The text of the agreement itself, as you said, just says that both sides have a right to self-defense.
And it talks about, you know, these are two sovereign countries that both have that right.
How will this deal be enforced? And what happens if either party breaks it?
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