STORY: :: Netanyahu says he is ready to implement a cease-fire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon

:: Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel

:: Tel Aviv, Israel

:: November 26, 2024

:: The cease-fire agreement is expected to go into effect Wednesday

"Lebanon. Hezbollah chose to strike us from there on October 8. A year has passed. This is no longer the same Hezbollah. We have set it back decades. We have eliminated [Hassan] Nasrallah. He was the linchpin. We eliminated all the leaders of the organization. We decimated its arsenal of rockets and missiles. We eliminated thousands of terrorists, and we destroyed the subterranean infrastructure they had built along our border, fortification it had taken them years to build up. We struck strategic targets across the entire breadth of Lebanon. And we hit dozens of terror strongholds in Dahiyeh. The earth under Beirut is trembling."

"Tonight I introduced to the cabinet a ceasefire proposal for Lebanon. The duration of the cease-fire depends on what happens in Lebanon. In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively. If it tries to rebuild its fortifications along the border, we will strike. If it launches a rocket, digs a tunnel, brings in a truck with missiles, we will strike."

"Some say to me, 'good, Hezbollah will sit quiet for a year or two, then it will strengthen, and later it will strike us.' But Hezbollah violates this cease-fire not just if it threatens us, it violates the cease-fire if it tries to rearm to strike us in the future. To any violation, we will respond with strength."

In a television address, Netanyahu said he would put the ceasefire accord to his full cabinet later in the evening. Israeli TV reported that the more restricted security cabinet had earlier approved the deal.

The accord, clearing the way for an end to a conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, was expected to take effect on Wednesday.

Israeli approval of the deal would pave the way for a ceasefire declaration by U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, according to four senior Lebanese sources who spoke to Reuters on Monday.

Despite the diplomatic breakthrough, hostilities raged as Israel dramatically ramped up its campaign of air strikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 killed.

A Hezbollah parliament member in Lebanon, Hassan Fadlallah, said the country faced "dangerous, sensitive hours" during the wait for a possible ceasefire announcement.

However, there was no indication that a truce in Lebanon would hasten a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in devastated Gaza, where Israel is battling Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Lebanon ceasefire agreement requires Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon and Lebanon's army to deploy in the region, officials say. Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the border south of the Litani River.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw, and that the United States could play a role in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.

Israel demands effective U.N. enforcement of an eventual ceasefire with Lebanon and will show "zero tolerance" toward any infraction, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.