A 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah began Friday, displacing over one million Lebanese residents and complicating Netanyahu's political position domestically.
8:55 AM
A 10-day cease-fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah went into effect Friday, as thousands of Lebanese families displaced by fighting filled the main highway to southern Lebanon in hopes of returning to their homes.
The truce came after President Trump pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the halt in Israel's military campaign against the Iran-backed militant group. Netanyahu agreed Thursday, according to officials, following the same pattern as prior cease-fires the president had orchestrated.
The fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon and displaced over one million residents, mostly from the southern part of the country. Despite the cease-fire taking effect, Israeli forces continue to occupy southern Lebanon and warned residents not to return there.
In a statement Friday, Hezbollah sidestepped any direct reference to the cease-fire while offering little indication that the group would violate it.
The Lebanon truce carries broader implications for regional stability. Tehran has insisted that any truce extend to Lebanon, meaning that if the cease-fire holds, it could remove a major hurdle to ending the broader U.S.-Iran war, which has threatened the fragile halt between the two countries.
Domestically in Israel, Netanyahu faces political pressure over the agreement. Polls showed that Israeli voters overwhelmingly wanted the military to continue pressure on Hezbollah—whose rockets and missiles have made life miserable and perilous for residents of northern Israel—until the group was destroyed or forced to disarm. Netanyahu and his military chiefs had previously promised to achieve that objective. However, Netanyahu quickly, if grudgingly, fell in line when Trump pressed for the cease-fire on Thursday.
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