The United States and France have facilitated an “arrangement” for the cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701.Footnote ¹ The agreement committed Lebanon to “prevent Hezbollah and all other armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any operations against Israel.”Footnote ² And it committed Israel “not [to] carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, or other state targets, in the territory of Lebanon by land, air, or sea.”Footnote ³ The phased withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from southern Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in their place were to be completed within sixty days, effectively creating a buffer zone between Israel and Hezbollah, which would no longer operate in that territory.Footnote ⁴ The United States and France indicated to the Security Council that they were “working with both countries . . . to ensure that [the agreement] is fully implemented and enforced.”Footnote ⁵ Reportedly, the United States, in an undisclosed side letter, also provided security-related assurances to Israel in connection with its withdrawal from Lebanon.Footnote ⁶

Map accompanying the cessation of hostilities agreement.Footnote ⁷ Source: TOI Staff, Full Text: The Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Deal, Times of Israel (Nov. 27, 2024), at https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-the-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-deal.

The most recent hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah fired missiles and rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas, which had attacked Israel from Gaza the day before.Footnote ⁸ Sporadic exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah continued until September 2024, when Israel, in a surprise move, detonated Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.Footnote ⁹ Israel then bombed Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon, including in Beirut, and killed Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.Footnote ¹⁰ Israeli ground forces subsequently crossed into Lebanon in order to eliminate Hezbollah's threat to Israel's northern communities. Hezbollah had an estimated stockpile of between 120,000 and 200,000 ballistic missiles and rockets and had dug tunnels that crossed the border, which Israel feared would result in an attack similar to the one from Gaza.Footnote ¹¹ Since the fighting started, approximately 1.2 million people were displaced in LebanonFootnote ¹² and nearly seventy thousand in Israel.Footnote ¹³ An estimated four thousand Lebanese have died, as have around one hundred and twenty Israelis.Footnote ¹⁴ The war has caused physical damage and economic losses on both sides of the border, with the toll on Lebanon especially high.Footnote ¹⁵

Hezbollah's effective control of southern Lebanon was contrary to Resolution 1701. That resolution called for the cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel following Hezbollah's attack on Israel in July 2006.Footnote ¹⁶ With the end of the fighting, Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were to deploy in southern Lebanon as Israel withdrew its forces.Footnote ¹⁷ The resolution “[e]mphasize[d] the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory . . . for it to exercise its full sovereignty, so that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon.”Footnote ¹⁸ It also stipulated that there would be “no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its Government.”Footnote ¹⁹ Israel withdrew, but Lebanon did not take steps to demilitarize Hezbollah or displace Hezbollah's authority. Instead, Hezbollah, with Iran's assistance, grew to become one of the world's most powerful non-state actors, and it deployed its forces across southern Lebanon, including along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon.Footnote ²⁰ Though the border had been relatively quiet since 2006, skirmishes continued until October 2023. Israel's ground invasion sought to remove Hezbollah while it had the military advantage.

The November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement was negotiated in the shadow of Resolution 1701's non-implementation. It was framed as an “announcement” by France and the United States of their “understandings” of commitments made by Israel and Lebanon regarding the cessation of hostilities.Footnote ²¹ The agreement specifies, in greater detail than had Resolution 1701, Lebanese security obligations in southern Lebanon. Lebanon stipulates that, aside from UNIFIL, its “official military and security forces, infrastructure, and weaponry will be the only armed groups, arms, and related materiel deployed in the southern Litani area.”Footnote ²² It agrees that it will regulate and control “any sales or supply of arms and related materiel into Lebanon” and “all production of arms . . . within Lebanon.”Footnote ²³ It also pledges to “[m]onitor and enforce [throughout Lebanon] against any unauthorized entry of arms” and “the unauthorized production of arms” and to “dismantle all existing unauthorized facilities involved in the production of arms.”Footnote ²⁴

The agreement also incorporates for the first time French and U.S. commitments to support Lebanon and to monitor and verify the deal's enforcement. France and the United States commit to work within the Military Technical Committee for LebanonFootnote ²⁵ to enable the deployment of 10,000 LAF soldiers in southern Lebanon and to improve the LAF's capabilities.Footnote ²⁶ France and the United States, as chair, will also join the existing tripartite mechanism that includes the IDF, LAF, and UNIFIL, which now “will monitor, verify, and assist in ensuring enforcement of [Israel's and Lebanon's] commitments.”Footnote ²⁷ A senior U.S. official said that, “unlike in 2006 where the international community reached the agreement and then abandoned the scene, here we remain committed to be on the ground day to day.”Footnote ²⁸

Israel commits in the agreement to a phased withdrawal south of the Blue Line within sixty days “in parallel” with the deployment of the LAF and the commencement of the LAF's commitments, including the dismantling of unauthorized sites and the confiscation of unauthorized arms.Footnote ²⁹ Though the agreement excludes Israel from “carry[ing] out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets,” it does not preclude Israel “from exercising [its] inherent right of self-defense, consistent with international law.”Footnote ³⁰

Concerned with the risk of Hezbollah's rearmament and return to southern Lebanon following Israel's withdrawal, Israel sought and received security assurances from the United States in a confidential side letter, excerpts of which were leaked.Footnote ³¹ In the letter, the United States “recognize[s] Isreal's right to respond to threats coming from [southern] Lebanese territory, ‘in accordance with international law.’”Footnote ³² The United States assures Israel of its “right to act [outside of southern Lebanon] against the development of threats directed against it, if Lebanon is unable or unwilling to thwart these threats—including the introduction of illegal weapons into Lebanon through borders and crossings” (in which case it will inform the United States).Footnote ³³ The letter provides that Israel would conduct flights over Lebanon “for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance purposes only, . . . as invisible to the naked eye as possible, and will not break the sound barrier.”Footnote ³⁴ Israel and the United States indicate, as well, that they “intend to share sensitive intelligence regarding violations, including any infiltration by Hezbollah into the Lebanese army.”Footnote ³⁵ The United States agrees to cooperate with Israel to stymie Iranian activities in Lebanon, including preventing the transfer of weapons and personnel from Iran.Footnote ³⁶ In a public statement announcing the cessation of hostilities agreement, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. remarked: “If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defense consistent with international law, just like any country when facing a terrorist group pledged to that country's destruction.”Footnote ³⁷

Israeli forces did not withdraw across the Blue Line within sixty days, as the agreement provided. Two days before the deadline, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office stated that “[s]ince the ceasefire agreement has yet to be fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the US.”Footnote ³⁸ At the time, according to a UNIFIL spokesperson, Israel still held approximately seventy percent of the land it had captured.Footnote ³⁹ Israel expressed concern that Hezbollah was not leaving southern Lebanon and Lebanese forces were not ready to take control of the area. During this period, Israel targeted Hezbollah activities in southern Lebanon that it says violated the terms of the agreement, including in response to a surveillance drone launched at Israel.Footnote ⁴⁰ Lebanon reportedly carried out five hundred missions to confiscate weapons and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure.Footnote ⁴¹ Lebanon also lodged complaints with the United Nations regarding what it claimed were Israeli violations of the agreement.Footnote ⁴² UNIFIL, according to Secretary-General António Guterres, “uncovered over a 100 weapons caches belonging to Hezbollah or other armed groups.”Footnote ⁴³ As the deadline for Israel's withdrawal was about to expire, the White House announced an extension until February 18, 2025.Footnote ⁴⁴ Israel departed by that date, except for what an Israeli military spokesperson described as “small amounts of troops deployed temporarily in five strategic points along the border.”Footnote ⁴⁵