Israel and Lebanon have agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon in which Hezbollah operatives would be banned, the US state department has announced.
A joint statement said the agreement was “contingent on a complete cessation” of attacks by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, among other conditions.
The three countries also “rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage”.
The agreement was announced in Washington on Wednesday, after Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.
Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes continued in the south of Lebanon on Thursday, with at least one strike causing casualties.
Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia, political party and social movement, is Lebanon’s most powerful group. With support from Iran, it has built an armed force more formidable than the Lebanese army and has fought a series of conflicts with Israel. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel and many other countries, including the UK and US.
The agreement between Israel and Lebanon, reached after a fourth round of US-mediated talks, is contingent on the “evacuation of all [Hezbollah] operatives” from an area between the Israeli border and the Litani river, about 30km (19 miles) to the north, which is currently occupied by Israeli ground forces.
It said the US would help guide the creation of “pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”.