Includes a 'gradual' withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, without specifying timeline or areas covered
Israel. Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington on Friday followingseveral days of talksto secure an end to fighting between Israel and Iran-backedHezbollah.
Lebanese Ambassador Nada Moawad. her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter signed the trilateral document with the US at the State Department in Washington.
"Today we've taken the first step in what will be a difficult journey, without a doubt, but an important. an essential and a necessary one," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before the agreement was inked.
The conflict between Israel. Hezbollah broke out when the armed group fired at Israel on March 2, days after the US and Israel attacked Iran. The Hezbollah attacks triggered Israeli air. ground attacks that have killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.
The officials did not provide details of the framework deal. did not say how its terms would differ from those included in an April 16 ceasefire deal that preceded several rounds of US-brokered Israel-Lebanon talks.
A senior Lebanese official source toldAnadoluthat the deal includes a “gradual” withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. without specifying a timeline or the areas covered by the withdrawal. The senior Lebanese source. speaking on condition of anonymity, toldAnadolunegotiations had made “progress on the outstanding issues” between the two sides.
"The trilateral framework we signed today is a first step on the road to restoring Lebanese sovereignty. territorial integrity, securing a permanent and final cessation of hostilities, enabling our people to go back to their land, and allowing all Lebanese to live in peace, security, and prosperity," Moawad said.
Leiter praised Moawad for negotiating like a "lioness".
"In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out,. the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in," he said.
They did not take questions from reporters.
Israel's death toll from this round of hostilities with Hezbollah includes at least 32 soldiers and four Israeli civilians. Hezbollah does not release figures on its war dead.Reutersreported on May 4 thatseveral thousandHezbollah fighters had been killed in the war.
The talks in Washington have included discussions on a proposal for Israeli forces to hand some of the territory they occupied in southern Lebanon to Lebanon's military.
A State Department official toldReuterson Thursday that Israel had agreed to pull back from some of that territory, something Israeli. Lebanese officials denied.
Before the talks resumed this week, Israel. Hezbollah agreed to halt fire even as Israel kept troops in occupied southern Lebanon, territory it describes as a "buffer zone" aimed at thwarting Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.
Violence has persisted since the ceasefire, with Israel saying on Friday its troops had struck. killed what the military described as seven Hezbollah members who were operating near the territory it is occupying.Reuterscould not confirm this.
Netanyahu says Israeli army will remain in southern Lebanon ‘security zone’ until Hezbollah disarmed
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli forces will remain in a "security zone" in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, commenting on the newly reached framework deal between Israel. Lebanon under US sponsorship.
In a recorded statement. Netanyahu said: "The most important thing is that first of all, Israel remains in the security zone in southern Lebanon … we maintain it as long as Hezbollah has not disarmed."
He said the agreement allows the deployment of the Lebanese army in designated areas based on "recommendation" by the Israeli army. with implementation set to begin through "two pilot phases".
Netanyahu added that one of the two areas from which Israeli forces are expected to withdraw lies outside the "original security zone". while a small part of the second area falls within what he described as the "expanded security zone".
Israel drops leaflets ordering residents of Lebanese town to flee
Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri on Friday ordering residents to leave, Lebanese state media reported, the first such order issued since the latestceasefirebetween Israel. Hezbollah took effect.
A senior Lebanese military official said Israel had recently added Mansouri to its occupation zone. The official said Lebanese farmers had continued to enter and leave the town, but had not been living there.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the military issued what it described as a "reminder" to the civilian population that "the area is within the security zone in. [Israeli] soldiers operate. It's a reminder not to be in the area so they won't be harmed."
Lebanese officials say Israeli troops are enforcing the zone's northern boundary by firing at anyone approaching it, including civilians. Lebanese soldiers.
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