Hezbollah has vowed to continue its resistance and support Palestinians on the day its ceasefire deal with Israel came into effect. Thousands of Lebanese rushed to return to the south of the country as fighting paused – prompting the Israelis to impose a curfew.
Thursday 28 November 2024 12:35, UK
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We’ll be back soon with more updates from the Middle East conflict.
Here are the key lines from tonight:
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be holding.
If it holds, the ceasefire would bring an end to nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated in mid-September.
The deal does not address the war in Gaza.
Here, international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn looks at the terms of the ceasefire deal…
By Michelle Inez Simon and Daniel Dunford, data and forensics unit
As residents of southern Lebanon begin returning to neighbourhoods reduced to rubble, new data shared with Sky News illustrates the impact of the conflict.
The Centre for Information Resilience has verified more than 400 videos showing 300 separate incidents of harm to civilians and damage to infrastructure in Lebanon.
It offers a window into the extent of the destruction since fighting began in October last year.
You can read more here…
Gaza is heading towards famine again, the deputy executive director of The World Food Programme has said.
Speaking on The World with Yalda Hakim, Carl Skau said he was “extremely worried about the situation in Gaza”.
He said: “We are heading towards famine again.
“In June and July we’d managed to stabilise the situation and there was access to basic food commodities but in the last six to eight weeks there has been a massive deterioration.
“In the north it’s due to the resumption of the fighting and evacuation orders and in the south it is due to a complete breakdown of law and order.”
He added: “We are in a new situation with this complete meltdown.”
If Hezbollah does not stick to the ceasefire agreement it will take Lebanon to its “very dangerous territory”, the country’s economy minister has told The World with Yalda Hakim.
Amin Salam said the ceasefire had “brought some happiness” to Lebanon, “at least to stop the bleeding”.
“However, we are looking at major losses,” he said.
This included the negative effects on the economy and the costs of rebuilding the damage.
Asked what was at stake if Hezbollah did not stick to the agreement, Mr Salam said the “deal was very clear”.
“If this ceasefire is to fail I think it will take Lebanon to a very dangerous territory of escalation and of bringing back the war and will lead to further devastation,” he said.
“It will be a place very hard for Lebanon to recover from.”
A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says their troops are still positioned in southern Lebanon and will “gradually withdraw in accordance” with the ceasefire agreement.
Daniel Hagari said that Israeli aircraft are also still flying in Lebanese airspace gathering intelligence and “are prepared to act wherever necessary”.
He added that the IDF had “operated to enforce the ceasefire agreement” and “identified suspects approaching restricted areas, detained them, and fired warning shots” (see 16.24 post).
Mr Hagari said that Israel will meet any violation of the ceasefire “with fire” and that the military is making the necessary preparations for the possibility of a return to “intense combat”.
Reflecting on the fighting in Lebanon, he said Israel had conducted aerial strikes on 12,500 Hezbollah targets since the beginning of the war.
Some 180 of these were hit during the night, in the hours before the ceasefire agreement went into effect, he added.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its resistance and support Palestinians, a day after a ceasefire deal between the group and Israel was announced.
In the first statement by Hezbollah’s operations centre since the ceasefire was announced, the group made no direct mention of the deal.
“The Islamic resistance’s operations room affirms that its fighters in all military disciplines will remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy,” the group said.
It added that its fighters would continue to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces beyond the Lebanese borders “with their hands on the trigger”.
The Israeli military has said it shot down a drone that was carrying weapons and crossed from Egypt to Israel earlier today.
Troops at the scene found four guns, five cartridges and hundreds of bullets on the glider.
The weapons found were handed over to the security forces.
Israeli officials have said during the war in Gaza that Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms.
However, Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.
Antonio Guterres has said the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is “the first ray of hope” in the regional conflict.
“It is essential that those who signed the ceasefire commitment respect it in full,” the UN secretary-general said in a short televised statement during a visit to Lisbon.
He also reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“I received an auspicious sign yesterday, the first ray of hope for peace amid the darkness of the past months,” he said, referring to the agreement.
“It is a moment of great importance, especially for civilians who were paying an enormous price of this spreading conflict.”
The former head of MI6 has told Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has left Iran “more exposed” as layers of its anti-Israel proxies have been removed.
Asked how important Iran’s reaction was now a truce deal had been agreed, Sir Richard Dearlove said what was “extraordinary” was how the “Israelis have called Iran’s bluff”.
“This idea of attacking Israel constantly through proxies has really been demolished and Hezbollah rather than Hamas was a strategic asset for the Iranians,” he said.
“They’ve pumped a huge amount of money and training into it and look how it’s been taken apart by the IDF.”
He added that “we’re in a much more direct confrontational situation” and Iran is more “exposed” if it were to launch another attack on Israel.
“I think that if Iran launches another attack on Israel, were they to do so, they’re very exposed,” he said.
“The last IDF raids on Iran I think were devastating in terms of taking out their air defences, taking out some of their missile fuel manufacturing capability.
“I think they’re very exposed indeed.”
Sir Richard also said the current truce deal between Israel and Hezbollah was a “retreaded agreement from 2006” when Hezbollah was meant to be separated from the northern Israeli border.
This was supposed to be moderated by the UN and the Lebanese army, but over time “did absolutely nothing”, he added.
“I think it suits the Israelis at the moment to have a ceasefire, because their objective initially was to make the northern border safe,” he said.
“If you push Hezbollah back beyond the Litani, that largely answers the question in the short to medium term. In the long term, I don’t think it does.”
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