Global News Podcast - Lebanon ceasefire Special

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

President Biden has announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah to come into effect on Wednesday. He described it as a new start for Lebanon.

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I'm Valerie Sanderson and in this special edition on Tuesday 26th November, the headlines. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a ceasefire with Hezbollah to begin on Wednesday after weeks of intensifying conflict. But if Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to resume the terrorist nonsense near the border, we will attack. Earlier, Israel launched two fresh waves of air attacks on Beirut. At the White House, President Biden says the deal is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The truce, which will be formally approved by the Israeli cabinet, is expected to come into force at 10am local time on Wednesday. Mr Netanyahu said the deal would enable Israel to focus on the threat from Iran. But he said how long the ceasefire lasted would depend on the actions of the Lebanese group. His words are spoken here by a translator. Tonight I will bring to the cabinet's approval an outline for a ceasefire in Lebanon. The duration of the ceasefire will depend on what will happen in Lebanon. This is a complete understanding with the United States. We are continuing with our freedom of action.

If Hezbollah tries to rearm or attack, we will strike back. If a rocket will be launched, if a tunnel will be dug, if a truck with arms will be brought in, we will strike. Against this background, the Israeli military had earlier launched at least two waves of airstrikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in the capital Beirut. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who's at the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Italy, told reporters the deceased fire would be very significant. It will make a big difference in saving lives and livelihoods in Lebanon and in Israel.

It will make a big difference in creating the conditions that will allow people to return to their homes safely in northern Israel and in southern Lebanon. And I also believe that by de-escalating tensions in the region, it can also help us to end the conflict in Gaza. In particular, Hamas will know that it can't count on other fronts opening up in the war. I spoke to our security correspondent Frank Gardner, who's in Jerusalem, and asked him if this was a done deal. I think when it goes before the full cabinet tomorrow, it's likely to be a formality.

So it's been essentially green-lighted, although they have stopped just short of saying so. But everyone assumes from the words of the prime minister who has gone on record, gone on national TV to say that it's happening, I think we can assume that from Israel's side it's agreed and Lebanon's foreign minister has already said he supported it. So I think it's going to go ahead. The hard part is going to be the implementation and avoiding any one word would be hiccups. But I think a stronger word you know in infringements because this is going to be a very fragile deal. A lot of people don't expect this to hold. Why? Because we've been here before

under slightly different circumstances. But in the end of the 2006 Lebanon-Israel War, which was a pretty short war that ended after 33 days, that ended with a Security Council resolution that was supposed to keep Hezbollah north of the Latani River, 30 kilometers north of the border. And that didn't happen. They filtered south dug tunnels, built caves, stored weapons and then fired them at Israel. And Israel then ultimately responded as they have now in this war with devastating airstrikes on the city of Beirut and Baalbek blowing up houses in south Lebanon, moving its forces into Lebanon. So there is a rather sort of weary view, I think,

in some quarters in Israel, particularly in the north, that this is merely kicking the can down the road. But you've got to start somewhere. And if the 60-day ceasefire holds, there are reasons for optimism. But I think there are plenty of people, certainly in the north of Israel, who've been saying, we would have liked this to go on longer to see Hezbollah utterly defeated so that it removes the threat more permanently. They think Hezbollah isn't going to abide by at least the spirit of this, that they are going to rearm and come back and hit northern Israel again. We understand it's going to start being implemented at 10am localm. local time on Wednesday. I mean, will people be able to return to their homes? Well, that's up to them.

The Israeli government can't force them to. I think a lot of people are going to be very hesitant about that. So for example, the head of the town council for the town of Metulla, which is the northernmost town in Israel, right up on the Lebanese border, he has said, I'm advising people not to come back because it isn't going to be safe yet. Well, look, if 60 days passes and Israel withdraws, Hezbollah withdraws from South Lebanon and UNIFIL come back in, in force and the Lebanese army is there in force and nothing happens, then I think we will see residents starting to return. But you know, the big fear that people have had, it's not just the

rockets which have been landing on people's farms and kibbutz and businesses and homes in the north of Israel. The big fear is that Hezbollah was planning something similar to what Hamas did in the south of Israel. In other words, puncturing that border fence either with tunnels or a hole in the border fence, pouring in kidnapping and killing and raping as they did in the south in October the 7th last year. That's the fear. In that sense I think, you know, some people have been quite cynical about it but nevertheless it must be a mercy for the people of Lebanon who have endured so much already in this short but extremely violent war that has cost nearly 4,000 lives, mostly on the Lebanese side. Frank Gardner. Well the ceasefire was brokered by the United States and a short time ago,

President Biden had this to say at the White House. Lasting security for the people of Israel and Lebanon cannot be achieved only on the battlefield. And that's why I directed my team to work with the governments of Israel and Lebanon to forge a ceasefire, to bring a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to a close. Under the deal reached today, effective at 4 a.m. tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end. This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist

organizations will not be allowed, well I emphasize will not be allowed to threaten security of Israel again. President Biden. Well Gideon Levy is an Israeli political commentator and a columnist for the Haaretz newspaper. He gave this reaction to the ceasefire deal to the BBC's Ben Brown. I have no doubt it's going to be accepted because the powers who want it are much stronger than those who don't want it. Netanyahu has now a problem with his political base and therefore he's doing this enormous effort to convince everyone how big are the Israeli achievements, forgetting some price that Israel had paid, including in turning into a Paris state in those months of fighting, both in Lebanon and in Gaza. But the main problem remains Gaza. And Gaza is not closer this evening to a solution than

before this agreement. So it's a very important agreement and it's really a positive development, but Gaza is the main story. Yeah, and in fact he did talk, Mr Netanyahu, he gave three reasons for going along with a ceasefire now in Lebanon. He said number one, to focus on the threat from Iran, number two, to allow our forces, our military to refresh and replenish weapons supplies, and number three to disconnect the two arenas of Lebanon and Gaza so that Hamas would be left alone on the battlefield, was what he said. Does all of that make sense to you? Yeah, but it shows that Israel is in a problem because he hinted also about shortage in ammunition

and arms flow from the United States, which now will be renewed, which was another reason for Israel. It's very clear that the Americans didn't leave any choice for Netanyahu but to sign on this agreement and he did well when he did it but it's very clear again it was proven that when the United States really wants something from Israel when the United States is really ready to take measures then Israel has to obey. Gideon Levy as we said earlier on this podcast throughout the day as the region waited for the ceasefire announcement Israel carried out a barrage of airstrikes on the capital

Beirut and across southern Lebanon. The BBC spoke to Amy who lives in Beirut. We heard like two big strikes happening. I can see the black cloud and a lot of traffic at the moment, people getting stuck around the area. Also we hear of course the Red Cross going back and forth to rescue people. I believe these are very big explosions and then even shake the house. The sound is really harsh actually. It's being very stressful. We don't have a normal life. It's been months going through that, but we are hoping that this will bring us a long-term peace.

Our correspondent in Beirut is Lina Sinjab. There hasn't been any response yet, only official response yet. The government here has been talking about this ceasefire deal coming into effect as soon. Everyone is anticipating and waiting for the details and for this to come into force. But while this waiting is happening, the city is really on high alert. There's a panic mood over the city. I can still hear the drones hovering over the sky. Some airstrikes still continue and the fear is that from people until this comes in force tomorrow on Wednesday

at 10am, Beirut, the south and many other places may still be under strike until the start of the ceasefire deal. Because this war has been devastating for Lebanon hasn't it Lina? It was you know a shock for many people on many levels although they've been talking about it expecting it but no one had expected this to be at this scale and that's quick. First a big blow to Hezbollah but then you know a series of assassinations, targets in the city in the south, more than one million displaced, and infrastructure destroyed, people's homes and buildings and neighborhoods have been reduced to rubbles. So there's a lot to pick up after this period of time, and people are really hopeful that this ceasefire will last,

and this will be the end of the war. How much support does Hezbollah have still in Lebanon? This is a very debatable question. The majority of the people who've been affected and had to flee their homes and their towns are of the Shia community, but not necessarily of supporters to Hezbollah. But because of this, what they see as a brutal reaction, brutal attacks by the Israelis, people became defendant and defiant and in support of Hezbollah.

Even those who are a critic of Hezbollah in Lebanon felt that this is the time to focus our forces and our criticism to Israel, not to Hezbollah. Although there are lots of speculations and criticism to Hezbollah as well within the Lebanese community that it was the only party that decided on behalf of the country to drag it into this war that nobody wanted. Lina Sinjab in Beirut. Well, across the border in northern Israel, the conflict has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes. Hillel and Sarah both live in the north,

and they spoke to the BBC's Mark Lowen about what the ceasefire could mean for them. The real desire that I think people have is to return to a sense of normality so people can go about their businesses and to protect their businesses. I mean, we have family and friends in Schlommie. Some have been evacuated, some have remained. Schlommie is much closer to the border and their town is like a ghost town. Well you talk about that sense of normality Sarah, do you believe that will be achieved by this ceasefire deal that is being discussed? We would love it to be the case. We have

every face that the citizens in Lebanon would want the same as as they want peace, they want to go out. Unfortunately the citizens of Lebanon are not in charge. If Hezbollah is anything to go by, we are very cautious about what this means, but we don't know what's going to happen in 60 days. Are they going to be able to rearm? But we really don't know the full extent of Hezbollah's capabilities, whether Iran is still going to be able to

fund it and keep the terror going. Hillel, are you optimistic about the ceasefire? To be honest, as a very moderate individual in terms of my political views, given the situation, I don't hold out much hope, unfortunately, for a ceasefire. We all want to see an end to the fighting. We want to see Lebanese civilians being able to go back to life as normal, Israeli citizens going back to life as normal and peace. When you have an organization like Hezbollah, who's basically holding Lebanon hostage at this point, I think Israel needs to take a very, very hard line against Hezbollah, unfortunately, like a very strong military response.

This is a war with an organisation that does not recognise the legitimacy of Israel's right to exist and does not care about its own civilians, let alone Israeli citizens. Sarah, do you believe that your friends and colleagues who have evacuated will come back if there is a ceasefire? Sorry, we have a siren. We have to, we're just going to go into my protected space.

Sorry. We're under rocket fire. Just tell me, just explain what you've had to do there, what the protected space is. There's rocket fire in the area and we've just entered our safe space, our communal safe space with our dogs and our neighbours. Sarah and Hillel ending that report as they shelter from Hezbollah rocket fire just before the announcement of a ceasefire deal. Well, let's end this podcast with our international editor Jeremy Byrne. A ceasefire cannot come quickly enough for all parties inside Lebanon.

Thousands of innocent Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israel. Its strikes destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of others. Hezboa's surviving leaders and their patrons in Iran want to ceasefire too. Hisbala was designed to deter Israel not just from attacking Lebanon but also from attacking Iran. But before Hisbala could use the most powerful weapons Iran had provided, Israel delivered a series of devastating blows to its leadership and its arsenal. Hezbollah is still firing into Israel and fighting the Israeli invasion.

But the organization built and led by Hassan Nasrallah failed to recognize that the mindset and determination in Israel changed profoundly after the Hamas attacks on the 7th of October last year. Nasrallah himself has been assassinated. His bala was the strongest part of Iran's strategy of forward defense through allies and proxies, known as the Axis of Resistance. Now that strategy is broken. A ceasefire in Lebanon is not necessarily a precursor to one in Gaza. Israel has a more limited agenda in Lebanon. It wants to push Hezbollah back from its northern border, to damage Iran indirectly,

and to allow civilians to return to border towns. President-elect Trump has also indicated that he wants a ceasefire in Lebanon before he takes office in the United States. Gaza is different. The war there is about more than the security of the border and Israeli hostages. It's also about revenge, about Benjamin Netanyahu's political survival and his government's absolute rejection of Palestinian aspirations for independence. Jeremy Bowen. And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producer was Liam McShephy. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye bye. World Service. What's it like to be a young woman with big plans and lots of friends when suddenly your life shuts down? Hear the story of Leila, a university student in Afghanistan on Our Whole Life is a Secret with me Monica Whitlock. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC

podcasts.