US says Lebanon cease-fire 'largely' holding amid Israel strikes, Hezbollah retaliation

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House said Monday that a nearly week-old cease-fire agreement in Lebanon is "largely" being respected after Hezbollah responded to a series of deadly Israeli strikes across the country.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby described Israel's attacks since the deal went into effect as "sporadic," saying they were "expected" under the agreement's terms. He hailed what he described as a "dramatic reduction in violence" since last Tuesday, and said a "mechanism" has been set up to address violations.

"We did put in place a mechanism to actually work out, and de-conflict, and to try to stop these attacks. That mechanism is in full force and is working," he told reporters on Air Force One. "Largely speaking, though, the ceasefire is holding."

A US Army general based out of the US embassy in Beirut and President Joe Biden's special envoy, Amos Hochstein, are running the de-confliction mechanism, and Kirby described them as the "connective tissue to the parties to try to monitor and keep the ceasefire implemented."

On Monday, three separate Israeli attacks in Lebanon left two people killed and a Lebanese Armed Forces soldier injured.

The attacks came shortly after the army said that the body of a Lebanese officer who had been unaccounted for since Nov. 26 after an Israeli airstrike was found in Naqoura town in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, for his part, asked the committee supervising the cease-fire with Israel to oblige Tel Aviv to stop its violations of the deal and withdraw from the Lebanese territories.

On Nov. 27, a cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel took effect, ending over 14 months of fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

Lebanese media reported around 73 Israeli violations of the cease-fire deal since it came into force last week.

Hezbollah said Monday that it targeted the Roueissat Al-Alam Israeli military post in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills, describing the action as a “preliminary defensive warning” in response to ongoing Israeli violations of the cease-fire agreement.

Under the terms of the pact, Israel is to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line de facto border in a phased manner while the Lebanese army deploys its forces in southern Lebanon within a period that does not exceed 60 days.

Implementation of the agreement will be overseen by the US and France, but details on enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.

More than 3,960 people have been killed and more than 16,500 injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon and over 1 million displaced since October last year, according to Lebanese health authorities.