For its part, the Lebanese group said on Monday that it carried out a “preliminary defensive response” to the “repeated violations” of the ceasefire by attacking an Israeli military base in the hills of Kfar Chouba, a disputed area that Lebanon claims as its own.

Hezbollah said Israeli breaches of the truce that went into effect on Wednesday include deadly air raids across Lebanon, shooting at civilians in the south, and flying drones and jets in Lebanese airspace, including over the capital, Beirut.

The group said it launched its “warning” attack because “appeals by the relevant authorities to stop these violations did not succeed”.

The renewed violence highlights the fragility of the ceasefire, which ended a devastating war that killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon and saw Hezbollah fire rockets daily at Israel.

Earlier on Monday, Lebanon’s State Security agency said an Israeli rocket killed officer Mahdi Khreis in the southern district of Nabatieh, calling the incident a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire and a dangerous escalation.

Israeli bombardment in neighbouring Marjayoun killed another person, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said. A drone attack in the northeast of the country also injured a Lebanese soldier.

Although the ceasefire calls on all parties to hold their fire, Israel has been launching near-daily attacks against Lebanon.

Lebanese media have also reported that the Israeli military is using the truce to advance into new neighbourhoods in towns that it had entered during the war.

Life in Lebanon “started resuming” after the ceasefire was reached with hundreds of thousands of displaced people returning to their homes.

“Now, it seems with Israel’s insistence on violating the ceasefire, Hezbollah found it necessary to say … that these violations must stop or things might get out of control,” Hashem said.

After months of low-level hostilities, Israel launched an all-out war on Lebanon on September 23 with the stated aim of defeating Hezbollah.

The Lebanese group had been targeting Israeli military bases in northern Israel for months in an effort that it said was aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza.

Israel assassinated top Hezbollah military and political leaders early in the war, including the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah.

It also levelled thousands of buildings and homes across Lebanon with its focus on southern and eastern Lebanon and the Beirut suburbs of Dahiyeh – areas where Hezbollah is popular.

Still, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at northern and central Israel. The group also said it inflicted heavy losses on invading Israeli troops that crossed into the country.

The truce, which was brokered by the United States and France, stipulates that the Israeli military must withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days and Hezbollah must move away from the border with Israel until it is north of the Litani River.

During those two months, the Lebanese army is to deploy to southern Lebanon to be the only armed force there.

 Although Israel said its recent attacks are to “enforce” the truce, the agreement prohibits attacks by all sides.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who was Lebanon’s chief negotiator in the ceasefire talks, stressed on Monday that Israel has violated the truce more than 54 times, including by carrying out air raids and demolishing homes near the border.

“All these activities represent flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement,” he said in a statement.On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz suggested the country is ready for further escalation, promising a “harsh response” to the Hezbollah attack.

“We promised to act against any violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah – and that is exactly what we will do,” he said in a social media post.

But the US voiced confidence in the truce agreement on Monday. “Broadly speaking, it has been successful in stopping the fighting and getting us on a path where we are not seeing the daily loss of life that we had seen for two months prior,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

He said the US administration will work through a monitoring mechanism established by the agreement to address potential violations to the ceasefire.

An Israeli drone attack on the village of Rab el-Thalathine in southern Lebanon killed two people and injured two others on Saturday, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).

An Israeli drone attack also hit a car in the town of Majdal Zoun in the Tyre district of the South Governorate, injuring three people, including a child, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said.

Israeli warplanes carried out two air attacks on the Tibnah area in the town of Beisariyah in the Sidon district of the South Governorate, injuring at least one person, according to the ministry.

The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hezbollah facility in Sidon that housed rocket launchers for the armed group.

It added that it had also hit a vehicle in southern Lebanon loaded with rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and military equipment as part of its actions against ceasefire violations.

Israel carried out the attacks despite the current Israel-Lebanon ceasefire that ended more than 13 months of fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

Both sides have accused each other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire since it came into effect on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the truce, Hezbollah is meant to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, approximately 30km (20 miles) north of the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Israel is to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line, the de facto border, in a phased manner, while the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers will deploy in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws over a period of 60 days.

Israel has insisted on its “full military freedom of action” in Lebanon if Hezbollah violates the ceasefire agreement or attempts to rearm.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 3,961 people, wounded more than 16,500 others, and displaced more than one million people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israeli authorities have said that Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have killed 45 civilians and at least 73 Israeli soldiers.

He said Israel had set Hezbollah back “tens of years” and that it was not the same group it had been before.

There was a lot of focus on Israel’s strength in doing what it believed needed to be done – in Gaza, in Lebanon and elsewhere – despite international opposition.

And there was a lot of justification for the ceasefire too – it would allow Israel to “concentrate on the Iranian threat”, Netanyahu said, emphasising that his country would retain full military freedom to counter any new Hezbollah threat.

Israel’s army said on Tuesday it had hit 180 targets in Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Here on the Israeli side of the border, there have been constant warnings of rocket barrages and drone attacks from Lebanon.

Neither side wants this ceasefire deal to be seen as surrender.

But surrender is exactly what Netanyahu is being accused of by his political rivals – and some of his political allies too.

One poll yesterday suggested that more than 80% of Netanyahu’s support base opposed a deal, and residents in the north of Israel – large numbers of whom have been evacuated from their homes – are angry too.

Nationally, the picture was more split, however. One poll showed 37% of Israelis in favour of the ceasefire, 32% against and 31% saying they didn’t know.Shelly, an English teacher in Shlomi, said a ceasefire was an “irresponsible and hasty political decision”.

Rona Valency, evacuated from kibbutz Kfar Giladi on 8 October last year, told me she wanted to go home, and that a ceasefire was needed, but that the idea of Lebanese residents returning to these villages gave her “a real sense of unease and fright”.

From Kfar Giladi there are clear views of the Lebanese village of Odaisseh just across the valley.

“The only thing I can hope for is that Hezbollah will not infiltrate these villages and build a new network,” Rona told me.

“Apart from completely erasing these villages, and having no people there, there is no real physical thing that can make me feel safe. It’s just, you know, hope.”

Her husband, Onn, said the key to security lay, not in the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but in people “understand[ing] again, where we live; understand[ing] some things that a lot of us forgot”.

He said he didn’t trust the Lebanese army, nor the Americans, to restore security along the border.

“I trust only our army,” he said. “I think if the army won’t be there, it will be very, very hard to get the citizens back.”

This war has delivered a lot of military achievements for Israel – Hezbollah is weakened, its arsenals and infrastructure depleted, and its solidarity with Hamas broken.

But Israel’s armed forces are tired, its economy is suffering, and tens of thousands of its residents are displaced.

Still, many here are urging Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war in Lebanon – asking why the prime minister who has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza until “total victory” is signing a ceasefire in the north?

In a televised address from Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Biden said the truce would begin at 4am local time (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday. The agreement did not relate to the ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza.

“Lasting security for the people of Israel and Lebanon cannot be achieved only on the battlefield. That’s why I directed my team to work with the governments of Israel and Lebanon to forge a

Barely an hour of the ceasefire announcement, The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that three projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel earlier, after Netanyahu addressed his country about the ceasefire deal.

In a post on Telegram, the IDF said that sirens sounded in the Western and Central Galilee areas and Shtula.They say after this, three projectiles were intercepted by their air force.

Speaking at the White House Biden said, “Let’s be clear, Israel did not launch this war, Lebanese people did not seek that war either, nor did the United States”.

He added that he had been directing assets to flow into the region, “to defend Israel and to deter our common enemy at a critical moment.”

Since the war began, more than 70,000 Israelis have been forced to live as refugees, Biden said, as they watch their communities “destroyed”.

He added that over 300,000 Lebanese people have also been forced to become refugees.

“This has been the deadliest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in decades.”

President Biden, speaking from the Rose Garden, opened by saying Lebanon and Israel have agreed to the ceasefire deal that the US helped to broker.When it takes effect, Biden said: “The fighting will end. Will end. This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

He reiterated that civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities.

The US, with France and allies, has pledged to work with Israel and Lebanon to make sure it’s “fully” implemented, he said. He also made sure to emphasize that no US troops would be involved.

On Gaza, he said the people there also deserve an end to fighting.

“The people of Gaza have been through hell. Their world has been shattered.”

Biden said his administration will continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza too.

Biden said that the team has collaborated with Israel and Lebanon to establish a ceasefire, which will bring the conflict to a close, effective from 02:00 GMT (04:00 local time) early Wednesday.

He stated that over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces.

People in both Lebanon and Israel will soon be able to safely return to their communities and begin rebuilding their lives, Biden says.

He added that if Hezbollah breaks the agreement, Israel has the right to self-defence in accordance with international law.

Biden turned to Gaza, saying people there “deserve an end to the fighting and displacement”.

“People of Gaza have been through hell,” and they have suffered “too much”, he adds.

“Hamas has a choice to make”, he adds, saying the “only way out” is to release the hostages taken from Israel last year.

He says in the coming days the US will make another push to “achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.”

This brings them closer to a vision of a future in the Middle East of peace, he says.

The US remains prepared to do “historic deals” for establishing a Palestinian state and a normalisation of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“I believe this agenda remains possible,” the US president says, and adds that he will spend the remaining days in office working “tirelessly” towards this.

Biden concluded by stating that today’s ceasefire announcement is a crucial step towards achieving peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

He applauded the decision made by the leaders of Lebanon and Israel to end the violence.”It reminds us that peace is possible,” he said.