The Ceasefire Trap: How The US-Brokered Agreement Enables Israeli War Crimes And Occupation
This ceasefire was never intended to further peace, but rather, to legitimize colonization and occupation while providing some desperately needed PR for Israel and the US.
The ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, brokered by the United States and France, is a ceasefire only by name. A closer read of the agreement proves that it was created to serve as a tool for U.S. and Israeli dominance over a fractured and fragile Lebanon that helps ensure endless impunity for Israel.
Photo from Netanyahu’s Facebook page.
The document clearly demonstrates an attempt to trade Lebanon’s sovereignty is for US-aligned geopolitical ambitions under the guise of a peace deal, leaving Lebanon defenseless against an emboldened Israel.
Hezbollah’s claims of victory are also ringing hollow; as the document clearly attempts to silence their resistance and while legitimizing Israel’s right to commit war crimes in “defense”.
Israeli forces have committed 62 violations of the Lebanon ceasefire agreement since it came into effect on Wednesday, including airstrikes, artillery fire, and other aggressive actions.
Today its drones buzzing brazenly over Beirut are a reminder that Israeli forces will continue relentlessly targeting civilians just as Hezbollah will continue to smuggle arms.
Despite no retaliation from Lebanon, Israel has repeatedly opened fire, undermining the very premise of the agreement: An agreement deliberately designed to ensure unchecked Israeli domination, and occupation.
The second paragraph of the ceasefire alone highlights the absurdity of the agreement: demanding Lebanese groups halt “any operations against Israel” while restricting Israel only from “offensive” actions.
From 4am, November 27, 2024 forward, the Government of Lebanon will prevent Hezbollah and all other armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any operations against Israel, and Israel will not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military or other state targets, in the territory of Lebanon by land, air or sea.
This linguistic loophole allows Israel to continue firing, killing, and maiming, and all the while frame its actions as defense. The U.S. and UK, eager to back their ally, dismiss Israeli aggression as legitimate counter-terrorism, even when its violence—like the mass-pager attack killing 37 people in September—is tantamount to state-sponsored terrorism.
So Lebanese armed groups will be stopped from carrying out “any operations against Israel” wheres Israel will be stopped from carrying out “any offensive military operations”.The takeaway in laymen’s terms by having “offensive” only included in one side of this equation is that Israel is still allowed to fire, and nobody else can.
And so, Israel has been firing, killing and maiming, and as is always the case regardless of reality, facts and video evidence, it is framing its aggression as “defensive”.
On paper, the LAF are supposed to control all border crossings once hostilities stop. But the very next clause in the document cancels that by delaying their entry into the Israeli-occupied zone, including the border, for two months. This means Lebanon can’t even secure its own border or monitor Israeli troop movements during that time. Instead, the LAF is essentially pushed back to the Litani River, creating a de facto new border that Israel fully controls to the south.
In short, the agreement is less about peace and more about solidifying Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, while providing some desperately needed PR for Israel and the US; it also provides France with a convenient excuse to shield Netanyahu from International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants, an act that blatantly excuses war crimes and encourages further violations.
You’d have to be pretty damn naive to believe its simply a coincidence that immediately after the Lebanon ceasefire was announced, France’s foreign ministry suddenly discovered that Netanyahu enjoys immunity."
The Lebanese army’s so-called "neutrality" during the invasion is no neutrality at all—it’s complicity, purchased with U.S. dollars and dictated by foreign interests that go directly against their raison d’être.
While threatening Lebanon with “all-out war” for ceasefire violations, Israel has sent troops into Lebanese territory multiple times, targeted mourners at funerals, and continued shooting at civilians returning to the south.
Video footage shows Israeli tanks entering the town of Aitaroun in the Nabatieh Governorate of southern Lebanon, highlighting the flagrant daily violations since the ceasefire.
Another video shows Israeli snipers killing two people at a funeral, despite UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army granting permission for the ceremony. These actions reveal the true purpose of the agreement: to enable Israeli aggression, legitimize occupation, while silencing Lebanese resistance.
Even France, which shielded Netanyahu from accountability, eventually condemned Israel for its 52 documented ceasefire violations, noting that three Lebanese civilians were killed as a direct result. Yet, Israel’s tanks continue to roll into southern Lebanon, its drones invade Beirut’s airspace, and its bombs destroy residential complexes in flagrant defiance of international norms.
Since Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel’s western backers, the US and UK will view any aggression by Israel as legitimate counter-terrorism, just as they had when Israel launched a large-scale. pager terrorist attack several months ago killing 37 people – including two children – and wounding at least 3,000 others, which former CIA director Leon Panetta rightfully described as a form of terrorism.
"I don't think there's any doubt that this is terrorism.”
Just as in Gaza, Israel’s destruction of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and targeting of innocents continues with impunity, orchestrated under the guise of a ceasefire and overseen by a complicit international community.
Yesterday’s deliberate Israeli strike on a vehicle in Khan Younis killed three aid workers and two civilians, reminiscent of April’s intentional attack on a convoy of humanitarian workers.
Israel’s targeting and killing—of journalists, doctors, and academics—are not accidental but deliberate acts of terror, carried out by a government emboldened by Western protection from accountability.
This ceasefire does not bring us anywhere closer to peace, and it was never supposed to. It is intended to legitimize colonization and further shield Israel from accountability, and growing global condemnation in the halls of power and hearts of human beings the world over.