WASHINGTON/BEIRUT - Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to implement a ceasefire, according to a joint statement released on Wednesday following trilateral negotiations in Washington.
The ceasefire is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives from the South Litani Sector, said the statement issued by the two countries and the United States.
Israel and Lebanon also agreed to advance the creation of "pilot zones" in Lebanon where the militant group Hezbollah will be excluded.
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In these pilot zones, "Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors," said the statement, which was issued at the end of a fourth round of the US-mediated high-level talks held at the US State Department in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The fifth round of high-level talks between Israel and Lebanon "with a view toward reaching a comprehensive agreement" has been scheduled to be held later this month, said the statement.
13 killed in Israeli airstrikes
Meanwhile, at least 13 people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks across southern Lebanon from late Tuesday through Wednesday noon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency and the health authorities.
Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Center said five people were killed and several others wounded in Israeli strikes reported late Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, the National News Agency reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on the Khaldeh-Naameh highway, about 12 km south of Beirut, marking one of the closest strikes to the Lebanese capital in recent weeks.
Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, four Syrian nationals were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Al-Mayadeen road in the al Hosh area near the coastal city of Tyre, while two Palestinian nationals were killed in another strike on the Maamoura-al Hosh road.
The National News Agency also reported that Ali Salman Nader, a medic with the Al-Risala Emergency Medical Association, was killed in a drone strike targeting the Ain neighborhood of the southern town of Arabsalim.
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Another person was killed in a strike on the southern town of Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain in the Tyre district.
Later on Wednesday, the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to residents of the southern towns of Arzi, Mazraat Kawthariyet El Riz, and Zrariyeh as military operations continued across the region.
