Israel and Lebanon agree to implement ceasefire if Hezbollah stops attacks

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of "pilot" security zones inside Lebanon in which Hezbollah operatives would be banned, the US State Department announced.

The agreement is "contingent on a complete cessation" of attacks by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, among other conditions.

It comes after Israeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday and Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, testing a partial truce agreed on Monday.

The countries "rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon's future hostage," the statement said.

The agreement, reached after the fourth round of US-brokered talks in Washington, is contingent on the "evacuation of all [Hezbollah] operatives" from an area Israel controls in southern Lebanon from the Litani river to the border.

Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim political and military group that operates in Lebanon and which has been involved in a series of violent conflicts with Israel. The group is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and many other nations, including the UK and US.

The statement said the US would help guide the creation of "pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors". No further detail was given on how the zones would work.

The announcement follows a partial ceasefire agreed on Monday, which Lebanon said would see Israel refrain from bombing Beirut, in exchange for Hezbollah not attacking Israel.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters before the announcement that he hoped they would produce "an action plan on a track for security in [Lebanon], independent from Hezbollah".

The partial ceasefire was tested by both Israeli and Hezbollah fire this week.

Lebanon's health ministry said those killed by Israel on Wednesday included two paramedics whose ambulance was hit in a strike in the southern Chehour area. A car was also struck just south of the capital Beirut.

Meanwhile, Israel's military said it had intercepted a drone and two projectiles that crossed the border. Hezbollah said it targeted a gathering of Israeli troops.

Before the announcement on Wednesday evening, Israel's leaders had warned that the country's military would resume strikes on the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahieh, if the group launched cross-border attacks on northern Israeli communities.

According to the Lebanese government, the partial ceasefire agreed on Monday stated that "Israel w