For many across the Middle East, the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire came as a relief: the first major sign of progress in the region since war began more than a year ago.

In what might be his final achievement as president, Joe Biden, his diplomats, and their French counterparts have brokered a ceasefire in the increasingly brutal yearlong war between Israel and Hezbollah’s Islamist militia in Lebanon.

In the face of the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian and Lebanese people amid Israel's wars in Gaza and the West Bank, and as a 60-day truce between Israel and Lebanon took effect in the early hours of the day,