Many dates are etched into history, marking the end of conflicts. May 8 is now forever known as Victory in Europe Day, marking the fall of Nazi Germany; November 11 is Armistice Day, as the guns of WWI fell silent after four years of carnage; the Good Friday Agreement brought 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland to an end.
But not all wars end with surrender ceremonies, victory parades, or the signing of famous treaties. Sometimes they simply endure, fading into the background until people forget they ever officially existed.
That has been the story of Israel and Lebanon.
For almost eight decades, Israelis have lived with the knowledge that their northern border has always been a front line. Generations grew up hearing about Katyusha rockets, the security zone in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah attacks, and shelters in Kiryat Shmona. Lebanon, meanwhile, endured invasions, occupation, civil war, and the rise of one of the world's most heavily armed terrorist organizations.
Yet beneath all of that lies a legal reality that is often overlooked: Israel and Lebanon have technically remained in a state of war since May 1948.
When Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, Lebanon possessed the smallest army among the neighboring Arab states, numbering roughly 3,500 troops. Encouraged by other members of the Arab League, Beirut committed around 1,000 soldiers to the campaign against the newly established Jewish state after the British Mandate ended on May 15.
The following day, Lebanon joined Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, and Iraq in declaring war on Israel, marking the beginning of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Lebanese forces crossed into the Galilee alongside the other Arab armies but were ultimately pushed back by Israeli troops, who briefly occupied parts of southern Lebanon before withdrawing.
The 1949 Armistice Agreement ended the fighting, but did not establish peace
On March 23, 1949, Israel and Lebanon signed a General Armistice Agreement under United Nations auspices. Like Israel's other armistice agreements with neighboring Arab states, it ended active fighting but stopped well short of establishing peace. The armistice left the broader conflict unresolved, including the question of permanent borders, meaning the two countries technically remained in a state of war despite the cessation of hostilities. Unlike Israel's later peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, no political agreement followed.
The 1948 war also transformed Lebanon's internal landscape. According to United Nations estimates, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled or were displaced during the conflict, with approximately 110,000 settling in Lebanon by 1949. Most were housed in refugee camps administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Concerned that the predominantly Muslim Palestinian refugees would upset Lebanon's delicate sectarian balance, successive governments imposed strict limitations on their employment, movement, and political participation. Over time, many of the refugee camps developed a degree of autonomy, and they would later become an important recruiting ground for Palestinian militant organizations.
For decades, Lebanon has known little but internal instability and external challenges. Its fragile political system, built on a delicate balance between Christians, Sunnis, and Shi'ites, has repeatedly been tested by civil war, the rise of Palestinian militancy in the 1970s, Syrian domination, and ultimately Hezbollah's emergence as the country's most powerful armed force.
There was, however, one attempt at peace.
In 1983, following Israel's invasion of Lebanon and the expulsion of the Palestinian Liberation Organization from Beirut, the two countries signed the May 17 Agreement. It explicitly declared that "the state of war between Lebanon and Israel has ended and no longer exists."
But history had other plans. Syrian pressure, Lebanon's internal politics, and the growing influence of Shi'ite militias ensured the agreement never took effect. Within a year, it had collapsed, and the conflict entered an entirely new chapter with the emergence of Hezbollah.
Two countries that have remained, officially, at war
Everything that followed —from the security zone in southern Lebanon and Israel's withdrawal in 2000 to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah's continued military build-up, and the war that erupted after October 7 - occurred between two countries that remained, officially, at war.
That is why one sentence within Friday's trilateral framework signed by Israel, Lebanon, and the United States deserves far more attention than it has received.
“1. Israel and Lebanon affirm the right of each state to exist in peace, and their mutual desire to live in security as neighboring sovereign states. Israel and Lebanon hereby declare their intent to conclusively end the conflict, address its underlying causes, and to therewith formally conclude any state of war between them.”
In the very first clause, the two governments declare their intent "to conclusively end the conflict... and formally conclude any state of war between them."
For the first time in more than four decades, and arguably the first realistic opportunity since 1949, Israel and Lebanon have jointly stated that ending the state of war itself is an objective.
The framework still depends on Hezbollah being dismantled as a military force, the Lebanese Armed Forces asserting control over the south, and both governments implementing commitments that will undoubtedly face enormous political and security challenges. Hezbollah remains armed, while Iran's influence in Lebanon has not disappeared. Skepticism, particularly in Israel, is understandable.
Nor should anyone forget that the last attempt to formally end the conflict ultimately failed. But acknowledging those realities should not diminish the significance of what has now been put on paper after nearly eight decades of war.
For decades, ceasefires between Israel and Lebanon have focused on stopping the latest round of fighting, but this framework does something different. It identifies the conflict itself as the problem to be solved.
There is every chance this effort could meet the same fate as the 1983 attempt to end the war. But for the first time since the guns fell silent in 1949, Israel and Lebanon have jointly declared their intention to formally conclude the state of war between them.
For 78 years, that state of war survived invasions, occupations, terrorism, ceasefires, peace initiatives, and countless exchanges of fire across the border. It became so enduring that many forgot it still officially existed.
Whether Friday's framework ultimately delivers peace remains to be seen. But when two governments that have officially been enemies since 1948 publicly declare their intention to end that war, history has already begun to move.