The United States, Israel, and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington on Friday after several days of negotiations aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, according to US, Israeli, and Lebanese officials.

The officials did not disclose details of the agreement or explain how it differs from the April 16 ceasefire deal that led to several rounds of US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon, according to Reuters. “There is a lot of work ahead,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the announcement in a video message late Friday night, saying, “Citizens of Israel, before the start of Shabbat I want to announce a major achievement for the State of Israel…These have been lengthy talks [between Israel, Lebanon, and the US], and today they have borne fruit.”

Under the agreement, Israeli forces will pull back from two areas located inside the six-mile buffer zone the IDF established in southern Lebanon, with Lebanese forces moving in to replace them. The areas being vacated were already cleared by the IDF of Hezbollah infrastructure, in some cases through the demolition of Lebanese border villages that Israel said Hezbollah had used to plan and launch attacks.

The framework was reached on the fourth day of the fifth round of US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington. The sides had been pushing to finalize an agreement by Thursday, the original final day of this round, but required additional time to close remaining gaps.

According to an Israeli official who spoke with tue Times of Israel, the scope of the withdrawal is narrower than it may initially appear. The pullback applies only to two areas located beyond the original borders of the buffer zone established in April; in the more than two months since, the IDF expanded the zone further north, and it is from sections of that expanded territory that Israel agreed to withdraw. The retreat does not include Beaufort Castle, the lookout point recaptured by Israel in May that had long symbolized Israel’s previous 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000 after the government concluded the deployment was not providing security commensurate with the toll of ongoing casualties. Israel insisted throughout this week’s talks on preserving the original buffer zone boundaries, arguing that the territory is necessary to keep northern border communities out of range of Hezbollah missiles.

Both Israel and Lebanon had entered this round of negotiations angered by Washington’s decision last week to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iran that included a ceasefire arrangement covering Lebanon. Jerusalem and Beirut both argued that the MOU undermined the very purpose of their direct talks, which the US had set up specifically to keep Iran from dictating terms inside Lebanese territory. That frustration shaped the early posture of both delegations this week: Israel responded by hardening its position and sharply narrowing the territory it was willing to withdraw from, while Lebanon, seeking to demonstrate that Iran does not hold greater sway over Lebanese affairs than Beirut itself, presented withdrawal maps far more expansive than what Israel – already constrained by domestic political pressure on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government – was prepared to accept.

It remains unclear whether the limited withdrawal will be accepted by Iran or Hezbollah, which have argued that Israel’s continued presence in the buffer zone violates the terms of last week’s MOU requiring a permanent halt to military operations in Lebanon. Israel has rejected that claim, maintaining that it is not a party to the US-Iran agreement and that it will not dismantle the buffer zone. Hezbollah has continued striking at Israeli troops stationed in southern Lebanon, straining what has already been a fragile ceasefire and threatening the broader US-brokered arrangement with Iran that Washington has been working to preserve.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, described the agreement as a turning point, saying it reflected the exclusion of both Iran and Hezbollah from future arrangements in the area and crediting the resolve of northern Israeli residents for making the outcome possible.