Israel says it’s moving towards Lebanon ceasefire
Israel is moving towards a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there are still issues to address, its government says, while Lebanese officials have voiced guarded optimism but said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not to be trusted.
Israel’s ambassador to the United States was quoted as saying a deal could transpire within days.
CNN, citing a source, said Netanyahu had approved the emerging deal “in principle” but Israel still had reservations over some details.
Hostilities have intensified in parallel with the diplomatic flurry: over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful air strikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut – while the Hezbollah group unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
In Beirut, Israeli air strikes levelled more of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Monday, sending clouds of debris billowing over the Lebanese capital.
Efforts to clinch a truce appeared to advance last week when US mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress after talks in Beirut before holding meetings in Israel and then returning to Washington DC.
“We are moving in the direction towards a deal but there are still some issues to address,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said, without elaborating.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, told Israel’s GLZ radio an agreement was close and “it could happen within days … We just need to close the last corners,” according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchorman Efi Triger.
In Beirut, Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said a decisive moment was approaching and he expressed cautious optimism.
“The balance is slightly tilted towards there being (an agreement) but by a very small degree, because a person like Netanyahu cannot be trusted,” he said.
A second senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Beirut had not received any new Israeli demands from US mediators, who were describing the atmosphere as positive and saying “things are in progress”.
The official told Reuters a ceasefire could be clinched this week.
Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Axios reported on Monday citing an unnamed senior US official.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into full-scale war in September when Israel went on the offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with air strikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders and inflicting massive destruction in areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war.
It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back about 30km from the Israeli border.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the test for any agreement would be in the enforcement of two main points.
“The first is preventing Hezbollah from moving southward beyond the Litani (River), and the second, preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its force and rearming in all of Lebanon,” Saar said in broadcast remarks to the Israeli parliament.
Ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel must press on with the war until “absolute victory”.
Addressing Netanyahu on X, he said “it is not too late to stop this agreement!”.
But Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said Israel should reach an agreement in Lebanon.
“If we say ‘no’ to Hezbollah being south of the Litani, we mean it,” he told journalists.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that the group had reviewed and given feedback on the US ceasefire proposal, and any truce was now in Israel’s hands.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people who fled from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israel’s offensive has forced more than a million people from their homes in Lebanon.
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