Israel’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to vote on a proposed ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, a senior Israeli official said on Monday, while a Lebanese official said Beirut had been told by Washington that an accord could be announced “within hours.”
The signs of a diplomatic breakthrough were accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, as Israel pressed on with the offensive it launched in September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on reports that both Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal. But the senior Israeli official told Reuters Tuesday’s cabinet meeting was intended to approve the text.
Israeli officials had said earlier that a deal to end the war was getting closer though some issues remained, while two senior Lebanese officials voiced guarded optimism even as Israel continued to bombard Lebanon and Hezbollah kept up rocket fire.
The Israeli ambassador to Washington said a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants could be reached “within days.”
Ambassador Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio on Monday there remain “points to finalize” and any deal requires agreement from the government. But he said “we are close to a deal” and “it can happen within days.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel would maintain an ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to wording that would grant Israel such a right.
The U.S. has pushed for a deal to end over a year of hostilities between
‘No serious obstacles’ left
In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, told Reuters there were “no serious obstacles” left to start implementing a U.S.-proposed ceasefire with Israel, “unless Netanyahu changes his mind.”
He said the proposal would entail an Israeli military withdrawal from south Lebanon and regular Lebanese army troops deploying in the border region, long a Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.
A sticking point on who would monitor compliance with the ceasefire had been resolved in the last 24 hours with an agreement to set up a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the United States, he said.
A Western diplomat said another stumbling block had been the sequencing of Israel’s withdrawal, the Lebanese army’s deployment and the return of displaced Lebanese to their homes in south Lebanon.
Israeli strikes on Beirut continue
Hostilities have intensified in parallel with the diplomatic flurry: over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, while Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
In Beirut, Israeli airstrikes 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 U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress at talks in Beirut, then held meetings in Israel.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders, and inflicting massive destruction in areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway.
Israel says it had no choice but to launch its ground and air campaign, to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes they were forced to evacuate after Hezbollah began firing across the border a day after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that precipitated the war in Gaza.
Nearly 3,800 Lebanese killed in Israeli attacks
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks have killed 3,768 people in Lebanon and forced more than one million people from their homes. Its casualty figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.
The outgoing U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has emphasized diplomacy to end the Lebanon conflict, even as all negotiations to halt the parallel war in Gaza are frozen.
Diplomacy over Lebanon has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
An Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed at least 12 people, including eight rescuers, and wounded 27 others after it hit a civil defence centre in Baalbek, northeast of Beirut, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River, and the regular Lebanese army to enter the frontier region.
Israel and Hezbollah have both accused each other of failing to implement it in the past; Israel says a new ceasefire must allow it the means to strike any Hezbollah fighters or weapons that remain south of the river.
Any agreement could reveal rifts in Netanyahu’s right-leaning government. The far-right 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 U.S. ceasefire proposal, and any truce was now in Israel’s hands.
