Netanyahu says he supports the proposed ceasefire with Lebanese Hezbollah

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday recommended that his Cabinet approve a United States-brokered deal ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese Hezbollah, paving the way for an end to almost fourteen months of fighting related to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

In the hours leading up to the cabinet meeting, Israel carried out its most intense wave of attacks in Beirut and its southern suburbs and issued a record number of evacuation warnings. At least 24 people have been killed in attacks across the country, according to local authorities, after Israel signaled its intention to continue punishing Hezbollah in the final hours before a ceasefire takes effect.

A ceasefire would mark the first major step toward ending the regional unrest caused by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza.

Newly elected US President Donald Trump has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East, but neither he nor Netanyahu have proposed a post-war solution for the Palestinian territory, where Hamas still holds dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable.

Still, any halt to fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the chance of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and twice exchanged direct fire with Israel earlier this year.

Israel says it will ‘attack with force’ if Hezbollah breaks ceasefire

In a televised statement, Netanyahu said he would submit the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers later Tuesday, when they were expected to vote on it. Listing a series of achievements against Israel’s enemies across the region, he said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran, which is both groups support.

“If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm itself, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.”

It was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would come into effect, and the exact terms of the deal were not released.

The deal calls for an initial two-month halt to fighting and calls for Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a wide swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli forces would return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troopsand UN peacekeepers would be deployed in the south, and an international panel led by the United States would monitor compliance by all parties.

But implementation remains a big question mark. Israel has demanded the right to act if Hezbollah violates its obligations. Lebanese officials have refused to include this in the proposal.

Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official of the group said Tuesday that it had not seen the agreement in its final form.

“After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a similarity between what we stated and what was agreed by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, vice chairman of Hezbollah’s political council, told reporters. , to news network Al Jazeera. .

“We obviously want to put an end to the aggression, but not at the expense of state sovereignty.” of Lebanon, he said. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.”

Warplanes bomb Beirut and its southern suburbs

Even as Israeli, American, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism about a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah’s military capabilities.

An Israeli strike leveled a residential building in Beirut’s central Basta neighborhood on Tuesday – the second time in recent days that warplanes have hit the busy area near the city center. At least seven people were killed and 37 injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. At least one person was killed and 13 injured in attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the report said.

Three people were killed in a separate attack in Beirut and three in an attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media reported that another 10 people were killed in the eastern province of Baalbek. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and their infrastructure.

Israel also struck for the first time a building in Beirut’s bustling commercial district of Hamra, at a location about 400 meters away from the Central Bank of Lebanon. There were no reports of casualties.

The Israeli military said it hit targets in Beirut and other areas linked to Hezbollah’s financial arm.

The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that had not previously been targeted. The warnings, coupled with fears that Israel was stepping up attacks before a ceasefire, sent residents fleeing. Traffic was backed up and some cars had mattresses strapped to them. Dozens of people, some wearing their pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddled under blankets or standing around the fire as Israeli drones buzzed loudly overhead.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, continued to fire rockets, setting off airstrike sirens across northern Israel.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a large presence, as well as a warning for the southern city of Naqoura, where the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL is headquartered.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told The Associated Press that peacekeepers will not evacuate.

Israeli troops reach the Litani River in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army also said its ground forces clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the east side of the Litani River, a few kilometers from the Israeli border.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah would have to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers north of the border.

Hezbollah began shooting at northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging firefights ever since.

Israel escalated its bombing campaign in mid-September and later sent troops to Lebanon, promising to end Hezbollah fire so that tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes.

More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon in the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombing has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.

Hezbollah’s fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to do so evacuate in the north of the country, and the rockets have reached Israel as far south as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than fifty Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in Lebanon.