Israel’s war Cabinet was meeting Tuesday to discuss a plan for a cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon as its military launched fresh airstrikes on southern Beirut.
Hezbollah, the powerful political and militant group and Iran’s most important proxy, began trading fire with Israel on Oct. 8 last year, a day after Hamas launched it terrorist attack on Israel from Gaza. Hezbollah says it is supporting the Palestinian resistance; Israel sees it as another attempt by Tehran to attack the Jewish state.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Monday that his country’s security Cabinet would most likely discuss the proposed truce when it meets on Tuesday. This was confirmed to NBC News by an Israeli source briefed on the matter.
Lisa Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., submitted the proposal last week to Lebanon’s Parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, according to an adviser to the speaker, Ali Hamdan.
Amid this flurry of diplomatic activity, Israel fired missiles into Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 31 people in Beirut and the port city of Tyre. Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets at Israel on Sunday, leaving neighborhoods in flames, according to the Israeli military.
A key part of the deal, from Israel’s perspective, is that Hezbollah should be pushed back north of the Litani River, a strategic waterway in south and central Lebanon, Danon said Monday.
This stipulation was also part of the deal that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, but Hezbollah remained entrenched in the region. Israel sees its continued presence there as a grave threat.
“We are moving forward on this front,” Danon told reporters at the U.N. in New York. “Our goal was very clear, which is to push Hezbollah north of the Litany river. We haven’t finalized it, but we are moving forward.”
“It’s important that Hezbollah will not be allowed to come back to the fence, and we will do whatever is necessary to guarantee it,” he added.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told Reuters that the agreement would also allow Israeli to act in self-defense to remove Hezbollah’s threat, and enable the safe return of the residents of the north of Israel to their homes.
On Monday, three senior Biden administration officials told NBC News that a cease-fire deal to end the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia was close but not complete.
Israeli has said it will not stop its attacks until the 60,000 residents of northern Israel who have been driven from their homes can return safely. Around 90 Israeli soldiers and 50 Israeli civilians have been killed, according to officials in the country.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombing since the fighting started, according Lebanon’s health ministry, a campaign that has displaced some 1.2 million people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis.
In this multifront war in the Middle East, the Lebanon conflict has become a key focus for Israel in recent months. That’s partly down to Hezbollah’s mighty missile arsenal, bigger than any other non-state group in the world and thought to be capable of overwhelming Israel’s missile defense.
After Hamas’ terror attack in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped, Hezbollah started firing missiles at Israel, which responded by launching rockets of its own. This then flared to a full-scale war in September, with Israel killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and significantly weakening the group.
War is still grinding on in Gaza, where a humanitarian catastrophe is playing out and more than 44,000 people have been killed, according to local officials.
The cease-fire would be limited to Lebanon, meaning it would not bring relief to Palestinians in Gaza or the dozens of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
The families of the hostages said they “strongly urge” any agreement to include a demand for the release of those who are being held.
“The October 7 attack, orchestrated by Hamas and supported by Iran, saw Hezbollah join the conflict, linking its fate to the war in Gaza and the atrocities of the October 7 massacre,” the families said in a statement.
“The current efforts to secure an agreement ending the war on the northern front present a vital opportunity to bring all hostages home. The northern front and the hostages’ release are inseparably linked — we cannot and must not treat them as separate issues.”
Freddie Clayton
contributed
.
