Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Thursday with American envoys who came to Israel to move toward a ceasefire in Lebanon, stressing that a truce with Hezbollah must guarantee his country’s security.
This visit to Jerusalem by White House emissaries, Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, aims in particular to find a way out of more than a month of war between Israel and the Lebanese Islamist movement supported by Iran, while the United States United are trying to reach a framework agreement a few days before the presidential election.
On Thursday, rocket fire from Lebanon killed seven people in northern Israel and the Israeli army carried out strikes in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, where it has been at war for more than a year against the Palestinian Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah.
According to Israeli media citing government sources, the plan prepared by American emissaries provides for a withdrawal of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, bordering Israel, as well as the withdrawal of the Israeli army from this region, control of which would return to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.
Lebanon would have the responsibility to prevent Hezbollah from rearming with imported weapons and Israel would retain its right to defend itself in accordance with international law.
“The main issue (…) is Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon”Mr. Netanyahu told the two envoys, according to his office.
Later, the Prime Minister assured ” appreciate “ American support, while refusing to give in to pressure from its historic ally.
“I very, very much appreciate the American support and my policy is simple: when it is possible, I say yes, but when necessary, I say no”he said during a military ceremony.
“Terrorist armies will no longer be at our borders. Hamas will no longer control Gaza and Hezbollah will not establish itself on our northern border in positions to invade.” Israel, he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also met with American envoys. The discussions, according to his office, focused on “security arrangements related to the northern area (of Israel) and Lebanon, and efforts to ensure return” hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by incessant rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza.
According to Israeli television Channel 12, Israel demands the withdrawal of Hezbollah to the north of the Litani River, about thirty kilometers north of the Israeli border, the deployment of the Lebanese army on the border, an international enforcement mechanism of the truce and the guarantee that Israel will retain its freedom of action in the event of threats.
Israeli officials said the soldiers, engaged in a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since September 30, would not withdraw until an agreement that would meet Israel’s security demands.
“Total dismantling”
On Wednesday, the new leader of Hezbollah, Naïm Qassem, said he was ready for a ceasefire « sous conditions »without specifying which ones.
According to Israeli media, a ceasefire appears increasingly likely after Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi reported the “total dismantling of the chain of command” you Hezbollah.
The war that has been raging since October 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out strikes since September 23 mainly on Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east of the country, and on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
On Thursday, six rescue workers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal were killed in Israeli raids in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities. Bombings also targeted the outskirts of the southern city of Tire and the area around Baalbeck in the east.
More than 1,780 people have been killed since September 23 in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on official data.
In Metoula, in northern Israel, a farmer and four foreign agricultural workers were killed by rockets fired from Lebanon, according to Mayor David Azoulai.
“A man in his thirties and a woman in her sixties” also died in gunfire in northern Israel, according to Israeli emergency services.
Refusal of a “temporary truce”
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has mainly concentrated its offensive since October 6 in the north, where seven air strikes targeted Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Gaza City on Thursday, according to witnesses.
A Hamas official, Taher al-Nounou, reiterated on Wednesday the refusal of his movement to “temporary truce”demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and “permanent shutdown” of the war.
A source close to the negotiations announced shortly before that the mediating countries, Egypt, the United States and Qatar, were preparing to propose a truce “less than a month” in Gaza associated with the release of hostages.
The war was triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 97 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the Israeli army.
The retaliatory offensive by Israel in Gaza left 43,204 dead, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.