In Beirut, US envoy Hochstein says Gaza ceasefire crucial, ‘no more time to waste’
Hostage-truce deal with Hamas ‘would prevent an outbreak of a wider war,’ Hochstein says, as Israel continues to brace for potential attacks from Iran and Hezbollah
Visiting Beirut, US special envoy to the region Amos Hochstein warned Wednesday the clock was ticking for a hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza that could also help end 10 months of cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Hochstein’s Lebanon trip comes a day before hostage-ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are set to resume, with top diplomats scrambling to avert all-out war after Iran and its proxy Hezbollah vowed revenge for recent high-profile killings.
Hochstein told a Beirut news conference that he and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, discussed “the framework agreement that’s on the table for a Gaza ceasefire, and he and I agreed there is no more time to waste and there are no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay.
“The deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war,” Hochstein said.
“We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now,” he added.
Late last month, in response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 kids and teens in the Golan Heights, an Israeli strike killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the group. Hours later, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was also killed in Tehran, in a blast widely blamed on Israel.
“The more time goes by of escalated tensions… the more the odds and the chances go up for accidents, for mistakes, for inadvertent targets to be hit that could easily cause escalation that gets out of control,” Hochstein warned.
“We believe we can get to [the] end of the conflict now, today. We recognize that there are those who want to tie it to other conflicts. That is not our position,” he said. “We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel.”
Hezbollah has repeatedly said it would only end hostilities once a Gaza ceasefire deal has been reached. Israel has rejected the terror group’s tying of its daily attacks on the northern border region to the Gaza conflict.
The US envoy also met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who warned in a statement that “Israeli intransigence is threatening efforts to stop the war.”
Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his group and Iran were “obliged to respond” to Israel “whatever the consequences” after the killings of Shukr and Haniyeh.
On Tuesday, Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar published a report headlined “Don’t welcome the Israeli mediator,” accusing Hochstein of providing assurances to Lebanon before Shukr’s killing that Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 Israeli soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 408 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 71 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
