At least two clauses in US-pushed Lebanese ceasefire plan said unacceptable to Hezbollah

The past few days’ expanded Israeli strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon were decided upon by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and new Defense Minister Israel Katz at the beginning of the week, and are aimed at showing Hezbollah that Israel will continue to expand its campaign if the terror group does not accept a ceasefire plan brokered by US envoy Amos Hochstein, Channel 12 reports.

It says Hochstein is considering a return to the region in the midweek, but will not come unless it is clear that he can close the deal.

The TV report, which is unsourced, says there is pessimism in Lebanon about the prospects of a ceasefire, however, and that at least two clauses in what it says is a 13-point plan are unacceptable to Hezbollah: The clause that gives Israel the “right to self-defense,” which essentially means freedom of action in Lebanon, and the clause relating to the oversight of the agreement.

Channel 12 says 1.6 million Lebanese people have been displaced to date in the war. Some 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel since Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’s invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.