Netanyahu to huddle with top ministers on Lebanon truce gambit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a security cabinet meeting at 5 p.m. at the Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel, after Washington announced overnight that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to renew their fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, pending Hezbollah joining the truce.

Netanyahu has yet to officially comment on last night’s joint statement with Lebanon, which stated that the two sides agreed to establish several pilot security zones in southern Lebanon from which Hezbollah would be barred.

The two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River, a prospect that Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has now appeared to reject.

An Israeli government official declines to provide further details on the terms of the agreement, saying only that “negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are advancing in regards to a ceasefire. This is based on the mutual understanding that Hezbollah needs to be disarmed and southern Lebanon needs to be demilitarized.”