Israel said to agree in principle to Lebanon ceasefire offer, though some issues remain
Netanyahu holds consultation reportedly focused on how to sell agreement to public; US envoy said to have warned if no truce now, sides would have to wait for Trump
Israel has agreed in principle to a US-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Prime Minister Benjamin is now working on how to present it to the public, according to multiple reports Sunday night, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held high-level consultations on the matter.
The meeting came as Israel was hit by waves of rocket fire from Lebanon throughout the day and the Air Force carried out repeated strikes on Hezbollah sites in Beirut.
The reports on Kan, Ynet and Haaretz, which cited officials in Jerusalem, Washington and Beirut, all noted that approval of the proposal was not final, and that several issues must still be ironed out, but that Jerusalem had okayed the main tenets of the proposal. According to Ynet, this had been conveyed to Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said last week that the terror group had reviewed the truce proposal and submitted a response and that the ball was in Israel’s court.
Haaretz reported that the proposal will include three stages: a truce followed by Hezbollah removing its forces north of the Litani River; an Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon; and finally, Israeli-Lebanese negotiations on demarcation of contested border areas.
It said an international body led by the US will be tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, and that Israel expects to receive a letter from Washington affirming its right to act militarily should Hezbollah break the terms of the ceasefire amid no action by Lebanon’s military and international forces.
And Kan, on Netanyahu’s plan to sell the deal to the public, said the aim is to present the truce not as a compromise but as beneficial to Israel.
The consultation was held with a few senior ministers and security officials, and according to Kan also focused on Israel’s freedom to operate on the borders with Lebanon and Syria after the agreement is finalized.
According to multiple Hebrew media reports, US special envoy Amos Hochstein told Israeli officials over the weekend that this was their last chance to move forward with the deal and that if they did not accept it, he would give up his efforts and Israel and Hezbollah would have to wait for incoming president Donald Trump to take office in January before American mediation efforts resumed.
Hochstein visited both Beirut and Jerusalem last week to push for the US-backed agreement that would see Hezbollah gradually withdraw north of the Litani River and the Lebanese Army retake responsibility for southern Lebanon.
Under the potential ceasefire, the Lebanese Army would be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in southern Lebanon.
As part of the effort to get an agreement signed this week, former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was due to arrive in Israel on Monday to facilitate hammering out the final details of the agreement, Channel 12 reported.
As talks continued on Sunday, Hezbollah stepped up its attacks on Israel, firing more than 250 rockets and drones at northern and central Israel throughout the day, wounding several people.
The intensity of the terrorist organization’s attacks on Israel on Sunday was not seen as surprising by Israeli officials, according to Channel 12, which reported on Sunday evening that Israel expected Hezbollah’s attacks to increase the closer the sides got to finalizing an agreement.
The group’s aim, the channel reported, was to demonstrate that it still had the capabilities to attack Israel and to try and deter it from attacking Beirut.
Hezbollah also published an apparently AI-generated photo on Sunday showing damage to a highway from a rocket attack, with a caption threatening that the “fate of Tel Aviv would be the fate of Beirut” if Israel continued to attack the Lebanese capital city.
Hezbollah has long tried to impose a balance of power in a bid to deter Israel.
However, Ynet reported that Israel also intended to step up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut to damage as much of its capabilities as possible before a deal was finalized.
Since October 8, 2023, 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.
Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.
Hezbollah has since expanded its attacks to also target cities in central and northern Israel with rockets, in addition to the attacks on the border.
Israel stepped up its offensive on Hezbollah in Lebanon in late September, launching extensive strikes and operations that took out most of the group’s leadership, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel then launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon, with the aim of clearing Hezbollah strongholds in the area and making it safe for evacuated residents of northern Israel to return to their homes.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 44 civilians. In addition, 71 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
In recent days, heavy ground fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has continued in southern Lebanon, with Israeli troops pushing farther from the border.
