US envoy says Lebanon ceasefire ‘within grasp’ as soldier killed in drone strike

A senior US mediator said Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon was “within our grasp” as he arrived in the region to clinch a long-sought halt to the war.

Special Envoy Amos Hochstein’s trip to Lebanon Tuesday came as fighting showed little sign of easing, with dozens of rockets fired into northern Israel, an Israeli reservist killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon and a key Hezbollah commander killed in an airstrike.

Hochstein said he had held “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.

“Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps,” the envoy told reporters after the two-hour meeting.

“I came back [to Lebanon] because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein said at a press conference after the meeting, adding that gaps between the sides had been “significantly narrowed” in the talks Tuesday.

“It’s ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict…It is now within our grasp,” he said.

Hochstein also met with Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun.

Berri said the “situation is good in principle,” though some unresolved technical details remain. The Lebanese side was now waiting to hear the results of Hochstein’s talks with Israeli officials, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

“We are waiting for what he will bring from there,” said Berri.

The speaker said that Hochstein told him that the US had already coordinated with the Israelis about the proposal.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Hochstein would likely travel to Israel on Wednesday, though the visit is not certain.

The proposal on the table entails both the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from southern Lebanon, where a UN buffer zone would be bolstered by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops.

Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism to keep Hezbollah from rebuilding its force near the Israeli border, where it could threaten northern Israel towns with anti-tank missile fire or an armed infiltration. Israel reportedly wants to reserve the ability to redeploy against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.

On Monday, a top Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon and Hezbollah had agreed to a US ceasefire proposal — though each had some reservations — describing the effort as the most serious yet to end the fighting.

“Lebanon presented its comments on the paper in a positive atmosphere,” said Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, declining to give further details. “All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to (UN) Resolution 1701 with all its provisions.”

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, requires Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the frontier — clauses the terror group violated from the get-go.

The resolution also forbids Israel from entering Lebanese airspace, which Beirut says Israel repeatedly broke over the years. Israel reportedly demanded last month that the Air Force have freedom of operations in Lebanese airspace as part of its ability to disarm Hezbollah, while Lebanon may be seeking to beef up enforcement of the airspace restrictions.

According to Saudi-based al-Arabiya, Lebanon dropped some demands regarding “state sovereignty” that had constituted sticking points in favor of pressing its demands on the airspace issue.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Jerusalem was insisting on the deal including a cause allowing its troops to act in case of a Hezbollah threat, while Lebanon did not believe the deal needed to include such language.

The sides have also failed to come together on the makeup of the bolstered buffer zone force, with Israel insisting on Western countries contributing troops and Lebanon seeking contributions from Arab countries, Channel 12 reported.

A possible solution, according to the channel, would be a force made up of troops from the US, France, the UN and an Arab country to be named later, overseen by a general from the US’s Central Command.

In the UAE, French defense minister Sebastien Lecornu urged wealthy Gulf states to find ways to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, including “operational support,” saying they will be crucial for securing border areas after Israel’s war with Hezbollah.

“To secure the border between Israel and Lebanon, and to reinforce Lebanon’s sovereignty, the armed forces must be properly armed,” he told AFP.

Israeli troops have been fighting near the frontier in southern Lebanon since October 1, where they have carried out raids aimed at destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, including bunkers, tunnels, rockets and small arms.

It launched the intensified campaign against Hezbollah in September to halt a year of rocket attacks on northern Israel that have displaced some 60,000 people living near the border, with the goal of allowing them to return home safely.

A reservist was killed in the fighting early Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, marking the 71st fatality among troops in Lebanon and near Israel’s northern border. Israel says 44 civilians have also been killed.

Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, 30, of the Golani Brigade’s logistics unit, was killed some two kilometers from the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, where his unit was providing security for soldiers fighting deeper inside the country.

According to an initial Israel Defense Forces probe, Gaeldor and three other soldiers were hit by an explosive-laden drone launched by Hezbollah.

Near the eastern end of the frontier, troops from the 98th division were expanding into new areas of southern Lebanon to locate and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure threatening the Kiryat Shmona area, the military said Tuesday.

Before the operation, the IDF launched numerous airstrikes on the area, which had been used by Hezbollah for rocket attacks on the Galilee Panhandle and Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s largest city on the border.

The army also confirmed that it had killed Ali Tawfiq Dweiq, the commander of Hezbollah’s medium-range rocket unit, in an airstrike a day earlier on the village of Jouz, adjacent to the southern Lebanon city of Nabatieh.

The medium-range rocket unit is responsible for attacks on Haifa and other areas deep in northern Israel, as well as central Israel. The IDF said Dweiq was responsible for over 300 rockets launched at Israel since he took over the role.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem was expected to give a speech Tuesday, but the group postponed the address moments after it was announced. No reason was given.

The IDF said that since Sunday, over 150 strikes were carried out against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including 25 weapon depots and some 30 rocket launchers. At least 11 strikes were carried out in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Lebanon said three of its soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army post in southern Lebanon. The health ministry earlier said at least two people were killed in the strike near Beirut, and 28 others were killed Monday.

UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said four Ghanaian Blue Helmets were injured when a rocket fired by a “non-state actor” hit their base.

The IDF said Hezbollah had twice fired rockets on Tuesday that damaged UNIFIL posts.

It tallied at least 70 rockets and drones fired into central and northern Israel Tuesday, where they lightly injured five people and caused damage to some areas.

Hezbollah in the past week has launched some 400 rockets at Israel. Since Thursday, the IDF said, 22 out of 27 drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon were intercepted.

On Monday, one woman — Safaa Awad, 41– was killed, and dozens of others were wounded in several Hezbollah rocket barrages. Among the wounded victims were a woman aged 41 and a 4-year-old boy in serious condition, Rambam Hospital in Haifa said.

According to Lebanon, 3,544 people have been killed by Israel since Hezbollah began firing over the border in October 2023. The figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict, most of them in Lebanon. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.

The UN said Tuesday that over 200 children had been killed in Lebanon in less than two months since Israel escalated its attacks targeting Hezbollah in September.

“Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva.

“Over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day,” he said.

Elder declined to comment on who was responsible for the killings, saying that it was clear to anyone who follows the media.

“It’s become a silent normalization of horror,” Elder said. “In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable.”

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, which began when the Hamas terror group launched its cross-border onslaught into southern Israel the previous day.

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, though in recent days the IDF has seen a decrease in the number of attacks.

Gianluca Pacchiani and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.