Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to press during a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Israel, April 12, 2021. (Jackie Sanders/U.S. Air Force)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to hold talks on a U.S.-proposed cease-fire in Lebanon aimed at averting a major war, appearing to soften his stance after earlier pushing back on the plan amid domestic opposition.
Israel will take part in deliberations on the proposal for a three-week truce with Hezbollah in the coming days, Netanyahu’s office said in an overnight statement. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer have already held talks on the matter, according to the White House.
“Israel appreciates the U.S. efforts in this regard because the U.S. role is indispensable in advancing stability and security in the region,” the statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
The U.S.-led diplomatic push is seen as a last-ditch attempt to prevent this week’s escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah from spiraling into a full-scale conflict. Israel has said it’s preparing to stage a potential ground invasion of neighboring Lebanon, which would risk dragging in key ally Washington as well as Hezbollah’s sponsor Iran.
Israel has been targeting the militant group with intensive air strikes since Monday, killing more than 600 people, including at least 50 children, according to Lebanese officials. Tens of thousands of Lebanese have fled the bombardment in the country’s south.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response — including its first-ever attempt to target Tel Aviv — in the worst violence between the two sides since a 2006 war.
Netanyahu — who is in New York to address the annual United Nations General Assembly later Friday — had earlier vowed the military would maintain its bombardment of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon until all Israel’s objectives have been achieved.
Chief among those is the return of Israel’s northern residents to their homes, the Israeli premier said, and that’s likely to be achieved only if Hezbollah is persuaded to stop firing missiles permanently and moves its fighters back from the border.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X that “there will be no cease-fire,” while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the aim of the armed forces is to keep “throwing Hezbollah off balance and deepening their loss.”
The statements by Israel’s top ministers appeared to block attempts led by U.S. President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to secure a halt to the fighting. Washington has previously been unable to clinch a cease-fire agreement in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Palestinian group Hamas for almost a year, despite repeated attempts alongside Egypt and Qatar.
U.S. officials expressed some frustration. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the Biden administration had coordinated the truce initiative with Israel. “We wouldn’t have made that statement, we wouldn’t have worked on that if we didn’t have reason to believe that the conversations that we were having with the Israelis in particular were supportive of the goal there,” he told reporters.
Netanyahu initially made verbal commitments to support the Lebanon cease-fire proposal but backtracked after mounting political pressure inside Israel, Haaretz newspaper reported, citing unidentified diplomats familiar with the matter.
One of his far-right allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, threatened to quit the ruling coalition if a permanent truce is reached. Such a move has the potential to bring down the government, which depends on the support of various factions for its majority.
Netanyahu’s domestic critics have long accused him of sustaining the Gaza war to ensure political survival, though Hamas has taken a similarly uncompromising line, despite the destruction of much of its military capability.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza, and the militant group has long said it would keep up the attacks as long as Israel maintains its offensive against Hamas. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran and are designated terrorist organizations by the U.S., although Hezbollah is considered much more powerful.
The U.S., European states and Arab powers including Saudi Arabia and Qatar unveiled the proposed truce on Wednesday, saying it would allow time for negotiations on a broader agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. The United Arab Emirates urged the U.S. not to “shy away” from exercising its influence over Israel to push for a halt in hostilities.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking in London, told reporters Thursday that “another full-scale war could be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon.” He said “a diplomatic solution, not a military solution, is the only way to ensure that displaced civilians on both sides of the border can finally go back home.”
In the past week, Israel has killed top Hezbollah commanders with strikes, and many members were maimed in an operation in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Hezbollah and Iran blamed Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. Israel says it has destroyed a significant part of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal.
Overnight, Israel said it intercepted a missile from Yemen outside its territory. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have fired missiles and drones at Israel in solidarity with Hamas amid the almost year-long war with the Israeli military in Gaza.
