Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening of the 25th Parliament session in Jerusalem on Oct. 28, 2024. (Debbie Hill, Pool Photo, AFP, Getty Images via TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Israel is considering a U.S.-led deal to end the conflict in Lebanon and move Hezbollah fighters away from the Israeli border, after assessing the militant group’s rocket arsenal has been mostly expended or destroyed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met top aides late on Tuesday to discuss a fresh proposal from Washington, his spokesperson said. The White House is sending two of President Joe Biden’s most senior Middle East envoys, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, to Israel on Thursday as part of the talks, another Israeli official said.
The plan, if agreed, would lead to a 60-day suspension of hostilities while mediators craft a lasting peace deal to remove Hezbollah from the border area and bolster the number of United Nations peacekeepers there, Israel’s Channel 12 TV reported.
Many obstacles still need to be overcome, however, as myriad failed attempts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza have demonstrated. On Wednesday, Israel’s military gave an evacuation order — which usually proceeds a bombardment — for the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and some surrounding areas. At least 60 people were killed in Israeli attacks on similar parts of Lebanon earlier this week, the health ministry said.
“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move outside the city and villages,” an Israeli military spokesperson said on X in Arabic. The order covers an unusually large area by the standards of recent Israeli military announcements regarding Lebanon.
Hezbollah started firing missiles and drones at Israel a day after the war with Hamas erupted last October, and has consistently said it will continue fighting until there’s a cease-fire in the Palestinian territory.
Hezbollah’s position on the latest proposal is unclear. It’s suffered heavy losses in the past six weeks or so, including the assassination of its long-standing leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstike on Beirut. On Tuesday, Hezbollah elected its deputy, Naim Qasem, to succeed Nasrallah.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran and considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. and many other countries.
“The war in the north will be over by the end of the year,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the Lebanese front. He added that 2025 “will not be a year of war, it will be a year of exiting the war.”
The developments have helped to push down oil prices. Brent crude sunk more than 6% on Monday and Tuesday, before staging a partial recovery on Wednesday. The drop this week is also due to Israel avoiding Iran’s most sensitive infrastructure — such as oil and nuclear facilities — when it carried out an expected strike on the Islamic Republic on Saturday.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking on Tuesday, said Hezbollah’s chain of command is now demolished and estimated its missile and rocket capability is 20% of what it was pre-conflict.
Still, launches from Lebanon into Israel continue. On Wednesday, the Israeli military sounded sirens in Haifa and parts of the Galilee region and said 15 missiles had crossed from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted.
Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he is receiving updates from the government on efforts to wind down fighting in Lebanon.
“I think it would be right to achieve a diplomatic victory,” he said to Israel’s Army Radio.
The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on each side of the Israel- Lebanon border area.
Israel’s attacks across Lebanon in the last six weeks have killed more than 2,000 people and displaced around 1.2 million, according to the Lebanese government. Almost 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed withing Israel due to Hezbollah’s strikes over the last year.
(With assistance from Galit Altstein, Ethan Bronner and Omar El Chmouri.)
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