A senior Israeli official said on Monday that Israel’s cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, and a Lebanese official said the Lebanese government had been informed by Washington that a deal could be reached. be announced “within hours”.
Israeli officials had previously said that a deal to end the war was getting closer, although some questions remained, and two senior Lebanese officials expressed cautious optimism even as Israeli strikes again hit Lebanon.
The U.S. news website Axios, citing an unnamed senior U.S. official, said Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the terms of a deal, and a senior Israeli official told Reuters that Tuesday’s meeting had the intention to approve it.
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According to Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon, Israel would retain the ability to attack southern Lebanon under any agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the Axios report.
The US has been pushing for a deal that would end more than a year of hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which erupted in parallel with Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, but which intensified sharply in the last two months, raising fears of a wider war in the Middle East.
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In Beirut, the vice-president of the Lebanese Parliament, Elias Bou Saab, told Reuters that there were “no more serious obstacles” to the start of implementation of a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel.
Bou Saab said the proposal would entail an Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the deployment of regular Lebanese Army troops to the border region, long a Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.
According to him, a point of friction over who would monitor compliance with the ceasefire was resolved in the last 24 hours with an agreement to create a committee of five countries, including France and chaired by the United States.
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A Western diplomat said another obstacle was the sequencing of Israel’s withdrawal, the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the return of displaced Lebanese to their homes in southern Lebanon.
ISRAELIAN AIR ATTACKS ON BEIRUT CONTINUE
Hostilities have intensified alongside diplomatic unrest: Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, while Iran-backed Hezbollah launched one of its largest rocket salvos last Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
In Beirut, Israeli airstrikes leveled more southern suburbs controlled by Hezbollah on Monday, sending clouds of debris over the Lebanese capital.
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Efforts to reach a truce appeared to advance last week when US mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress after talks in Beirut and before holding meetings in Israel and returning to Washington.
“We are moving towards an agreement, but there are still some issues to be addressed,” said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer, without elaborating.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, told Israeli radio GLZ that a deal was close and “could happen within a few days… We just need to smooth out the last few rough edges,” according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchor Efi Triger .
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A second senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity earlier in the day, said Beirut had not received any new Israeli demands from U.S. mediators, who were describing the mood as positive and saying “things are ongoing.”
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into a full-scale war in September when Israel went on the offensive, attacking wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops south.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said last week that the group had reviewed and given feedback on the US ceasefire proposal, and that any truce was now in Israel’s hands.
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