By Hannah Confino
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is moving towards a ceasefire in the war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah but there are still issues to address, the government said on Monday, while the Israeli ambassador to the United States was quoted saying a deal could transpire within days.
Efforts to clinch a truce appeared to be advancing last week when U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress after talks in Beirut before holding meetings in Israel and then returning to Washington.
Hostilities have intensified in parallel with the diplomatic movement, however: over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut – while the Iran-backed Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvoes yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles.
“We are moving in the direction towards a deal, but there are still some issues to address,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said, without elaborating.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, told Israel’s GLZ radio an agreement was close and “it could happen within days … We just need to close the last corners”, according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchorman Efi Triger.
But far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel must press on with the war until “absolute victory”. Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on X, he said “it is not too late to stop this agreement!”
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah spiralled into full-scale war in September, when the Israeli military went on the offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders and inflicting massive destruction in areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway, including Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israel carried out further airstrikes on the southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh on Monday, saying it struck Hezbollah military headquarters and that it had issued advance warnings for residents to evacuate the area, which is largely deserted.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that the group had reviewed and given feedback on the U.S. ceasefire proposal, and any truce was now in Israel’s hands.
Branded a terrorist group by the United States, the heavily armed, Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah has endorsed Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of the Shi’ite Amal movement to negotiate.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israel’s offensive has forced more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border, and the regular Lebanese army to deploy into the border region.
(Reporting by Hannah Confino in Jerusalem; Tala Ramadan and Clauda Tanios in Dubai; writing by Tom Perry; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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