Beirut, Lebanon
Reuters
Lebanon and Hezbollah have agreed to a US proposal for a ceasefire with Israel with some comments on the content, a top Lebanese official told Reuters on Monday, describing the effort as the most serious yet to end to the fighting.
Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said Lebanon had delivered its written response to the US ambassador in Lebanon on Monday, and White House envoy Amos Hochstein was travelling to Beirut to continue talks.
Security and rescue personel work at the scene where a bus and buildings were hit following a rocket attack from Lebanon towards Israel in Ramat Gan in central Israel on 18th November, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Itai Ron
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Hezbollah, a heavily armed movement backed by Iran, endorsed its long-time ally Berri to negotiate over a ceasefire.
“Lebanon presented its comments on the paper in a positive atmosphere,” Khalil said, declining to give further details. “All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to [UN] Resolution 1701 with all its provisions,” he said.
He was referring to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Its terms require Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs some 30 kilometres north of the frontier.
Khalil said the success of the initiative now depended on Israel, saying if Israel did not want a solution, “it could make 100 problems”.
Israel has long claimed that Resolution 1701 was never properly implemented, pointing to the presence of Hezbollah fighters and weapons along the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of violations including flying warplanes in its airspace.
Khalil said Israel was trying to negotiate “under fire”, a reference to an escalation of its bombardment of Beirut and the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. “This won’t affect our position,” he said.
A dog stands in front of a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli strikes on Chiyah, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Lebanon on 18th November, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/ Thaier Al-Sudani.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed five people in central Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said, the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital as it presses its campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Smoke was seen rising from the strike in the densely populated Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, near the central Beirut district where the Lebanese government is headquartered. Another 24 people were wounded, the ministry said.
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Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around the Lebanese capital over the last week, an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire.
Hezbollah has kept up missile fire into Israel.
Rocket sirens sounded across Tel Aviv and much of central Israel on Monday evening. Rescue workers reported on damage in a Tel Aviv suburb caused either by a rocket or shrapnel from an interceptor.
Earlier a woman was killed when a rocket struck a building in Shfaram, in the north, Israel’s ambulance service said. The Israeli military said about five projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.
– With RIHAM ALKOUSAA and ARI RABINOVITCH
