BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A senior Lebanese official has signaled that Hezbollah is ready to pull its forces away from the Lebanese-Israeli border in any ceasefire, while rejecting Israel’s demand for freedom to act against the Iran-backed group in Lebanon in the future.
An Israeli minister indicated that a ceasefire was closer than at any point since the war began, though he said a sticking point was ensuring Israel retains freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated.
Pressing its offensive against the Iran-backed group, Israel launched airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs on Thursday, keeping up its unusually intensive bombardment of the area for a third consecutive day.
Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows since launching its offensive in late September, escalating the conflict that had rumbled on in parallel to the Gaza war for a year. Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into Israel and its fighters have been battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.
A World Bank report estimated the cost of physical damage and economic losses due to the conflict in Lebanon at $8.5 billion – a massive price for a country still suffering the effects of a financial collapse five years ago.
Senior Lebanese official Ali Hassan Khalil, speaking to Al Jazeera late on Wednesday, said Lebanon was ready to “precisely” implement U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Its terms require Hezbollah to remove fighters and weapons from areas between the border and the Litani River, which runs about 30 km (around 20 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.
Asked whether Hezbollah had informed him of a readiness to withdraw to the Litani, Khalil – a close Hezbollah ally and top aide to Lebanon’s parliament speaker – said the group had expressed its commitment to Resolution 1701.
The resolution, he added, “contained a clear set of provisions”. “Yes, the party is committed to what is stated in these texts,” he said, referring to Hezbollah.
The United States and other powers say a ceasefire must be based on Resolution 1701.
Israel long complained it was never implemented, pointing to Hezbollah weapons and fighters at the border. Lebanon in turn accused Israel of violating the resolution, with Israeli warplanes regularly violating its airspace.
STICKING POINT
Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters: “I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war”.
A key sticking point for Israel, he said, is ensuring it retains freedom of action should Hezbollah return to border areas. “We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act,” he said.
Earlier this week, White House envoy Amos Hochstein, who has led several fruitless attempts to broker a ceasefire, told Axios he thought “there is a shot” at a truce in Lebanon soon.
It points to a last-ditch effort by the outgoing U.S. administration to seal a Lebanon deal, with diplomacy to end the Gaza war adrift.
Khalil said that Lebanese negotiators had reached agreement on “a certain text” with Hochstein during his last visit to Beirut.
Hochstein had been due to communicate this to the Israeli side and then send any remarks back to Beirut, Khalil said. “We are waiting, and God willing, soon there will be the draft that he has reached,” he said.
Khalil said Lebanon had no objection to U.S. or French participation in overseeing ceasefire compliance.
‘GOD HELP US’
Plumes of smoke rose over the southern Beirut suburbs known as Dahiyeh, where Israel’s latest strikes destroyed five buildings, sources familiar with the damage said. Israeli raids on the area have largely been taking place at night but this week have been happening in the morning too.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets carried out a series of attacks in the southern Beirut area, targeting weapons warehouses, military headquarters and other infrastructures used by Hezbollah.
“We say God help us … because it seems that things are developing, it is getting worse, and I don’t even know if there is a solution now,” said Ayat, a 33-year-old Lebanese woman.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said five people were killed in airstrikes on the towns of Bazourieh and Jmaijmeh in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike in Baalbek killed another three people.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,365 people and wounded 14,344 across Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the last year, according to Israel.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Tom Perry, additional reporting by Clauda Tanios in Dubai; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra and Sharon Singleton)
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