Highlights
- White House national security spokesperson says, “We’re close.”
- Lebanese officials express cautious optimism.
- An Israeli source reports the cabinet will meet Tuesday to approve the deal.
- Israel presses on with the bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
- Far-right leader Ben-Gvir says Israel should fight until “absolute victory.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to announce a ceasefire between the armed group Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, according to four senior Lebanese sources on Monday.
In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby stated, “We’re close,” but added, “nothing is done until everything is done.”
The French presidency confirmed that discussions on the ceasefire had made significant progress. In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official said Israel’s cabinet would meet on Tuesday to approve the truce deal with Hezbollah.
As Israel continued its offensive, which it launched in September after nearly a year of cross-border hostilities, signs of a diplomatic breakthrough emerged amid heavy Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed on the text of a deal. However, a senior Israeli official told Reuters that Tuesday’s cabinet meeting would aim to approve the text.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, stated that Israel would retain the ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously opposed language that would grant Israel such a right.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the gaps between the two parties have narrowed significantly, but there are still steps remaining to reach an agreement.
“The final stages of an agreement are often the most difficult because the hardest issues are left until the end,” he said. “We are pushing as hard as we can.”
Diplomacy aims to bring an end to the fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which erupted in October 2023, coinciding with Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza. The conflict in Lebanon has escalated dramatically over the past two months.
In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, told Reuters that there were “no serious obstacles” remaining to begin implementing a U.S.-proposed ceasefire with Israel, “unless Netanyahu changes his mind.”
He explained that the proposal would require Israel to withdraw its military from southern Lebanon and for regular Lebanese army troops to deploy in the border region, a longtime Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.
A key issue regarding who would monitor compliance with the ceasefire was resolved in the last 24 hours with an agreement to establish a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the United States.
Airstrikes on Beirut
Despite diplomatic progress, hostilities have escalated. Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut. In response, Hezbollah launched one of its largest rocket barrages yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles into Israel.
On Monday, Israeli airstrikes flattened more of the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, sending large clouds of debris over the Lebanese capital. Lebanon’s health ministry reported that Israeli attacks killed 31 people and wounded 62 across the country on Monday. Over the past year, more than 3,750 people have died, and over one million have been displaced, according to the ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.
Israel has dealt significant blows to Hezbollah, including the deaths of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders, as well as causing widespread destruction in areas controlled by the group in Lebanon. Israel states that its military offensive aims to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes they evacuated more than a year ago when Hezbollah began firing into Israel from the Lebanese border. This escalation followed the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, which led to the Gaza war.
Hezbollah’s strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while at least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights, and during combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.
Distrust of the Deal
The Biden administration, which will leave office in January, has emphasized diplomacy to end the Lebanon conflict, even as it has frozen all negotiations to halt the parallel war in Gaza.
U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will travel to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss using a potential Lebanon ceasefire as a catalyst for a deal to end hostilities in Gaza, the White House said.
Diplomacy over Lebanon has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. The resolution requires Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters around 30 km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River, and for the regular Lebanese army to deploy in the frontier region.
Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of failing to implement the resolution in the past. Israel insists that a new ceasefire must allow it to strike any Hezbollah fighters or weapons that remain south of the river.
An agreement could expose divisions within Netanyahu’s right-leaning government. Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said Israel must continue the war until achieving “absolute victory.” Addressing Netanyahu on X, he wrote, “It is not too late to stop this agreement!”
