US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon Wednesday, seeking to hammer out a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, as the militant group battled Israeli troops in the south of the country.
The United States and France have spearheaded efforts for a truce in the conflict, which escalated in late September after nearly a year of deadly exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israel expanded the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the cross-border fire to return home.
On Tuesday, Hochstein said an end to the war was “now within our grasp”, while one of his main interlocutors, Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, said the situation was “good, in principle”.
Speaking to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Berri said his team and US representatives still had “some technical details” to settle.
Hochstein also met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun, as well as Christian leader Samir Geagea.
On Wednesday, he held another meeting with Berri.
A Lebanon-based diplomat, requesting anonymity, said “progress” had been made in the talks.
What remains to be seen, however, is the Israeli position on the plan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would continue to conduct military operations against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire was reached.
“We will be forced to ensure our security in the north (of Israel) and to systematically carry out operations against Hezbollah’s attacks… even after a ceasefire”, to keep the group from rebuilding, he told parliament.
– Hezbollah chief speech –
Hezbollah began its cross-border attacks in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group’s assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Hamas’s attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war had reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
Since expanding its operations to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing campaigns primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.
Israel has also sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it said Tuesday one soldier had been killed in combat and three wounded.
More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September.
Among them were more than 200 children, according to the United Nations.
The war has weakened Hezbollah and devastated swathes of the territory it controls.
The Iran-backed group announced its leader, Naim Qassem, would deliver a televised address on Wednesday.
– Soldier killed –
With Hochstein in Beirut, the situation in the capital was relatively calm Tuesday and Wednesday.
But south Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway, has seen battles and strikes in the war pitting the militant group against Israeli soldiers.
The United States, Israel’s main military and political backer, has been pushing for a UN resolution that ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006 to form the basis of a new truce.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.
While not engaged in the fighting, Lebanese troops have suffered multiple fatalities in the ongoing war.
On Wednesday, the army said Israeli fire killed a soldier in south Lebanon, a day after it announced the deaths of three other personnel in a strike.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and air strikes in south Lebanon overnight and on Wednesday, saying Israeli troops were seeking to advance further near the town of Khiam.
Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had attacked Israeli troops near the flashpoint border town, home to an infamous former detention centre that was shut down after the end in the year 2000 of the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.
The NNA said that Israel forces were “attempting to advance from the Kfarshuba hills… to open up a new front under the cover of fire and artillery shells and air strikes”.
“Violent clashes are taking place” between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, it added.
Israel said Wednesday it hit 100 “terror targets” around Lebanon in the past day, including “launchers, weapons storage facilities, command centres and military structures”.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks on Israeli troops near the border Wednesday.
On Tuesday, it claimed more than 30 attacks on troops, positions and locations in central and northern Israel and south Lebanon.