(Jerusalem) Israel’s security cabinet is expected to decide Tuesday on a ceasefire in the war against Lebanese Hezbollah, an official said Monday, with the United States saying an agreement was “close.”
Posted at 6:18 a.m.
Updated at 4:15 p.m.
Pierre-Henry DESHAYES with Aya ISKANDARANI in Beirut
Agence France-Presse
What you need to know
- Lebanese Hezbollah fired at least 30 projectiles at Israel on Monday;
- Israeli military says it struck about 25 Hezbollah-linked targets in southern suburbs, south and east Lebanon in one hour;
- At least 12 people killed in raids in southern Lebanon’s Tire region;
- The United States believes that a ceasefire agreement is “close” in Lebanon, according to John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council;
- Israeli security cabinet to decide Tuesday on ceasefire deal in war against Hezbollah;
- In the besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli army continues its strikes, particularly in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Also very involved in international mediation efforts, the French presidency affirmed that discussions on a ceasefire had “advanced significantly”, calling on Israel and Hezbollah to seize “this opportunity as quickly as possible”.
These announcements were made after an intensification in recent days of Israeli strikes against strongholds of the pro-Iranian movement in Lebanon, which left at least 31 dead on Monday according to the Ministry of Health.
On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its Palestinian ally, target of a destructive offensive in Gaza launched by Israel in response to an unprecedented attack carried out by the Islamist movement against its territory on October 7, 2023. October 2023.
PHOTO BILAL HUSSEIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Smoke rises from the southern suburbs of Beirut, November 25, 2024.
After a year of cross-border violence and after having weakened Hamas in Gaza, Israel concentrated its operations in Lebanon by launching an intense bombing campaign starting September 23 on Hezbollah strongholds.
The Israeli security cabinet “will decide on Tuesday evening” on a ceasefire agreement, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity, without providing further details.
“We think we have reached the point where we are close” to an agreement, declared John Kirby, the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, while emphasizing that nothing was yet certain and calling for caution.
According to the American news site Axios, the agreement is based on an American project providing for a 60-day truce during which Hezbollah and the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon, bordering northern Israel, to leave Lebanese army deployed there.
“Big mistake”
It includes the establishment of an international committee to monitor its application, added Axios, speaking of American assurances to support Israeli military action in the event of hostile acts by Hezbollah.
The mediations are based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and which stipulates that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers can be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon.
However, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir (far right), estimated that a ceasefire would be “a big mistake”.
Originally from northern Israel, Dorit Sison, 51, also fears a settlement like in 2006, which according to her allowed Hezbollah to “rearm itself”. Now “they have tunnels, rockets, all possible munitions.”
Israeli strikes
Israel says it wants to put Hezbollah and Hamas, allies of Iran, its enemy, out of harm’s way. He vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack and wants to stop Hezbollah’s rocket attacks, which have displaced some 60,000 northern residents for more than a year.
On Monday, the Israeli army claimed to have struck around 25 targets linked to Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, south and east Lebanon in one hour during the day. In the evening, new raids targeted the southern suburbs of the capital, according to the national agency ANI.
PHOTO IBRAHIM AMRO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A building destroyed after Israeli airstrikes targeted the Tayouneh neighborhood, in the suburbs of Beirut, on November 25, 2024.
Hezbollah fired at least 30 projectiles at Israel, according to the army.
Fighting pitted Hezbollah against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon where the latter have been carrying out a ground offensive since September 30, ANI reported.
According to the Ministry of Health, nearly 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, most since last September.
PHOTO KAWNAT HAJU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescuers arrive at the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, November 25, 2024.
On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians were killed in 13 months.
In the trash in Gaza
On Israel’s southern front, in the besieged Gaza Strip, devastated and threatened with famine according to the UN, the Israeli army continues its strikes, particularly in the north of the Palestinian territory.
“There are around 65,000 people in the besieged areas [dans le nord de Gaza]. “We’re hearing that they’re going through trash, rubble, trying to find old cans, any food they might find,” said a spokeswoman for the agency. UN for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, present in Gaza City.
PHOTO OMAR AL-QATTAA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians queue to receive a food ration outside a distribution center west of Gaza City, November 25, 2024.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has left at least 44,235 dead, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
Considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territory it occupied for 38 years.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity.
That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
Israeli raids on bridges in Syria
Syrian state television reported Israeli strikes on several bridges in Syria near the Lebanese border on Monday, with the Defense Ministry reporting two civilians injured.
The Israeli army has intensified its strikes in Syria since the escalation in September of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, after a year of cross-border hostilities.
“An Israeli aggression targeted the bridges of Al-Joubaniyeh, Al-Daf, Arjoun and the Gate of Al-Nizariyeh in the region of Qousseir”, in central Syria, the television said. The Syrian news agency SANA reported “damage”.
The Defense Ministry said that “the Israeli enemy launched an aerial assault from Lebanese territory, attacking crossing points it had already struck” between the two countries. He reported two injured civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) affirmed that “Israeli strikes killed two Syrians working with Hezbollah and injured five.”
According to the NGO, the raids targeted a border post in the Qousseir region and six bridges on the Orontes River, near the Lebanese border.
At the beginning of November, the Israeli army claimed to be carrying out strikes against “smuggling routes between Lebanon and Syria”, accusing Hezbollah of using them to transport weapons from Syria.
