(Beirut) A solution to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is “within reach”, declared Tuesday the special envoy of the American president, Amos Hochstein, who came to Beirut to negotiate on an American truce proposal .
Published at 6:30 a.m.
Updated at 1:54 p.m.
Laure AL KHOURY
Agence France-Presse
The American ambassador to Beirut, Lisa Johnson, presented last Thursday to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and the head of Parliament, Nabih Berri, a 13-point plan providing for a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in southern Lebanon.
Visiting Beirut on Tuesday, the American president’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said he “returned there because we have a real opportunity to put an end to this conflict.”
“It is the parties who must decide” the end of hostilities, he said after meeting Nabih Berri, ally of Hezbollah and responsible for leading the negotiations. “It is now within reach,” added this official, who also spoke with Mr. Mikati and General Joseph Aoun, commander in chief of the Lebanese army.
“The situation is in principle good,” Mr. Berri told the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, based in London, specifying that the Lebanese and American representatives had to settle “certain technical details” before Mr. Hochstein’s departure. .
PHOTO HASSAN AMMAR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The special envoy of the American president, Amos Hochstein
According to him, the latter assured “to have coordinated with the Israelis on a project” of agreement.
“There has been progress in the negotiations. Things are moving forward,” said a diplomat who did not want to be identified.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, warned Monday evening that Israel “will lead[it] military operations » against Hezbollah even in the event of a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
More than 200 children killed in Lebanon
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah opened a “support front” for Hamas against Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, which triggered the war in Gaza.
After a year of cross-border firefights, Hezbollah and Israel entered into open war on September 23, and the Israeli army has been carrying out incursions into southern Lebanon since September 30.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 3,544 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 8, 2023, the majority of them – including more than 200 children, according to UNICEF – since September 23.
PHOTO ADNAN ABIDI, REUTERS
People walk among rubble in Beirut, Lebanon, November 19, 2024.
On the Israeli side, the army announced on Tuesday the death of a soldier the day before in fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, bringing its loss toll to 49 since September 30. In total, 79 soldiers and 46 civilians were killed in 13 months.
Israel says it wants to distance Hezbollah from the border regions of southern Lebanon to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the movement’s fire. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted the city of Tire and two localities in southern Lebanon, as well as two villages in the Bekaa plain (east), according to the National Information Agency.
Hezbollah notably claimed to have fired missiles against a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, in central Israel.
The Israeli army indicated that around 40 projectiles were fired during the day from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
PHOTO KAWNAT HAJU, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescue teams work at the scene of an airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, November 19, 2024.
Support the Lebanese army
On Monday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller announced an “exchange of ideas” with the Lebanese and Israeli governments on how to “fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701.” UN Security.
This resolution, which marked the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only the Lebanese army and peacekeepers must be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon, implying a withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters to areas further north, but also that of Israeli soldiers from Lebanese territory.
“There is no better solution at this stage than to respect resolution 1701 and support the Lebanese armed forces,” judged the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, on Tuesday, on tour in the Gulf.
But to secure the Israeli-Lebanese border, and “strengthen the sovereignty of Lebanon, the armed forces must be truly armed,” he emphasized.
PHOTO ITAI RON, REUTERS
Security and rescue personnel work at the scene where a bus and buildings were hit following a rocket attack from Lebanon in central Israel, November 18, 2024.
The UN Peace Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for its part reported four Ghanaian peacekeepers injured by a rocket “probably fired by non-state actors” near the border. Italy has accused Hezbollah of firing rockets against the headquarters of its UNIFIL contingent.
On the Gaza front, Mr. Netanyahu announced Tuesday – in a video filmed inside the Palestinian territory according to his office – a bonus of five million dollars to “any person who brings us a hostage” held in Gaza.
During the Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of 1,206 people, mostly civilians – according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity – 251 people were kidnapped, including 97 remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The offensive launched in retaliation by Israel in the Gaza Strip left at least 43,972 dead, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.
Almost all of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced in this besieged territory in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
Hamas negotiators not in Doha ‘currently,’ but office not closed
Hamas negotiators are not present “currently” in Doha, but the office of the Palestinian Islamist movement is not “permanently” closed, the spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
“The Hamas leaders who are part of the negotiating team are not in Doha and they are traveling between different capitals,” said Majed Al-Ansari.
“The Hamas office was opened for the mediation process. Obviously, when there is no mediation process, the office does not work,” he added before asserting that it was not “permanently closed.”
Qatar, alongside the United States and Egypt, had been engaged in negotiations for months for a truce in the Gaza Strip.
But the Gulf state, which has hosted the Hamas political office since 2012 with Washington’s blessing, recently announced that it was suspending its mediation.
“The mediation process is suspended unless we reverse this decision, if we find positions [sérieuses] of both parties” (Hamas and Israel), affirmed Mr. Ansari.
He refused to answer a question about whether Doha had asked Hamas to leave Qatar.
