Israeli security cabinet to discuss ceasefire as US says deal 'close'

BEIRUT: Israel's security cabinet was set to discuss a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday (Nov 26) afternoon, a senior official said, after the White House voiced optimism that a deal to end the fighting in Lebanon was "close".

The United States, European Union and United Nations have all been actively pushing in recent days for a truce in the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which flared into all-out war in late September.

As truce talks intensified, exchanges of cross-border fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have also increased, with Israel reporting around 250 projectiles launched at its territory on Sunday alone.

On Tuesday, strikes hit Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold shortly after the Israeli military called for people to evacuate.

AFPTV footage showed multiple plumes of smoke rising from the area, a day after the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed 31 people, mostly in southern Lebanon.

On the diplomatic front, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said on Tuesday that the security cabinet would meet later in the day to discuss a ceasefire deal, though she declined "to go into details about it because of the sensitivity of the issue".

An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity had previously told AFP that the security cabinet would make its decision on Tuesday evening.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the talks were progressing but not yet finalised, though they had reached a "point where we're close".

The United States repeatedly voiced optimism over talks on reaching a truce in the Gaza war this year but Israel is still bombarding the Palestinian enclave as it battles on the second front in Lebanon.

France, which alongside Washington has spearheaded efforts towards a Lebanon truce, on Monday reported "significant progress" in talks on a ceasefire. The French presidency urged Israel and Hezbollah to "seize this opportunity".

Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of nations, voiced "optimism" about a Lebanon ceasefire.

The US news site Axios had previously reported the parties were nearing an agreement that would involve a 60-day transition period in which the Israeli army would pull back, the Lebanese army would redeploy near the border and Iran-backed Hezbollah would withdraw its heavy weapons north of the Litani River.

The draft agreement also provides for the establishment of a US-led committee to oversee implementation, as well as US assurances that Israel can take action against imminent threats if the Lebanese military does not, according to Axios.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told the UN's Lebanon envoy on Tuesday that his country would have "zero tolerance" when defending its security interests, even after a truce.

"If you do not act, we will do it, forcefully," Katz told envoy Janine Hennis-Plasschaert during a meeting in Tel Aviv, according to a statement from his office.

If the deal happens, the biggest sticking point would be how to implement and enforce various aspects of the agreement, including who will hold the ground north of the Israeli border to the Litani River, said analyst Javed Ali.

Parties will also look to ensure Hezbollah "doesn't come back" and continue to "build the operational infrastructures to threaten Israel", added the associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan's Gerald Ford School of Public Policy.

He told CNA938: "Israel has already said that if they think there's a violation of these terms ... they will resume the attacks they've conducted against Hezbollah over the past few months. We've all seen how destructive those are."

In comparison to the war in Gaza, Ali said it appears there is "more momentum" for Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal than there is for Israel and Hamas, which still have "very far apart" positions.

News of the security Cabinet meeting came as the Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes on Monday, including on Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah that Israel has repeatedly bombed since late September when it escalated its air campaign in Lebanon.

The latest strikes hit around two dozen Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in one hour, the military said.

A statement said "command centres, and intelligence control and collection centres, where Hezbollah commanders and operatives were located", were targeted.

The strikes followed intense Hezbollah fire over the weekend, including some attacks deep into Israel.

SYRIA STRIKES

Recent days have seen rising calls to end the fighting in Lebanon, with a senior UN official on Monday urging "the parties to accept a ceasefire".

And in Beirut on Sunday, top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate truce, days after US envoy Amos Hochstein said a deal was "within our grasp".

Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely to endorse a US ceasefire proposal.

Asked in New York about the possible ceasefire agreement, Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon said "we are moving forward on this front", adding the Cabinet would meet soon to discuss it.

The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it was acting in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group's Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Lebanon says at least 3,768 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in the past few weeks.

On the Israeli side, the Lebanon hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.

Syrian state television reported Israeli strikes on several bridges in the Qusayr region near the Lebanese border on Monday.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of using key routes for people fleeing the war in Lebanon to transfer weapons from Syria.

DEAL A "MISTAKE"

The initial exchanges of fire forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes, and Israeli officials have said they are fighting so the residents can return safely.

Some northern residents expressed fears as to whether that is possible under a ceasefire.

"In my opinion, it would be a serious mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah has not been completely eliminated," said Maryam Younnes, 29, an Israeli-Lebanese student from Maalot-Tarshiha.

"It would be a mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah still has weapons."

Dorit Sison, 51, a teacher displaced from Shlomi, said: "I don't want a ceasefire, because if they do it along the lines that they've announced, we'll be in the same place in five years."

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir warned reaching a ceasefire deal in Lebanon would be a "historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah".

Ben Gvir has repeatedly threatened to bring down the government if it agrees to a truce deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sustained efforts this year by mediators to secure a truce and hostage-release deal in the Gaza war have failed. Qatar early this month said it was suspending its mediation role until the warring sides showed "seriousness".

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said on Tuesday that 11 people were killed in nighttime Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory.

With an intensive Israeli military operation in Gaza's besieged north in its 50th day, remaining residents are left "scavenging among the rubble" for food, Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, told AFP.

Such scavenging puts Gazans at risk of coming into contact with unexploded and unused ordnance that can be found in many populated areas of the territory, the Danish Refugee Council said in a report.

Hamas' Oct 7 attack on Israel last year resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

That toll includes an Israeli soldier who was wounded during Hamas' attack and died on Tuesday from his injuries more than a year later, the military said.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 44,249 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.