BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israel conducted strikes against Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold on Monday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with officials Sunday night, CNN reported citing a source familiar with the matter.
The truce proposal calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River.
The withdrawals would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, who have been largely sidelined in the war, to patrol the border area along with an existing UN peacekeeping force, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
An international committee would be set up to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which was passed in 2006 to end a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah but never fully implemented.
Hezbollah never ended its presence in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon said Israel regularly violated its airspace and occupied small patches of its territory.
Meanwhile, Israel conducted strikes in Beirut on Monday after Hezbollah claimed 50 attacks on Israeli targets the day before.
The heavy exchanges of fire over the weekend included deadly strikes on Beirut and other areas of Lebanon, and fighting on the ground between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers, particularly around the southern town of Khiam.
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The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired 250 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, part of a wave of attacks the Lebanese group said had targeted areas including the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel and military sites near Tel Aviv.
Lebanon’s education ministry suspended classes on Monday for schools, technical institutes and private higher education institutions in Beirut and a number of surrounding areas, citing “the current dangerous conditions”.
Israeli ground forces have also entered several villages and towns near Lebanon’s southern border, including Khiam, where NNA on Monday reported clashes with Hezbollah fighters.
The escalation came as the United States and the European Union pushed for a truce in a war Lebanon that has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, most of them in the last two months.
Following the latest visit to the region by a US mediator, Israel hit central Beirut over the weekend, and Hezbollah responded with its biggest barrage in weeks as each applied pressure to reach a deal.
Michael Herzog, Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, told Israeli Army Radio on Monday, as cited by AP news agency, that the deal aimed to improve surveillance and enforcement of the previous resolution. While he said there were still certain points that needed to be finalized, a deal was close and could be clinched “within days.”
A US official said negotiations continued to progress on Sunday, but the parties still need to work out some outstanding issues to close the deal. The official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks, declined to detail the outstanding issues, AP reported.
Israel still has reservations over some details of the agreement, which were expected to be transmitted to the Lebanese government on Monday, CNN reported citing an official source.
Those and other details are still being negotiated and multiple sources stressed that the agreement will not be final until all issues are resolved, CNN reported.
A ceasefire agreement will also need to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, which has not yet occurred.
Talks appear to be moving positively toward an agreement, CNN reported citing a source, but acknowledged that as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, one misstep could upend the talks.
United States envoy Amos Hochstein said last week that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon was “within our grasp,” but added it was ultimately “the decision of the parties.”
Hochstein met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the interlocutor with Hezbollah in the talks, last week. He said there had been “constructive” and “very good discussions to narrow the gaps.”
“We have a real opportunity to bring conflict to an end,” he added. “The window is now.” He departed Lebanon for Israel on Wednesday to try to bring the negotiations “to a close.”
Israel launched a major military offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following months of tit-for-tat border attacks which started on October 8 last year when Hezbollah attacked Israeli controlled territory in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.
Since then, Israel has launched a ground invasion, killed a string of Hezbollah leaders – including one of its founders, Hassan Nasrallah – and injured thousands of people in an attack featuring exploding pagers.
