End to Israel-Hezbollah war ‘within our grasp’: US envoy

A senior US mediator said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing, signalling progress in Washington’s efforts to clinch a ceasefire.

White House envoy Amos Hochstein spoke in Beirut after talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a day after the Lebanese government and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, although with comments on the content.

“I came back because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein told a press conference after the meeting. “It is now within our grasp. As the window is now, I hope the coming days yield a resolute decision.”

Hochstein’s mission marks a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing US administration to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Berri told pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the situation was “good in principle” and some details of the ceasefire proposal still needed to be hashed out, including technical details.

He said Hochstein would settle those details before travelling on to Israel, and that Lebanon saw the United States as the guarantor of the Israeli stance.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said at a conference on Tuesday that “there are talks regarding an arrangement with Lebanon” but that Israel would agree only if all its demands were met, including pushing Hezbollah away from the border.

The diplomatic efforts coincide with an intensification of the war, with Israel stepping up strikes on Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and striking three times in the capital itself in the last three days.

The conflict spiralled in September when Israel began an offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes, sending troops into the south and killing many Hezbollah commanders including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

During the conflict, 10,000 peacekeepers have been serving in southern Lebanon with the UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, despite it coming under fire several times.

UNIFIL said peacekeepers and facilities had been targeted in three separate incidents on Tuesday, and that four Ghanaian peacekeepers were wounded when a rocket hit their base in southern Lebanon.

In a sign of cracks in the mission’s unity, a UNIFIL spokesperson said Argentina had withdrawn its three officers from the forces, but did not say why.

Hochstein flew to Beirut overnight after Lebanon delivered its written response to a US ceasefire proposal which Berri, who has been endorsed as Lebanon’s negotiator, received last week from the US ambassador.

Israel started its offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which said it was acting in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October 2023, attack on Israel led to the start of the Gaza war.

Israel’s declared goal is to dismantle Hezbollah’s capabilities and secure the return of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the north.

An Israeli strike killed two people in the Chiyah district of Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Lebanese health ministry said.

At least 35 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday, some of which were intercepted, and two drones were also intercepted, Israel’s military said.

Lebanon has rejected Israeli demands to be granted “freedom of action”, which Cohen signalled should apply if Hezbollah attacked or restored its strength, and Berri said last week the US proposal did not mention this.

World powers say a ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Its terms require Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 km (20 miles) north of the border with Israel.

Ali Hassan Khalil, a top Berri aide, told Reuters on Monday that Lebanon had presented its comments on the US proposal “in a positive atmosphere and that those comments “affirm the precise adherence to Resolution 1701 with all its provisions”.

Israel’s campaign has killed 3,544 people in Lebanon since hostilities began, Lebanese authorities say. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Hezbollah strikes have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while 73 soldiers have been killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli figures.