Photo: Agence France-Presse A man walks amidst a desolate landscape on Monday in the Haret Hreik neighborhood in southern Beirut.
Laure Al Khoury – Agence France-Presse in Beirut
Published and updated on November 19
- Middle East
A solution to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is “within reach,” the US president’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said on Tuesday, as he came to Beirut to negotiate a US proposal for a truce.
The US ambassador to Beirut, Lisa Johnson, presented last Thursday to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, a 13-point plan that includes a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in southern Lebanon.
Visiting Beirut on Tuesday, Mr. Hochstein, Joe Biden’s special envoy, spoke of “a real opportunity to end this war” conflict”.
“It is the parties who must decide” to end hostilities, he said after meeting Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally tasked with leading the negotiations. “It is now within reach,” added the envoy, who also met with Mr. Mikati and General Joseph Aoun, commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army.
“The situation is good in principle,” Mr. Berri told the London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat, specifying that the Lebanese and American representatives had to settle “certain technical details” before Mr. Hochstein's departure.
According to him, the latter assured that he had “coordinated with the Israelis on a draft” agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday night that Israel would “conduct military operations” against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire agreement was reached.
During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, Hezbollah said it had fired guided missiles at Israeli forces as they tried to evacuate wounded soldiers in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli army is conducting ground incursions, reporting “deaths.”
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More than 200 children killed in Lebanon
The pro-Iranian movement opened a “support front” against Israel for Hamas 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 exchanges of fire, 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, more than 3,540 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.
The Lebanese army announced that three of its soldiers were killed Tuesday in an Israeli strike on their position in southern Lebanon.
In the same region, on the Israeli side, the army announced the death of a soldier Monday in fighting against Hezbollah, bringing its death toll there to 49 since September 30. A total of 79 soldiers and 46 civilians have been killed in 13 months.
Israel says it wants to push Hezbollah out of the border regions to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by its fire. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced.
On Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted the city of Tyre and two southern towns, as well as two villages in the Bekaa Valley (east), according to the Lebanese News Agency.
For its part, the Israeli army recorded around 40 projectiles fired during the day from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Supporting the Lebanese army
“There is no better solution at this stage than to respect resolution 1701” of the UN Security Council, judged the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, on a tour in the Gulf.
This resolution, which confirmed the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only the Lebanese army and the Blue Helmets must be deployed on the southern border of Lebanon, implying a withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters from the sector, but also that of the soldiers Israelis from Lebanese territory.
The Israeli army, for its part, accused Hezbollah of having fired on two positions of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) during the day. In one of these incidents, UNIFIL reported four Ghanaian peacekeepers injured.
UNIFIL recorded more than 30 incidents in October that resulted in material damage or injuries to peacekeepers, including about 20 due to Israeli fire or actions.
On the Gaza front, Mr. Netanyahu announced Tuesday — in a video filmed inside the Palestinian territory according to his office — a $5 million bounty to “anyone who brings us a hostage.”
During the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians — according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity — 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.
The retaliatory offensive launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip has left at least 43,972 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Almost all of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced in this besieged territory, which is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.