Solution to stop Israel-Hezbollah war 'within reach', says US envoy to Lebanon

A solution to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon is “within reach,” U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Amos Hochstein said Tuesday, as he is in Beirut negotiating a truce following a U.S. proposal.

The United States and France have stepped up efforts to broker a ceasefire, but international efforts to end hostilities have so far failed.

The pro-Iranian Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in the wake of Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which triggered war in the Gaza Strip, saying it was acting in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement.

After a year of cross-border firefights, Hezbollah and Israel entered into open warfare 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 3,500 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.

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 death toll there to 49 since September 30. In total, 79 soldiers and 46 civilians have been killed in 13 months.

The American ambassador to Beirut, Lisa Johnson, presented last Thursday to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, and the speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, a 13-point plan providing for a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in the south of Lebanon.

In this context, the special envoy of the American president, Amos Hochstein, affirmed that he had “returned (to Beirut) because we have a real opportunity to end this conflict.”

“It is the parties who must decide to end this conflict,” he said after meeting Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and responsible for leading the negotiations. “It is now within reach,” he added.

The day before, a Lebanese official familiar with the negotiations had assured that Lebanon had a “very positive” point of view on the American proposal.

– Netanyahu's warning –

Smoke rises after strikes in the Lebanese village of Khiam, near the border with Israel, on November 19, 2024 © AFP – –

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday evening that Israel “will conduct” military operations against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire is agreed to Lebanon.

Israel says it wants to push Hezbollah out of the southern border regions of Lebanon to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the movement's gunfire. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced.

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On Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted the city of Tyre and the towns of Qana and Khiam in southern Lebanon, as well as two villages in the Bekaa Valley (east), according to the National News Agency. She also reported fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near Chamaa, five kilometers from the border.

Civil defense teams search for survivors among the rubble of a destroyed house at the scene of an airstrike that targeted the eastern entrance to the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on November 19, 2024 © AFP – KAWNAT HAJU

Hezbollah claimed to have fired missiles at a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv in central Israel.

The Israeli army said about 40 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Tuesday morning.

– Supporting the Lebanese army –

On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed that the United States had “shared proposals” with the Lebanese and Israeli governments.

Northern Israel and southern Lebanon © AFP – Jean-Michel CORNU, Cléa PECULIER

“There was an exchange of ideas” on how to “fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” he added.

This resolution, which had confirmed the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only the Lebanese army and the Blue Helmets should 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,” said French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu on Tuesday, while on tour in the Gulf.

But to secure the Israeli-Lebanese border, and “strengthen Lebanon's sovereignty, the armed forces must be truly armed,” he stressed.

The Hamas attack that triggered the military escalation in the Middle East resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or who died in captivity.

That day, 251 people were kidnapped. A total of 97 remain hostages in Gaza, with 34 declared dead by the army.

A Palestinian boy carries a plastic container as he walks through debris next to a building destroyed by a recent bombing in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on November 19, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

En In retaliation, the Israeli army launched an air and then ground offensive in Gaza, which 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 in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.

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