The Israeli government is set to approve a plan for a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, according to unconfirmed reports.
Israel’s security cabinet is expected to approve the plan, brokered by the United States – Israel’s main ally – and France, at a meeting on Tuesday, newswires reported, quoting unnamed officials.
An agreement would pave the way for a truce that would halt Israel’s 14-month-long conflict with Hezbollah which has killed thousands of people and threatens to escalate hostilities across the region. However, as the prospect of an end to the fighting in Lebanon lurked, both sides continued to launch strikes, and Israel’s war on Gaza continues uninterrupted.
Officials said the cabinet meeting, to be chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would take place on Tuesday evening.
Asked in New York about the prospect of a truce agreement, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said “we are moving forward on this front”, appearing to confirm that the cabinet would discuss the plan.
Earlier, senior Lebanese sources had told Reuters that a truce declaration would be made by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, said that the ceasefire has been approved in Beirut after Hezbollah endorsed its ally Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to negotiate.
The French presidency said discussions on a ceasefire had made significant progress.
“We’re close” but “nothing is done until everything is done”, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in Washington on Monday night.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib expressed hope on Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement would be reached by the evening.
‘No more excuses’
Implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, is a major element in the ceasefire deal. It requires Iran-backed Hezbollah to pull back about 30 kilometres from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River.
The Israeli military would withdraw from south Lebanon within 60 days. The Lebanese army would then deploy in the border region, from where Hezbollah has launched most of its air attacks on northern Israel.
A five-county committee, including France and chaired by the US, would ensure compliance with the ceasefire.
EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting near Rome on Tuesday that “there is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire”.
“No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people,” he pleaded.
However, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir warned on X that a Lebanon ceasefire deal would be a “historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah”.
Ben-Gvir and other hardliners have threatened to bring down the government if it agrees to a truce deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Tuesday that Tel Aviv would demand effective UN enforcement of the conditions, and would show “zero tolerance” towards any infraction.
Despite the intensifying truce talks, the hostilities continued overnight into Tuesday and even escalated.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people on Monday, mostly in the south.
Air strikes on Tuesday demolished more of Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, while the Lebanese armed group maintained rocket fire into Israel.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said there was still hope among the Lebanese that “all of this escalation will follow the pattern of past conflicts between Israel and forces in Lebanon – an uptick in violence followed by a cessation”.
The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah, acting in support of Hamas in Israel’s war on 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.
The ceasefire is expected to pave the way for tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to homes in the north, but Tel Aviv-based political commentator Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that they are “unlikely to feel safe” to do so.
“They have become absolutely convinced that the only way they can go home is if Hezbollah is destroyed” because that is the message the state has “instilled in them”, he said.