Israel’s security cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to decide on a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon after more than a year of fighting between Israeli forces and the Shia militia Hezbollah, according to reports from the region.
Under the deal being considered, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw entirely from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah would pull its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, about 16 miles (25km) north of the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army would move in to provide security in the border zone alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force, during an initial 60-day transition phase.
The US would lead a five-country international monitoring committee which would act as a referee on infringements and the US has guaranteed support for Israeli military operations over the border if Hezbollah mounts an attack or reconstitutes its forces south of the Litani.
The conflict started on 8 October last year, when Hezbollah fired shells and missiles into Israeli border towns in solidarity with Hamas, and the fighting has intensified significantly since the end of September, when Israel launched a ground invasion amid intensified bombing across Lebanon which has killed about 3,500 Lebanese people as well as much of Hezbollah’s leadership.
The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is under domestic political pressure to agree a deal that would allow about 60,000 Israelis from the border region to return home, after spending a year in displacement camps, and their safe return is Israel’s primary war aim in Lebanon.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said on Monday that ceasefire talks were “moving forward”, but insisted that Israel would retain its capacity to strike southern Lebanon in any agreement. He confirmed that the issue would be discussed by Israel’s security cabinet in the next two days.
Lebanon’s deputy parliamentary speaker, Elias Bou Saab, told Reuters there were “no serious obstacles” to starting the implementation of the truce.