Israel officials demand right to strike Hezbollah in any Lebanon ceasefire deal – National

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******* officials demand right to strike Hezbollah in any Lebanon ceasefire deal – National

******** officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon’s Hezbollah as part of any cease-***** deal, raising a potential complication as a top U.S. envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, ******** 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the ******* on *******. The ******** military declined to comment.

******** Defense Minister ******* Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said ******* sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the militant group’s fighters and ******** ground forces out of a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the cease-***** deal, with Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government saying the militant group had responded positively to the proposal.

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“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Saar told dozens of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem. “We will have to be able to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Katz, in a meeting with intelligence corps officers, said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for the ******** military “to act and protect the citizens of ******* from Hezbollah.”

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s point man on ******* and Lebanon, has been working in recent days to push the sides toward agreement. He has been meeting this week with officials in Lebanon and said Wednesday he would travel to ******* in an attempt to “try to bring this to a close if we can.”

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0:19
Katz says ******* has ‘defeated’ Hezbollah, ******** of Nasrallah was ‘crowning achievement’

On Tuesday, Hochstein said an agreement to end the *******-Hezbollah conflict is “within our grasp.”

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The emerging cease-***** deal would push Hezbollah and ******* out of southern Lebanon

Hezbollah began ******* into ******* on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with ****** after its ******* on southern ******* that sparked the conflict in the Gaza Strip. ******* has been responding with strikes in Lebanon, and dramatically escalated its bombardment in late September by launching a ground invasion just inside the border.

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In the more than a year of exchanges, more than 3,500 people have been ******* in Lebanon, most in the past month, the Health Ministry reported, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It’s unknown how many of the ***** were Hezbollah fighters.

In *******, more than 70 people have been ******* by Hezbollah *****, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

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2:02
Hezbollah chief says indirect truce talks possible only if ******* stops attacks on Lebanon

Hochstein’s proposal is based on U.N. resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and *******. The resolution stipulates that only the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon.

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Still, after 2006, Hezbollah never fully ended its presence in the south. Lebanon accuses ******* of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military flights over Lebanon.

******* says that since then, Hezbollah build up a military infrastructure throughout villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

The proposal currently being discussed would include an implementation plan and a monitoring system to ensure each side follows its obligations to fully withdraw from the south. That could involve the U.S. and France, but details are still unclear.

There’s been progress, but the deal isn’t done yet

The ******** ministers did not outline what *******’s demand to maintain freedom of operation would entail. Since the 2006 war, ******* has struck Hezbollah on the few occasions when border ********* did flare up, but any larger scale response could push the region back into turmoil.

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It is also unlikely that Lebanon would agree to a deal that permits ******** violations of its sovereignty.

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And although the proposal attempts to nail down an implementation mechanism, the ******** to fully implement the U.N. resolution after the 2006 war could point to the difficulties in getting the sides to uphold a sustainable cease-***** that would bring long-term quiet.

******* has continued to pound Hezbollah throughout the cease-***** attempts, and rockets have continued to rain down on northern *******. Any perceived escalation could derail the talks.

The conflict in Gaza would grind on even if ******* and Hezbollah cease *****

Even if a cease-***** between ******* and Hezbollah is reached, the conflict in Gaza grinds on into its 14th month.

******* is still battling ****** there, sending the ****** toll soaring to nearly 44,000 ***** — over half of them women and children, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.

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While Hezbollah throughout the conflict in Gaza said it wouldn’t stop ******* at ******* until the fighting in the ************ territory ends, that condition was dropped in September after ******* intensified its offensive on the militant group, ******** its top leadership and degrading its military capabilities.

That leaves Gaza waiting for a cease-***** of its own, as people there continue to endure a humanitarian crisis that has displaced much of the territory’s 2.3 million people and prompted widespread hunger, especially in the north, where the U.N. says virtually no food or humanitarian aid has been delivered to for more than 40 days because of the ******** military’s siege there.

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1:57
New ******** airstrikes pound southern Beirut

International mediation efforts have stalled repeatedly over disagreement between ******* and ****** over whether the conflict should end as part of a cease-***** deal, with ******* insisting it wants to maintain troop presence in certain areas.

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****** ignited the conflict in Gaza when its fighters stormed into ******* on Oct. 7, 2023, ******** some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of them believed to be *****.

Other tumultuous areas of the Middle East won’t likely be affected by a Hezbollah-******* cease-*****, including Syria.

******* frequently targets military sites and facilities associated with Iran-linked groups in Syria but rarely acknowledges the strikes. The ****** toll from Wednesday’s strike in Palmyra was unusually high.

The Syrian news agency SANA said that along wit the 36 *******, the strike on Palmyra also wounded more than 50 people and caused “significant material damage to the targeted buildings” and the surrounding area. Palmyra is known for the historic Roman temple complex nearby, but it was not immediately clear if the ruins were damaged.

The temple complex already suffered significant damage years ago from the Islamic State group in its rampage across Syria.

—Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

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