Lebanon: A time-limit for a truce – Israeli Cabinet meets in the afternoon

His government’s so-called security council is expected to express itself today, Tuesday (26.11. 24) on whether a truce will be declared in the war against the Lebanese , said Monday an official, while the US government assured that the agreement is “near”. The French Presidency, which is actively involved in international mediation efforts, also assured that the talks on the truce have “severely progressed” and called on the Government of Israel and Hezbollah to seize “the fastest chance this opportunity”. These announcements were made in the background of further escalation in the last days of Israeli bombings against strongholds of the Shia movement adjacent to Iran on Lebanon territory. Last Monday at least 31 people were killed in Israel’s bombings, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. On 8 October 2023, Hezbollah opened a front with Israel to support Hamas, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement, which became the target of devastating, large-scale Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the unprecedented invasion of its military arm in southern Israel the previous October 7, 2023. After nearly a year of cross-border fire exchanges and after considering that it weakened Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel transferred the centre of gravity of the war to Lebanon territory, launching an intensive air bombing campaign against Hezbollah strongholds from 23 September and starting land attack seven days later. What are the terms of the truce? The Israeli government’s security council will decide “tonight” on the ceasefire agreement, told its French agency source to the Israeli government provided it is not named. Four Lebanese government sources told the Reuters news agency that US Presidents Joe Biden and France Emanuel Macron are preparing to announce the conclusion of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah possibly within the day. “We are close” to an agreement, was assured by John Kirby, a representative of the US presidency’s National Security Council. However, he stressed that nothing has been finalized yet: “Nothing has been done until everything has been done,” he said, calling wisely. According to reports from the American news site Axios, the agreement has been based on an American plan providing for a ceasefire for 60 days, during which both the Israeli army and the Hezbollah militants will withdraw from the borders of the two states and the Lebanese armed forces will develop. The plan includes the establishment of an international monitoring committee for the implementation of the agreement, added the report, mentioning US assurances that any Israeli operations will be supported in the event of hostile action by the Shia movement. The mediation is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which concerned the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 , and provides that only the Lebanese army and the cyanides must be deployed at the borders of the two countries. The fears of the next day But far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gveer told that the ceasefire agreement would be a “great mistake” and, addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stressed that “it is not too late to (it) stop” and continue the war as the “complete victory”. Dorrit Sishon, a teacher from northern Israel, 51, is afraid that there will be a 2006 arrangement that allowed Hezbollah to “rearm herself ”: Now “it has tunnels, rockets, every possible weapon”. The Netanyahu government says it wants to guarantee that Hezbollah and Hamas, allies of Iran, will not be able to harm Israel, a sworn enemy of the Jewish state. He vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack on October 7th and also says he intends to end rocket launches from Hezbollah, which led to the forced displacement of some 60,000 people in the north in the last year. New attacks yesterday the Israeli army assured that it struck within an hour some 25 targets associated with Hezbollah in southern Beirut, southern and eastern Lebanon. In the evening, new bombings took place in the southern part of Beirut, according to the Lebanese news agency ANI. Hezbollah launched at least 30 missiles against Israel’s territory according to the Israeli army. Meanwhile the battles between Hezbollah forces and Israeli troops continued, during the ANI. According to the Lebanese health ministry, nearly 3,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, in their large majority since 23 September onwards. On the Israeli side 82 military and 47 civilians have been killed in 13 months, according to official data. At the same time on the so-called southern front, on the besieged, devastated and threatened by a famine Strip of Gaza, the war continued yesterday for 416th day with Israeli bombings mainly in its northern part. “There are about 65,000 people in the besieged zones” in the northern Gaza Strip. “We hear they’re looking in trash bins, debris, trying to find old cans, any food they can,” said a representative of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Louise Waterridge, who is in the Palestinian enclave. Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have cost lives to at least 44.235 people, most of whom are civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry, considered reliable by the UN. Hamas, described as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, took power over the Palestinian enclave in 2007, two years after Israel left the coastal area where it imposed possession for 38 years. Hamas’ attack on the southern part of Israeli territory on October 7, 2023 cost the lives of 1,206 people, the majority of them civilians, according to a French Agency count based on official Israeli data, including hostages who were already dead when transferred to the Palestinian enclave or died in captivity. 251 people were abducted that day, 97 of whom remain hostages in the Gaza Strip, but 34 of them have been declared dead by the Israeli army.