Israel officials demand right to strike Hezbollah in any Lebanon ceasefire deal
Global News
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah throughout the cease-fire attempts, and rockets have continued to rain down on northern Israel.
Israeli officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon’s Hezbollah as part of any cease-fire 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, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said Israel 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 Israeli ground forces out of a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
There have been signs of progress on the cease-fire deal, with Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government saying the militant group had responded positively to the proposal.
“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 Israeli military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”
Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s point man on Israel 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 Israel in an attempt to “try to bring this to a close if we can.”
On Tuesday, Hochstein said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict is “within our grasp.”
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