Key Points
- US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to announce a ceasefire in Lebanon.
- A White House national security spokesperson has said: "We're close" but "nothing is done until everything is done".
- The Israeli security cabinet will meet on Tuesday night to vote on the proposed ceasefire.
The Israeli security cabinet will meet on Tuesday night to vote on a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, an official said, while the White House voiced optimism that a deal was close.
The United States, European Union and United Nations have pushed in recent days for a truce in the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale war in late September.
As truce talks intensified, Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people on Monday, mostly in the south.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security cabinet "will decide on Tuesday evening on the ceasefire deal". With time differences, its decision can be expected between 3-8am AEDT on Wednesday.
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A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah reported to be imminent
SBS News
26/11/202401:12
The deal, brokered by France and the US, was expected to be announced by presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, four senior Lebanese sources told Reuters on Monday.
In Washington, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said, "We're close" but "nothing is done until everything is done".
The French presidency said discussions on a ceasefire had made significant progress at getting Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel to end fighting that erupted in October 2023 in parallel with .
Netanyahu's office declined to comment on reports that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal but a senior Israeli official told Reuters that attendees at Tuesday's cabinet meeting intended to approve the text.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel would maintain an ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to wording that would grant Israel such a right.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said gaps between the two parties have narrowed significantly but there are still steps they need to take to reach an agreement.
"Oftentimes the very last stages of an agreement are the most difficult because the hardest issues are left to the end," he said. "We are pushing as hard as we can."
In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker, told Reuters there were "no serious obstacles" left to start implementing a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel, "unless Netanyahu changes his mind".
He said the proposal would entail an Israeli military withdrawal from south Lebanon and regular Lebanese army troops deploying in the border region, long a Hezbollah stronghold, within 60 days.
A sticking point over who would monitor compliance with the ceasefire was resolved in the last 24 hours with an agreement to set up a five-country committee, including France and chaired by the US, he said.
'No excuse' to reject deal: EU foreign policy chief
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that the proposal "gives Israel all the security commitments they were asking for" and that it had "no excuse" to reject it.
"I heard voices from the extremist ministers of the Israeli government willing to continue the fight, willing to continue the bombing," Borrell told journalists on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers meeting near Rome.
"Let's hope that today Netanyahu's government will approve the ceasefire agreement... No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people", he said.
Borrell also criticised what he saw as Western double standards on , for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
"You cannot applaud when the court goes against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and remain silent when the court goes against Netanyahu," he said, urging European Union member states to support the ICC.
News of the security cabinet meeting came as the Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes on Monday, including on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly bombed since late September when it escalated its air campaign in Lebanon.
The latest strikes hit around two dozen Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in one hour, the military said. A statement said "command centres, and intelligence control and collection centres, where Hezbollah commanders and operatives were located", were targeted.
Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli attacks killed 31 people and wounded 62 across the country on Monday. Over the past year, more than 3,750 people have been killed and over one million have been forced from their homes, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.
Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful airstrikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, while Hezbollah
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has reported that Hezbollah launched 10 rockets from Lebanon at Israel's Western Galilee region over the last 24 hours.
Some of the rockets were intercepted, while others had landed in the area, the IDF said, according to BBC reports. Israel’s ambulance service said two people — a 70-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man — had been injured by shrapnel in the attack.
Hezbollah has yet to comment on the attack.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, and other top commanders, and inflicting massive destruction in Lebanon areas where the group holds sway.
Israel says its military offensive is aimed at enabling tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes they evacuated when Hezbollah began firing across the Lebanese border into Israel more than a year ago.
Hezbollah's campaign followed the that precipitated the Gaza war.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 45 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. At least 73 Israeli soldiers have been killed in northern Israel, the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli authorities.
Mistrust over deal
Biden's administration, which leaves office in January, has emphasised diplomacy to end the Lebanon conflict, even as all negotiations to halt the parallel war in Gaza are frozen.
US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk will be in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss using a potential Lebanon ceasefire as a catalyst for a deal ending hostilities in Gaza, the White House said.
Diplomacy over Lebanon has , which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30km from the Israeli border, behind the Litani River, and the regular Lebanese army to enter the frontier region.
Israel and Hezbollah have accused each other of failing to implement it in the past; Israel says a new ceasefire must allow it to strike any Hezbollah fighters or weapons that remain south of the river.
An agreement could reveal rifts in Netanyahu's right-leaning government. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Israel must press on with the war until "absolute victory".
Addressing Netanyahu on X, he said, "It is not too late to stop this agreement!"
