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Israel’s far-right national security minister and the mayors of several northern towns have lashed out at a plan for a US-brokered ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet is as a result of meet afterward Tuesday to vote on the deal, which might involve an initial 60-day truce, and pave the best way for an end to greater than a 12 months of hostilities with Hizbollah. John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, said on Monday that an agreement was “close”.
Nonetheless, in an interview with Israeli public radio, Itamar Ben-Gvir said the ceasefire can be a “historic mistake”, and that Israel should proceed its assault on Hizbollah. “It is going to be a historical missed opportunity if we stop all the things and go backwards,” the minister said.
His criticism was echoed by the mayors of several towns in northern Israel, which has borne the brunt of Hizbollah’s rocket launches over the past 12 months, with David Azoulay, mayor of Metula, calling the proposal “shameful” and “an agreement of give up . . . to Hizbollah, an arm of Iran”.
Avichai Stern, mayor of Kiryat Shmona, called the deal a “total capitulation”.
“We managed to bring down Hizbollah but as an alternative of constant to crush them into dust we’re giving them a burst of oxygen and bringing them back to life,” he told the Israel Hayom newspaper. “It seems to me that somebody here has gone crazy.”
The proposed agreement envisages a 60-day truce during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon, and Hizbollah would move its weapons north of the Litani river, which runs 30km from the border between Israel and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Armed Forces, with support from the UN peacekeeping body Unifil, would take control of the areas in southern Lebanon vacated by Israeli troops and Hizbollah fighters. If the truce holds, Israel and Lebanon would then work to resolve disputes over their contested border.
Amid the mounting criticism from Israel’s northern mayors, an Israeli official said the country was “agreeing to a ceasefire in Lebanon, to not the tip of the war”, comparing it to a temporary truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas last 12 months which was followed by a resumption of fighting.
“We are going to test the ceasefire in the sphere, and act accordingly. Even within the ceasefire in Gaza, it was claimed that Israel wouldn’t return to fighting, [but] it returned — and in an enormous way . . . within the face of tremendous international pressure,” the official said. “The safety approach has modified — Israel will respond in Lebanon against any threat, which has not happened within the last 20 years in Lebanon.”
Diplomats hope the deal will bring an end to one in all the bloodiest rounds of fighting within the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, with greater than 3,700 Lebanese and greater than 120 Israelis having been killed over the past 12 months.
The hostilities began when Hizbollah began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas in the times after the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
For nearly a 12 months, they were largely confined to exchanges of fireside in a narrow strip of land either side of the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border between the 2 countries. But in recent months they’ve escalated right into a full-blown war, with Israel carrying out a ferocious aerial bombardment of targets across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion in early October.
Fighting has intensified in recent days in parallel with the negotiations, with Hizbollah militants and Israeli troops clashing in southern Lebanese villages and Israeli air strikes pounding areas where Hizbollah holds sway across the country.
Israeli warplanes targeted Beirut’s Dahiyeh district with dozens of strikes on Sunday and Monday, including in the world of Tayouneh which borders town centre.
Hizbollah has also stepped up its attacks, with the militant group launching greater than 250 rockets and missiles at Israel on Sunday in one in all the heaviest days of fireside from Lebanon for the reason that start of the war.
