Israel’s new foreign minister said Monday that there has been “certain progress” in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. But a spokesman for the militant group said it had not received any official proposal and was prepared to wage a long war if needed.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and there were reports that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein might return to the region in the coming days.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any agreement would have to include enforcement mechanisms to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its military infrastructure near the border.
“There is certain progress on the issue. We are working with the Americans,” he told reporters.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,100 people have been killed and nearly 13,900 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reported.
The Israel-Hamas war began after militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
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JERUSALEM — Israel’s new foreign minister appeared to downplay a looming U.S. deadline for increased aid to Gaza, saying he was confident “the issue would be solved.”
The Biden administration warned Israel last month to increase the amount of food and other urgently needed aid entering Gaza to 350 trucks per day or risk a scaling back of American military support. It set a 30-day deadline that expires this week.
The amount of aid entering the war-ravaged territory plummeted in October to its lowest level since the first month of the war, with an average of 57 trucks entering each day, according to Israeli figures.
U.N. agencies say even less is actually being distributed because Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness often prevent them from retrieving the aid on the Gaza side of the border.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that he was “sure we can also reach understanding with our American friends and that issue will be solved.”
U.S. President Joe Biden may have less leverage over Israel as it awaits Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Trump was a staunch supporter of Israel during his previous term. He has vowed to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday called for an immediate cease-fire along the Lebanon-Israel border, saying the war has had devastating effects on the small nation.
Mikati called for the implementation of a U.N. resolution that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, and the deployment of Lebanese troops along the border with Israel in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers.
Mikati spoke at the opening session of the Arab-Islamic summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He said the war has caused “unprecedented losses” with more than 3,000 people dead, including 775 women and children.
He said the war also had caused $8.5 billion in losses, including $3.4 billion caused by the destruction or damage of about 100,000 housing units in different parts of the country.
“No state can take the burden of this huge destruction,” Mikati said, adding that Beirut is about to set up a fund that will be funded by friendly states for the reconstruction process. He said the fund will be under international supervision and subject to international auditing.
Mikati urged other nations to support the Lebanese state rather than the country’s political factions.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia on Monday hosted a summit over the ongoing Mideast wars.
Speaking before leaders, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom renewed “its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which has claimed the lives of 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, most of whom are women and children.”
“We affirm that Israel’s continued crimes against innocent people, its persistence in violating the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its detraction from the pivotal role of the Palestinian National Authority in all Palestinian territories will undermine the efforts aimed at obtaining the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights and establishing peace in the region,” he added.
The summit is a follow-up from the 2023 Arab-Islamic Summit.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s new foreign minister says there has been “certain progress” in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
But a spokesman for the militant group said Monday that it had not received any official proposal and was prepared to wage a long war if needed.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and there were reports that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein might return to the region in the coming days.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any agreement would have to include enforcement mechanisms to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its military infrastructure near the border.
“There is certain progress on the issue. We are working with the Americans,” he told reporters.
“The most important thing will not (be) the words but the enforcement,” he said, adding that if any agreement is breached, Israel “will act immediately, militarily.”
The U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war required both Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon that was to be patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army.
Israel says Hezbollah maintained a military presence right up to the border, while Lebanon accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution. Lebanese officials are opposed to any changes to the resolution.
In Beirut, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif said the group has enough weapons and supplies to fight a long war with Israel. He said Israeli forces had failed to hold territory six weeks into their ground invasion, pointing to what he said was a failed Israeli attempt last week to enter the southern town of Khiyam.
“As long as you are not able to control areas in the field you will not achieve your political goals,” Afif said.
He also denied claims by Israeli officials that Hezbollah has lost most of its missile capabilities, pointing to the fact that it is still launching dozens of projectiles a day and targeting areas in central Israel.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. All-out war erupted in September, when Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
DAMASCUS, Syria — Israel’s air force attacked an aid convoy and forced the closure of Syria’s main north-south highway, Syria state media reported.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Monday’s strike, and state TV did not provide details about the convoy.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. Israeli officials rarely acknowledge them, but say Israel is determined to disrupt arms shipments to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and to prevent Iran from developing military infrastructure near its borders.
Monday’s airstrike occurred in Shamsin, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Lebanon. People often gather there after fleeing the war, state TV said.
It said the strike forced the closure of the M5 highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo.
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab. The Syrian Defense Ministry said seven civilians were killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor linked to the Syrian opposition, suggested that Hezbollah was targeted.
BEIRUT — The United Nations children’s agency says the war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 200 children in Lebanon.
They include seven children who were among 23 people killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Lebanon on Sunday.
UNICEF said protecting children from harm during war is a legal obligation and called for a cease-fire.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 3,189 people have been killed and over 14,000 wounded in Lebanon in more than a year of conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced.
On the Israeli side, 68 soldiers and 41 civilians have been killed in the fighting since October 2023, according to the prime minister’s office. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran.
Hezbollah acknowledged the killing of nearly 500 of its fighters in the first 11 months of the conflict but stopped updating that toll after all-out war erupted in September.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday claimed they launched a missile targeting Israel.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the claim in a prerecorded video message, claiming that the rebels launched a Palestine-2 ballistic missile he described as a “hypersonic” toward a military base.
The Israeli military said it “intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen.” The Israelis also said the fire did not enter Israeli territory.
The Houthis have launched missiles and targeted ships through the Red Sea corridor over the ongoing Mideast wars. The rebels separately said sites in the country came under attack in likely U.S. airstrikes early Monday morning, something not immediately acknowledged by the Americans.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A senior diplomat for the United Arab Emirates called on the world to focus on the plight of civilians and de-escalate the ongoing Mideast wars.
Anwar Gargash’s remarks Monday, made at the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate, followed the pattern of comments made by the UAE amid the Mideast wars. The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms home to Dubai, diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020.
“The complexities of the region require a steady hand and a clear and consistent vision,” Gargash said. “The recent cycle of escalation between Israel and Iran cannot become a permanent feature of the strategic landscape of our region. This must be addressed through a political framework.”
He called for “pragmatism” and a “serious political horizon” to resolve the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reach a two-state solution. He described the war in the Gaza Strip as being “driven by extremists on both sides, from the Israeli and Arab side.” Yet he also called the “systemic violence” faced by Palestinians in Gaza “criminal and unacceptable.”
He added: “At the present time, it is vital to identify that not all crises stem from the Palestinian issue, yet it undeniably remains central to the conflict in our region.”
The UAE has provided aid for both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in the wars, while maintaining its diplomatic ties with Israel. The UAE has, however, strenuously criticized Israel’s conduct at times in public in the wars.
Gargash also offered criticism of governance in both the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
“In both Palestine and Lebanon, a drastic reform is essential for the world to step in and provide considerable support,” Gargash said.
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