The US and France have led international calls for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, hours after an Israeli military chief told troops to prepare for a potential ground offensive in Lebanon.
The initiative, backed by the G7, EU, Australia and three Arab nations, on Wednesday called on Israel and Hizbollah to give a swift endorsement of the truce, in a statement issued on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
While no deadline was set, US officials said they expected responses from the parties in “the coming hours.”
One senior US administration official said a temporary ceasefire could “shake things up” and create space for a longer-term resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group along their shared border, while helping to avert the threat of a wider regional war.
While the Biden administration described the initiative as a significant breakthrough, it was not clear whether Israel or Hizbollah would adhere to it.
“We have had this conversation with the parties and felt this was the right moment . . . based on our discussion, they are familiar with the text,” a senior administration official said. “We’ll let them speak to their actions of accepting the deal in the coming hours.”
US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron hammered out final details of the proposal. It was backed by the G7, EU, Australia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
The US is not speaking to Hizbollah directly, but officials said they expected Lebanon’s government to ensure that the militant group would abide by the deal.
The temporary ceasefire would apply to fighting between Israel and Hizbollah along the demarcation boundary known as the “blue line” along the Israel-Lebanon border.
US officials said they hoped the pause in hostilities would also put pressure on Hamas to accept the terms of a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, which has eluded the US for months.
A halt to the escalating conflict would also be used to work towards fully implementing a UN resolution, reached in 2006, to end a previous conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbollah, which calls for changes including the demilitarisation of southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, one person said.
Macron said on Wednesday there “must not be war in Lebanon”, adding he was dispatching foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot to Beirut at the end of the week as part of an effort to avert an all-out conflict.
Biden said he was “using every bit of energy I have” to try to halt the fighting in the hope that a “ceasefire in Lebanon” could pave the way to “dealing with the [occupied] West Bank” and Gaza.
He added that Arab nations in the region were “willing to make arrangements with Israel and alliances if Israel changes some policies”.
However, a western diplomat in the region said there was scepticism about the diplomatic initiative.
The conditions that have led to a stalemate in the hostages-for-ceasefire talks over Gaza still exist, so “why would you think you can push Israel and [the Palestinian militant group] Hamas to accept one now. What changed?” the diplomat added.
“[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu will never agree to linking the two fronts,” the diplomat added, saying this was exactly what Hizbollah and its main backer, Iran, “had been attempting to do for 12 months”.
“Hizbollah is very slowly and carefully calculating every next move. They were hit very bad but they are not defeated,” the diplomat said.
The diplomatic drive came after the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told troops that air strikes on Lebanon were not just aimed at “degrading” Hizbollah but “to prepare the ground for your possible entry”, in what would be Israel’s first invasion of the country since the two sides fought a 34-day war in 2006.
The statement was Israel’s most explicit threat of a ground offensive since it began an intense air bombardment of Lebanon three days ago, striking thousands of targets it said were linked to Hizbollah, while killing hundreds of people and adding to fears of all-out war.
US Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said on Wednesday: “In terms of a ground incursion . . . it doesn’t look like something is imminent.”
But the IDF said it was calling up two reserve brigades, which would “enable the continuation of combat” against Hizbollah to defend Israeli territory and allow residents of northern Israel displaced by the cross-border conflict — which has been simmering since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October — to return home.
Israeli air strikes have killed more than 600 people this week, including 72 on Wednesday, according to Lebanese authorities. The International Organization for Migration said at least 90,000 people in Lebanon had been displaced by the violence.
On Wednesday morning, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv as Hizbollah fired a ballistic missile at Israel for the first time. Hizbollah said the missile targeted the headquarters of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Though intercepted by Israel’s air defences, the launch marked one of the group’s deepest strike attempts and its first aimed at the country’s economic hub.
Reporting by Felicia Schwartz in New York, Polina Ivanova and James Shotter in Jerusalem, Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in Beirut, Steff Chávez and Neri Zilber in Washington and Charles Clover in London. Data visualisation by Steven Bernard and Chris Cook
