[IsraelTimes] Lebanese speaker notes some details still need to be worked out after meeting with Amos Hochstein, who may travel to Israel Wednesday; IDF division expands southern Lebanon incursion.
A senior US mediator said Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Leb
 ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
was "within our grasp" as he arrived in the region to clinch a long-sought halt to the war.
Special Envoy Amos Hochstein’s trip to Lebanon Tuesday came as fighting showed little sign of easing, with dozens of rockets fired into northern Israel, an Israeli reservist killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon and a key Hezbollah commander killed in an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
Hochstein said he had held "very constructive talks" with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
The speaker said that Hochstein told him that the US had already coordinated with the Israelis about the proposal.
The proposal on the table entails both the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from southern Lebanon, where a UN buffer zone would be bolstered by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops.
Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism to keep Hezbollah from rebuilding its force near the Israeli border, where it could threaten northern Israel towns with anti-tank missile fire or an armed infiltration. Israel reportedly wants to reserve the ability to redeploy against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.
On Monday, a top Lebanese official told Rooters that Lebanon and Hezbollah had agreed to a US ceasefire proposal — though each had some reservations — describing the effort as the most serious yet to end the fighting.
"Lebanon presented its comments on the paper in a positive atmosphere," said Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, declining to give further details. "All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to (UN) Resolution 1701 with all its provisions."
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, requires Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the frontier — clauses the terror group violated from the get-go. The resolution also forbids Israel from entering Lebanese airspace, which Beirut says Israel repeatedly broke over the years.
Neither the Lebanese army nor UNIFIL kept Hezbollah from arming up and preparing to cross over and under the border to attack Israel, nor from shooting rockets and missiles at Israeli communities from the border region to halfway across the country. So Israel was forced to handle the situation for them.Israel reportedly demanded last month that the Air Force have freedom of operations in Lebanese airspace as part of its ability to disarm Hezbollah, while Lebanon may be seeking to beef up enforcement of the airspace restrictions.
According to Saudi-based al-Arabiya, Lebanon dropped some demands regarding "state illusory sovereignty" that had constituted sticking points in favor of pressing its demands on the airspace issue.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Jerusalem was insisting on the deal including a cause allowing its troops to act in case of a Hezbollah threat, while Lebanon did not believe the deal needed to include such language.
The sides have also failed to come together on the makeup of the bolstered buffer zone force, with Israel insisting on Western countries contributing troops and Lebanon seeking contributions from Arab countries, Channel 12 reported.
A possible solution, according to the channel, would be a force made up of troops from the US, La Belle France, the UN and an Arab country to be named later, overseen by a general from the US’s Central Command.
Israeli troops have been fighting near the frontier in southern Lebanon since October 1, where they have carried out raids aimed at destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, including bunkers, tunnels, rockets and small arms. It launched the intensified campaign against Hezbollah in September to halt a year of rocket attacks on northern Israel that have displaced some 60,000 people living near the border, with the goal of allowing them to return home safely.
A reservist was killed in the fighting early Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, marking the 71st fatality among troops in Lebanon and near Israel’s northern border. Israel says 44 civilians have also been killed. Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, 30, of the Golani Brigade’s logistics unit, was killed some two kilometers from the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, where his unit was providing security for soldiers fighting deeper inside the country.
According to an initial Israel Defense Forces probe, Gaeldor and three other soldiers were hit by an explosive-laden drone launched by Hezbollah.
Near the eastern end of the frontier, troops from the 98th division were expanding into new areas of southern Lebanon to locate and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure threatening the Kiryat Shmona area, the military said Tuesday.
Before the operation, the IDF launched numerous airstrikes on the area, which had been used by Hezbollah for rocket attacks on the Galilee Panhandle and Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s largest city on the border.
The army also confirmed that it had killed Ali Tawfiq Dweiq, the commander of Hezbollah’s medium-range rocket unit, in an airstrike a day earlier on the village of Jouz, adjacent to the southern Lebanon city of Nabatieh. The medium-range rocket unit is responsible for attacks on Haifa and other areas deep in northern Israel, as well as central Israel. The IDF said Dweiq was responsible for over 300 rockets launched at Israel since he took over the role.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem
... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies...
was expected to give a speech Tuesday, but the group postponed the address moments after it was announced. No reason was given.
The IDF said that since Sunday, over 150 strikes were carried out against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including 25 weapon depots and some 30 rocket launchers. At least 11 strikes were carried out in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon said three of its soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army post in southern Lebanon. The health ministry earlier said at least two people were killed in the strike near Beirut, and 28 others were killed Monday.
UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said four Ghanaian Blue Helmets were maimed when a rocket fired by a "non-state actor" hit their base. The IDF said Hezbollah had twice fired rockets on Tuesday that damaged UNIFIL posts.
It tallied at least 70 rockets and drones fired into central and northern Israel Tuesday, where they lightly injured five people and caused damage to some areas. Hezbollah in the past week has launched some 400 rockets at Israel. Since Thursday, the IDF said, 22 out of 27 drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon were intercepted.
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