Middle East latest: US envoy holds talks in Lebanon on Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire proposal
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein held what he called “very constructive talks” with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Tuesday about a possible cease-fire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
"Today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps,” Hochstein said, a day after Hezbollah reportedly gave a positive response to a U.S. draft proposal to end the 13-month war, which the Lebanese group launched to support Hamas in Gaza.
The U.S. proposal could see Israeli ground forces leave Lebanon and Hezbollah militants withdraw away from the Israeli border. More Lebanese army troops and U.N. peacekeepers would be sent to a buffer zone in southern Lebanon as part of the deal.
An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Lebanese army base in the southern town of Sarafand, killing three soldiers, the army said – the second deadly strike on Lebanese soldiers in as many days. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.
Israeli strikes and combat in Lebanon have killed more than 3,500 people and wounded 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The war has displaced nearly 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including some foreign farmworkers, have been killed by attacks involving rockets, drones and missiles.
In Gaza, health authorities say Israel's war against Hamas has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children.
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UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian office says thousands of Palestinians in areas of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces are struggling to stay alive because there have been virtually no food or humanitarian aid deliveries for more than 40 days.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric delivered the grim report from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs known as OCHA on Tuesday.
“OCHA reports that all attempts by the U.N. to support people in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and parts of Jabaliya – all of which remain under siege – have been either denied or impeded,” he said.
So far in November, Dujarric said OCHA reports that 27 out of 31 planned humanitarian missions were rejected by Israel and the other four were severely impeded. That means they were prevented from accomplishing all the critical work they set out to do, he said.
“The result is that bakeries and kitchens in North Gaza governorate have shut down, nutrition support has been suspended, and the refueling of water and sanitation facilities has been completely blocked,” Dujarric said.
An Israeli ground and air offensive in the north has severely restricting access to its three hospitals which are desperately short of medical supplies, blood and fuel, he said.
Israel blocked attempts by U.N. partners to send in an international emergency medical team to help, he said.
On Sunday, Dujarric said, OCHA supported a mission led by the U.N. World Health Organization that was able to deliver 10,000 liters of fuel to Kamal Adwan Hospital and transfer some 17 patients, three unaccompanied children and nearly two dozen caregivers to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Food and medical supplies were also supposed to be delivered to Kamal Adwan but Dujarric said, “our partners say the team was forced to offload the food at an Israeli military checkpoint before reaching the hospital, and only some of the medical supplies could be delivered to the facility.”
Asked whether the U.N. believes Israel is trying to force the estimated 75,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south by denying the aid deliveries, Dujarric replied: “I can’t speak to the intentions of the Israeli government and the Israeli policy. We’re just seeing the result of it and trying to deal with it.”
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says the first meeting of a U.S.-Israel panel to look into reports of civilian harm and damage from the war in Gaza will meet in early December, missing by more than a month a U.S. call for the channel to be set up by the end of October.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday that the upcoming meeting had been agreed to after much discussion between U.S. and Israeli officials on specific incidents and reports of civilian casualties involving American-made or -supplied weapons.
Miller told reporters that “the purpose of this channel is to inform the ongoing work that the State Department has to make assessments about the use of U.S.-provided weapons.”
He said the information gathered through that channel will inform U.S. policy decisions about any response to potential violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict.
In October, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a letter to top Israeli officials warning them that the Biden administration might limit the provision of some U.S. weapons systems to Israel, a close ally, if action to improve humanitarian conditions was not taken within 30 days.
That deadline expired last week with no decisions being made on military aid and officials saying that Israel had taken some positive steps but was still not meeting the criteria for improvements laid out in the letter.
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. peacekeeping chief says diplomatic efforts toward a cease-fire in Lebanon are “encouraging,” and that the United Nations is working on the role its peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon could play after the Israel-Hezbollah war ends.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who just returned from Lebanon and Israel, told reporters Tuesday that the U.N. is proceeding on the basis that Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, will remain the framework for a settlement .
Key will be the resolution’s demand for Lebanon’s armed forces to deploy throughout the south, which Hezbollah largely controls, to assert the country’s sovereignty, Lacroix said.
The resolution calls for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to support the implementation of the resolution’s provisions, and Lacroix says he stressed the importance of “genuine political will” to achieve that.
The undersecretary-general for peace operations said he also stressed the importance of UNIFIL’s freedom of movement, which is sometimes limited, and the need to clarify restrictions on peacekeepers entering private property.
Lacroix said the U.N. is also looking at using technology to monitor compliance, and UNIFIL’s potential role in rebuilding and supporting the return of Lebanese people to devastated villages in the south.
There will also be a need for mine-clearing experts in the south and for engineers because many roads have been damaged and destroyed, he said.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese army said an Israeli airstrike targeted one of its military bases late Tuesday in the southern town of Sarafand, killing three Lebanese soldiers. The Health Ministry said at least 17 people were also wounded, including civilians who lived near the facility.
In total, 41 Lebanese soldiers have been killed amid the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Lebanon's army has largely stood on the sidelines during the 13-month conflict, and if a cease-fire is reached, the army could play a key role in securing a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack — the latest in a series of Israeli strikes targeting the Lebanese military. On Sunday, Israel bombed a Lebanese army post in Mari, in Hasbaya province, killing two soldiers and critically injured three others.
In response, the Lebanese government announced on Monday plans to file a formal complaint with the U.N. Security Council on the “repeated attacks” on the Lebanese army, citing repeated violations of international law.
Before Tuesday's airstrike, Lebanese army spokesperson Col. Fadi Eid told The Associated Press that 38 soldiers have been killed since the current war began last year.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry also said that 28 people were killed Monday, raising the nationwide toll over to at least 3,544 killed and 15,036 wounded.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a $5 million reward and one-way ticket out of Gaza to Palestinians who free Israeli hostages held in the territory.
Netanyahu made the offer during a tour of central Gaza on Tuesday.
Israel says Hamas continues to hold 101 hostages, roughly one-third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel has vowed to press ahead with its war, which has devastated Gaza, until all hostages are free.
“I also say to those who want to get out of this maze: Whoever brings us a hostage will find a safe way, he and his family, to get out,” Netanyahu said. “We will also give a reward of $5 million for each hostage.”
Families of the hostages have accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to bring their loved-ones home, and tens of thousands of Israelis regularly take to the streets calling on him to reach a deal.
A former aide to Netanyahu has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified materials to foreign media over the summer in an apparent effort to scuttle a deal.
Critics accuse Netanyahu of dragging his feet because a deal would likely lead to the collapse of his hardline government and the launch of an official investigation into the government’s failures ahead of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Netanyahu rejects the criticism and says he is doing his utmost to free them.
BEIRUT — Four United Nations peacekeepers were wounded in southern Lebanon on Tuesday when a rocket struck a base, while another peacekeeping base was damaged by rocket fire and a patrol was shot at.
In a statement, the peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL said “a rocket, likely fired by non-state actors within Lebanon,” struck the base of the Ghana's mission in the east of Ramyah village, injuring four peacekeepers, three of whom required hospitalization.
In the southern village of Shama, where heavy fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has been taking place, five rockets damaged UNIFIL’s Sector West Headquarters. The U.N. force said this was the second attack on the base in a week, adding that no injuries were reported.
In another attack, an armed person “directly fired” at a UNIFIL patrol near Khirbat Silim, but there were no injuries, the statement said.
UNIFIL added that it launched investigations into each of the violent episodes and informed the Lebanese army about them.
“UNIFIL once again reminds all actors involved in the ongoing hostilities to respect the inviolability of United Nations peacekeepers and premises,” the statement said.
ROME — Italy says eight rockets struck the headquarters of Italy’s U.N. peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon. No one was injured.
According to the Italian defense ministry, the eight 107-millimenter rockets hit outdoor areas and a warehouse at the base in Shama, where no soldiers were present. Five soldiers were being kept under observation, the statement said.
Italy said it was investigating from where the rockets originated, and who was responsible.
It was the second time in a week that Italy has complained about rockets or shells hitting its peacekeepers' base.
Last week, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with his Israeli counterpart to demand an investigation after an artillery shell hit the gym on the base. No one was injured in that episode and the shell did not detonate.
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli military said another U.N. peacekeeper's position was hit by a Hezbollah rocket, causing damage and “several injuries.”
The army said it had received a report from the peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, that a post in the area of Ramyeh in southern Lebanon was hit.
The military said it conducted a review and determined the location was hit by a Hezbollah rocket fired in a barrage aimed at Israel. There was no immediate comment from UNIFIL on the episode.
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has dismissed an Israeli complaint to the U.N. Security Council about strikes by Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a “pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and to “expand the war in the region.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that “Israel has the inherent right to self-defense ... and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
An umbrella group of Iraqi militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has regularly launched drone strikes on targets in Israel in recent months in support of its Hamas and Hezbollah allies in the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Saar said some of the militias are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces — a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups that's technically part of the Iraqi army although it operates in practice largely outside state control — and urged the Iraqi government to “take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks.”
Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement on Tuesday that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while “seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people.”
BEIRUT — Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf, says some unresolved details remain following his meeting with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein over an American proposal on a cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel.
Berri, in remarks to the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, said that representatives from his side and the American side are still working to address technical issues before progressing to the next stage.
This would involve Hochstein traveling to Israel for further discussions, he said.
“We are waiting for what he will bring from there,” Berri said, emphasizing that the overall outlook remains positive.
Berri and Hochstein met for nearly two hours on Tuesday to discuss the U.S. proposal. Berri also told that Lebanon holds the American negotiators responsible for guarantees regarding the Israeli position.
Berri said that though Hochstein "coordinated with the Israelis regarding the draft... It would not be the first time that the Israelis have reneged their commitments.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack that twice targeted a Panama-flagged bulk carrier traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden the day before.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the claim about the attack on the Anadolu S in a prerecorded statement.
Missiles twice splashed down near the ship on Monday, causing no damage or injuries.
Tuesday marked the first anniversary of the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Middle East waters.
The attacks have targeted shipping through a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.
BEIRUT — Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson says Hamas leaders have left Doha but denied reports that Qatar has ordered a permanent closure of the Palestinian militant group’s political office or expulsion of its previously Doha-based leadership.
Qatar, which had served as a mediator in indirect cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire and hostage exchange deal, has suspended its efforts after growing frustration with the lack of progress on a cease-fire deal for Gaza.
The Qatari spokesman, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, told reporters on Tuesday that "if there is decision to close the office permanently you will hear this news from this platform or in an official statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“The leaders of Hamas that are in the negotiating team are now not in Doha and as you know, they move between the different capitals,” he said. ”...The office in Doha was created for the purpose of the mediation process — obviously when there is no mediation process, the office itself doesn’t have any function.”
Al-Ansari did not say where the Hamas leaders went nor did he rule out that Doha might return to its mediating role.
“The suspension of negotiation efforts does not in any way mean that there is a Qatari position to withdraw from de-escalation efforts or that there is a change in the position of the State of Qatar on the need to end this war,” he said.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has facilitated the delivery of blood units to a hospital in isolated northern Gaza.
Israel has imposed a tight siege on the northernmost part of the territory since launching an offensive there in early October. Aid groups say very little humanitarian assistance has been allowed in and have warned of famine.
The military agency in charge of transferring aid to Gaza, COGAT, said it had sent 1,000 units of blood through a northern crossing on Monday. The U.N.’s health cluster said the blood shipment was delivered to Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the northernmost reaches of the strip since the offensive began, and hospitals there have struggled to function.
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces have killed three militants during a raid Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, the military said. The militant Hamas group later identified the three as its fighters.
They were killed in the area of Jenin, in the north of the occupied territory, which has been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent years, even before the israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The military said the militants shot at them first, drawing return fire that killed a wanted suspect and two others. The military said it found rifles and military equipment at the site.
It said it also destroyed two facilities used to manufacture explosives and dismantled explosives it said were buried under the roads.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza, Israeli fire has killed at least 784 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 167 children, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry.
Most appear to have been militants killed during Israeli raids, but the dead also include people killed during violent protests as well as civilian bystanders.
There has also been a rise in stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis. Israel seized the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it as part of their future state.
JERUSALEM — Israel has issued a veiled threat to strike Iraq in response to recent attacks by Iran-backed militant groups based there.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council posted on X, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country has the right to “take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
Militants in Iraq have launched several rocket and drone attacks against both Israel and U.S. forces since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
An Oct. 3 drone attack launched from Iraq on an army base in northern Israel killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded 24, Saar said.
Israel is believed to have struck militants in Iraq in 2019, but it has not acknowledged any such strikes since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Iran-backed militants in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
In his letter, Saar called on the U.N. to take “immediate action” to address the situation.
BEIRUT — A U.S. envoy to the Middle East says he had “very constructive talks” in Lebanon and that reaching an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war “is now within our grasp.”
“Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps. The meeting was very constructive and very helpful,” Amos Hochstein, the U.S. envoy to Lebanon and Israel, told reporters Tuesday.
He spoke after a two-hour meeting with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
The emerging agreement would apparently restore a U.N. buffer zone patrolled by international peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon, with Israel withdrawing its ground forces and Hezbollah militants pulling back to the north.
Hochstein, who has been shuttling back and forth for several months, said he came back to the region because “we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end.”
“I’m here in Beirut to facilitate that decision-making, but it’s ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict,” he said. “It is now within our grasp.”
Hochstein was scheduled to meet Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and other officials.
"I am committed to do everything I can to work with the government here in Lebanon and in Israel to bring this conflict to a close,” he said.
GENEVA — The U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, under pressure from an Israeli military campaign against militant group Hezbollah in its area of operations, says Argentina has asked three of its officers in the contingent to return home, while all other contributing countries are maintaining their commitments.
Spokesman Andrea Tenenti of UNIFIL said its “operational capabilities have not changed” after the move by Argentina, and U.N. forces have not moved from their positions – despite Israeli Defense Forces asking them to move from positions near the “blue line” along the Lebanon-Israel border about a month ago.
“The posture of our more than 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries remain unchanged,” he told a U.N. briefing in Geneva by video conference from Beirut. The UNIFIL forces have not left the 50 positions across their area of operations, aiming to monitor and report on this situation since Israeli forces began their military campaign in Lebanon in September.
He said UNIFIL has limited means to monitor the situation amid the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. While Israeli forces have at times moved deeper into Lebanon, it’s not “permanently,” and the level of destruction in UNIFIL zones was “huge” and “shocking.”
Separately, UNICEF spokesman James Elder told the U.N. briefing that more than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon in less than the last two months, saying “their deaths are being met with inertia from those able to stop this violence.”
“It’s become a silent normalization of horror,” Elder said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of Yemen’s Houthi rebels beginning their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor.
On Nov. 19, 2023, the Houthis seized the car carrier Galaxy Leader in a helicopter-borne attack in the Red Sea. The ship and its 25 crew remain held until today, something the United Nations Security Council noted in a statement calling on the rebels to release the ship and its crew.
The Houthis have attacked over 90 commercial vessels in the time since. They sank two vessels in the campaign, which also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
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