BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for negotiations with Israel on Monday, after US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire in Gaza. In October 2023, Iran-backed Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza war. Months of hostilities escalated into all-out war in September 2024, before a ceasefire was agreed two months later. Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, saying it is hitting Hezbollah targets, but according to the United Nations over 100 civilians have been killed since the truce. &quot;The Lebanese state has previously negotiated with Israel under American and United Nations auspices, resulting in an agreement to demarcate the maritime border... so what prevents the same thing from happening again to find solutions to the outstanding issues,&quot; Aoun said according to a presidency statement. &quot;Today, the general atmosphere is one of compromise, and it is necessary to negotiate,&quot; he added, specifying that &quot;the form of this negotiation will be determined in due time&quot;. The US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Friday. There are no formal ties between Israel and Lebanon. &quot;We cannot be outside the current path in the region, which is the path of crisis resolution,&quot; Aoun said, stating it was &quot;no longer possible to tolerate more war, destruction, killing, and displacement&quot;. &#39;Bloody messages&#39; The United States began efforts to help demarcate the land border between Lebanon and Israel in 2023, after sponsoring an agreement on the maritime border between the two countries in 2022. However, the violence between Hezbollah and Israel froze those efforts. The current demarcation line between the two countries, drawn by the United Nations in 2000, includes 13 disputed points. Israel also kept its troops deployed in five border points it considered strategic after its war with Hezbollah. In a speech to the United Nations in September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said &quot;peace between Israel and Lebanon is possible&quot;, calling on Beirut to &quot;begin direct negotiations&quot; with his country. Under US and Israeli pressure, Lebanon&#39;s government is seeking to disarm Hezbollah, and the Lebanese army has drawn up a plan to do so beginning in the country&#39;s south. Aoun said &quot;Israel continues to send military and bloody messages to pressure us&quot;, hoping to reach a time now when &quot;Israel commits to halting military operations against Lebanon and the negotiating process begins&quot;.

People gather at a site that sold heavy machinery, where a large number of vehicles were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, in the southern village of Msayleh, Lebanon. (AP)

Middle East

Lebanese President Aoun urged negotiations with Israel after Gaza ceasefire, emphasizing compromise and peace, and calling on Israel to halt military actions to start talks.​

Lebanon president says 'necessary to negotiate' with Israel

Reuters

An Israeli drone strike on Sunday killed five people, including three children, in Bint Jbeil, a town in southern Lebanon, the country&rsquo;s health ministry reported.&nbsp;Two others were injured when a motorbike and a vehicle were targeted in the attack, according to Lebanon&rsquo;s state news agency.&nbsp;The strike took place despite a US-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel, which has been in effect since November following over a year of conflict linked to the Gaza war. Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the victims included a father and his three children, while the mother was wounded. He added the family held US citizenship.&nbsp;A US State Department spokesperson later stated that, while the situation remains uncertain, indications so far suggest the individuals killed were not US citizens, noting one had a previously unused immigrant visa petition.&nbsp;The Israeli military confirmed that the strike killed a Hezbollah member but acknowledged that several uninvolved civilians also lost their lives. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) expressed &lsquo;regret&rsquo; over civilian casualties and said the incident is under investigation.&nbsp;Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the attack on social media, calling it a &ldquo;blatant crime against civilians&rdquo; and an intimidation tactic against those returning to villages in the south.&nbsp;Lebanon faces growing pressure from the US, Saudi Arabia, and Hezbollah&rsquo;s political rivals to disarm the Iranian-backed group. Hezbollah has warned that disarmament talks would be a grave mistake as long as Israel continues its airstrikes and occupation in southern Lebanon.

A man inspects a damaged site in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Ansariyeh, south of Sidon, Lebanon. (Reuters)

Asia

The victims included a father and his three children, while the mother was wounded. 

5 killed in Israeli drone attack on southern Lebanese town 

BEIRUT: Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati told Reuters on Saturday that the group considered Friday&rsquo;s cabinet session on an army plan to establish a state monopoly on arms &ldquo;an opportunity to return to wisdom and reason, preventing the country from slipping into the unknown&rdquo;. Lebanon&rsquo;s cabinet on Friday welcomed a plan by the army that would disarm Hezbollah. It said the military would begin executing it, without setting a timeframe for implementation and cautioning that the army had limited capabilities. But it said continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon would hamper the army&rsquo;s progress. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lebanese information minister Paul Morcos stopped short of saying the cabinet had formally approved the plan. Qmati told Reuters that Hezbollah had reached its assessment based on the government&rsquo;s declaration on Friday that further implementation of a U.S. roadmap on the matter was dependent on Israel&rsquo;s commitment. He said that without Israel halting strikes and withdrawing its troops from southern Lebanon, Lebanon&rsquo;s implementation of the plan should remain &ldquo;suspended until further notice.&rdquo; Lebanon&rsquo;s cabinet last month tasked the army with coming up with a plan that would establish a state monopoly on arms and approved a U.S. roadmap aimed at disarming Hezbollah in exchange for a halt to Israeli military operations in Lebanon. Qmati said that Hezbollah &ldquo;unequivocally rejected&rdquo; those two decisions and expected the Lebanese government to draw up a national defense strategy. Israel last week signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the army took action to disarm Hezbollah. Meanwhile, it has continued its strikes, killing four people on Wednesday.

Hezbollah views army’s disarmament plan cautiously, linking progress to Israeli ceasefire and troop withdrawal conditions

Articles tagged with "Hezbollah"

Lebanon president says 'necessary to negotiate' with Israel

5 killed in Israeli drone attack on southern Lebanese town

Hezbollah calls Lebanon army plan opportunity, urges Israeli ceasefire commitment

Lebanon president says 'necessary to negotiate' with Israel