The US does not want a protracted Israeli campaign in Lebanon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday, as efforts got underway to hold fresh talks over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.
A month into Israel’s military onslaught against the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hizbollah, Blinken said he hoped Iran was getting a clear message that any further attacks on Israel risked its own interests, with the region awaiting the retaliation Israel has vowed for an Iranian missile barrage on October 1.
Israel’s military chief said an end to the conflict with Hizbollah looked possible but gave few details.
US and Israeli negotiators will gather in Doha to prepare the way for renewed talks on a Gaza ceasefire deal which would also entail the release of hostages in the Palestinian enclave, Qatar and Washington said.
Israel said its Mossad intelligence agency head David Barnea will travel to Doha on Sunday to try to restart the talks, and meet CIA director William Burns and Qatar’s prime minister.
“The parties will discuss the various options for starting negotiations for the release of the hostages from Hamas captivity, against the backdrop of the latest developments,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
An Egyptian security delegation met a delegation of Hamas leaders in Cairo as part of efforts to resume the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said.
Hamas senior official Osama Hamdan told Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen that there was no change in the group’s position. “The hostages held by the resistance will only return by stopping the aggression and completely withdrawing,” Hamdan said.
Previous attempts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal have failed.
Blinken, who held talks with Qatar’s prime minister, has been on his first trip to the region since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Washington, Israel’s close ally, has expressed hope his death can provide an impetus for an end to the fighting.
Israel unleashed its Lebanon offensive with the declared aim of securing the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in northern Israel during a year of cross-border hostilities with Hizbollah.
Israel has used air strikes to pound southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, and sent ground forces into areas near the border. Lebanese authorities say the campaign has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than one million people, spawning a humanitarian crisis.
“As Israel conducts operations to remove the threat to Israel and its people along the border with Lebanon, we have been very clear that this cannot lead, should not lead, to a protracted campaign,” Blinken said, speaking in Doha.
Blinken said the US was working on a diplomatic deal which would allow civilians on both sides on the border to return to their homes.
Later, the head of Israel’s military said an end to the conflict with Hizbollah now looked possible. Blinken also said Israel should take steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or Lebanese army troops.
Earlier yesterday, an Israeli strike killed three Lebanese soldiers as they tried to evacuate wounded people from the border village of Yater, the Lebanese army said.
In Paris, a conference convened by France raised $200 million for the Lebanese military and $800m in humanitarian aid.
“There needs to be a ceasefire in Lebanon. More damage, more victims, more strikes will not enable the end of terrorism or ensure security for everyone,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. He said the conference would support the recruitment of 6,000 Lebanese troops and provide the army with key supplies.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said a ceasefire was in Israel’s hands. “The storm we are currently witnessing...carries the seeds of total destruction, not only for our country, but for all human values,” he said.
Israeli attacks included a strike on a vehicle on a highway from Beirut to the Bekaa Valley.
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