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Following a deal to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, attention has swung back to the battered Gaza Strip, but any hopes of a rapid end to the war there look likely to be dashed.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah took effect before dawn yesterday, bringing a halt to hostilities that had escalated sharply in recent months and overshadowed Israel’s parallel conflict in Gaza against Hamas.
Announcing the Lebanon accord, US President Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for an elusive agreement in Gaza, urging Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.
However, there was no sign that Israeli leaders want to ease up on Hamas, which triggered the conflagration last year by attacking southern Israel, with ministers making clear their war aims for Gaza were very different than those for Lebanon.
“Gaza will never be a threat to the state of Israel again... We will reach a decisive victory there. Lebanon is different,” said Israel’s Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a member of the inner security cabinet and a former head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency.
Negotiations between the two sides have long stalled, with each side blaming the other for the impasse.
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