Hezbollah says Israel ‘cannot impose conditions’ for truce

Before heading to Israel, Hochstein met for a second time with one of his main interlocutors, Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the Iran-backed group.
“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday and made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein told reporters in the Lebanese capital.
Hochstein had on Tuesday said an end to the war was “within our grasp”, while a diplomat in Lebanon told AFP that he had studied some modifications to the US truce plan with Lebanese officials.
Ahead of Hochstein’s arrival, Israel’s top diplomat Saar said: “In any agreement we will reach, we will need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations.”
Striking a defiant tone, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament on Monday that Israel would “be forced to ensure our security in the north”.
Hezbollah began its cross-border attacks in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group’s assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Since expanding its operations to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing campaigns primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.
Israel has also sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it said Tuesday one soldier had been killed in combat and three others wounded.
More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September.
While not engaged in the ongoing war, the Lebanese army has reported 18 fatalities from among its ranks since Sep 23.
On Wednesday, the army said Israeli fire killed a soldier in south Lebanon, a day after it announced the deaths of three other personnel in a strike.
The Israeli military later said, without mentioning the deaths, that it was looking into reports of Lebanese soldiers injured by a strike on Tuesday.
“We emphasise that the (Israeli army) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces,” the military told AFP in a statement.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and air strikes in south Lebanon overnight and on Wednesday, saying Israeli troops were seeking to advance further near the town of Khiam.