Updates: Israel, Lebanon officials indicate ceasefire deal is close

Our latest news story provides all the latest on Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon, here.

Watch this video on the extensive damage caused by a major Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel.

For a feature on the rising popularity of “genocide-free” cola in the United Kingdom, read this. 

We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• At least 31 people in Lebanon were killed in Israeli strikes despite positive comments from both sides that a Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire is close.
• The WHO says ongoing Israeli attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza resulted in 14 more injuries in the past 48 hours.
• About 10,000 tents of war-displaced Palestinians were washed away or damaged from a winter storm with Gaza officials appealing for international help.
• Israel’s coalition government leaders have met the prime minister on Tuesday over the ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
• A top Hamas leader in Lebanon says the Palestinian armed group will support a ceasefire between its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Israel, despite Hezbollah’s previous promises to stop the fighting in Lebanon only if the war in Gaza ends.

A top Hamas leader in Lebanon says the Palestinian armed group will support a ceasefire between its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Israel – despite Hezbollah’s previous promises to stop fighting only if the war on Gaza ends.

“Any announcement of a ceasefire is welcome. Hezbollah has stood by our people and made significant sacrifices,” Osama Hamdan told the Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen.

There has been no official comment on a potential Lebanon ceasefire from Gaza-based leaders of either Hamas or the smaller armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hamdan is a member of Hamas’s political wing.

Palestinian fighters in Gaza have repeatedly regrouped after Israeli military incursions, carrying out hit-and-run attacks from tunnels and bombed-out buildings for more than a year.

Israel and its biggest ally, the United States, furiously attacked the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

Most European nations say they will execute the warrants if either man steps on their soil.

So, what might happen next?

The Israeli ambassador to Washington says a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters could be reached “within days”.

Ambassador Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio there remain “points to finalise” and any deal requires agreement from the government. But he said, “We are close to a deal.”

Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Tuesday to discuss a proposed ceasefire.

Among the issues that remain is an Israeli demand to reserve the right to act militarily should Hezbollah violate its obligations under the emerging deal. The deal seeks to push Hezbollah and Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon.

In Beirut, Israeli air strikes levelled more of Beirut’s southern suburbs, sending clouds of debris billowing over the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli attacks killed 31 people and wounded 62 across the country on Monday.

Despite diplomatic progress, hostilities have intensified. Over the weekend, Israel carried out powerful air strikes, one of which killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, while Hezbollah unleashed one of its biggest rocket salvos yet on Sunday, firing 250 missiles into Israel.

The far-right Israeli finance minister has made the suggestion during a conference organised by the Yesha Council, an organisation representing illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“It is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population in two years will be less than half its current size,” Smotrich said, according to comments translated into English by Haaretz. “Encouraging voluntary emigration is an opportunity that arises with the new [Trump] administration.”

“It is possible and necessary to take civilian responsibility for Gaza. … The [Israeli military] will need to be there to maintain security, prevent Gaza from rearming and becoming a threat to Israeli citizens again, and, in the process, oversee civilian [affairs],” he added.

Following up on the reports we had earlier of Israeli strikes on bridges in Syria’s al-Qusayr on the Syrian-Lebanese border, the Israeli military says it was targeting routes used by Hezbollah to smuggle Iranian weapons into Lebanon, according to The Times of Israel.

The military said the strikes were part of its efforts to target Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which it says is responsible for the delivery of weapons from Iran to Lebanon.

The noise that’s coming out of the Biden administration is that there seems to be some level of optimism that perhaps a ceasefire can be agreed. We heard from John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, who believed that things were moving in the right direction.

We didn’t get much different from Matthew Miller at the State Department. He seemed to carry an air of confidence that there was a ceasefire in the offing.

But of course, you have to see everything with a warning, because we’ve had this sort of situation before. This year, US President Joe Biden has talked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza on no less than five occasions. In all of those cases, no deal was reached.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, paid a visit to the Geitaoui Hospital in Beirut, where he met patients in the specialised burn unit.

“I commend the work of the dedicated yet overwhelmed Lebanese doctors and nurses at the hospital,” Borrell wrote on social media. “The death toll among health workers in Lebanon is unacceptable: 266 have been killed by [Israeli military] strikes since October 8.”

At @Geitaoui hospital in Beirut, I met patients treated at the specialised burn unit, the only one in Lebanon & supported by the EU

Many displaced children, innocent civilians are among those injured in IDF airstrikes.Three children are killed daily in Lebanon since September1/2 pic.twitter.com/rcdEqIL9cY

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 25, 2024

On November 10, Sudanese asylum seekers gathered to listen to Abdel Baqi Othman in a cafe in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.

The well-respected Sudanese activist spoke passionately about how Sudanese asylum seekers were trapped between the civil war in their homeland and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Othman urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to relocate registered Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees to Italy, Turkiye or Cyprus until their asylum applications could be processed, or until they could be permanently resettled elsewhere.

In the crowd was Abdelmoniem Yahiya Othman, who held a sign that read, “No racism, no social violence. Stop killing civilians and children,” a plea against the myriad spectres threatening people in the region.

“We know the UN can distribute refugees and asylum seekers to different [safe] countries, but they are not doing anything,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We want to go to a place where the people are not at war.”

You can read more here.

An Israeli strike has hit a house in Bazouriye, a town near the coastal city of Tyre, killing at least two people, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.

At least one other person has been wounded, it said, adding that rescue efforts are still under way.

Three UN experts have called for Israel to facilitate the medical evacuation of Al Jazeera’s Fadi al-Wahidi from Gaza.

Al-Wahidi is in a coma after he was shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper in October while he was covering an Israeli ground offensive in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. He was wearing protective gear that clearly identified him as a member of the news media.

The plea for his evacuation came from three UN special rapporteurs: Irene Khan, Francesca Albanese and Tlaleng Mofokeng.

“Al-Wahidi has the right to receive urgent medical care, and Israel has an obligation under international law to facilitate that right, but despite his life-threatening medical condition, the lack of medical facilities in Gaza, and urgent and repeated appeals from his doctors, his family and various press and journalist organisations, Israeli authorities continue to refuse to allow his evacuation,” the experts said.

“The killing of Palestinian journalists, their persistent arbitrary arrests and detentions, the continued ban on independent media access into Gaza, persistent internet shutdowns, the destruction of media outlets and displacement of the Gaza media community have severely restricted reporting on the war and hampered documentation,” they added.

“The denial of medical evacuation or delays in approving requests seem to be part of the overall pattern of persecution, threats and attacks by Israel on journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory in blatant defiance of its international obligations. We condemn it wholeheartedly. Access to medical care must not become a weapon to intimidate and silence journalists or anyone that sheds light on the situation in Gaza.”