Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Gaza, 19 November. (Photo: Office of Israeli PM) 
A senior US mediator said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing, signalling progress in Washington’s efforts to clinch a ceasefire.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said that four Ghanaian peacekeepers were wounded on Tuesday when a rocket that was most likely fired by "non-state actors" hit their base in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu, in Gaza, says Hamas will no longer rule enclave
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to Gaza on Tuesday that Hamas would not rule the Palestinian enclave after the war had ended and that Israel had destroyed the Islamist group’s military capabilities.
Netanyahu also said Israel had not given up trying to locate the 101 remaining hostages believed to be still in the enclave and he offered a $5-million reward for the return of each one.
“Anyone who dares to harm our hostages will have blood on their head. We will hunt you down and get you,” said Netanyahu.
“Whoever brings us a hostage will find a safe way, he and his family, to get out,” he said. “Choose, the choice is yours, but the result will be the same. We’ll get them all back."
The comments were made in a video recording by Netanyahu during his visit to Gaza with Israel’s defence minister and the head of its army, where he also received a briefing on operational activities.
End to Israel-Hezbollah war ‘within our grasp’, says US envoy
A senior US mediator said on Tuesday there was a “real opportunity” to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and that gaps were narrowing, signalling progress in Washington’s efforts to clinch a ceasefire.
White House envoy Amos Hochstein spoke in Beirut after talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a day after the Lebanese government and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, although with comments on the content.
“I came back because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein told a press conference after the meeting. “It is now within our grasp. As the window is now, I hope the coming days yield a resolute decision.”
Hochstein’s mission marks a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing US administration to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Berri told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that the situation was “good in principle” and some details of the ceasefire proposal still needed to be hashed out, including technical details.
He said Hochstein would settle those details before travelling on to Israel, and that Lebanon saw the US as the guarantor of the Israeli stance.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said at a conference on Tuesday that “there are talks regarding an arrangement with Lebanon” but that Israel would agree only if all its demands were met, including pushing Hezbollah away from the border.
The diplomatic efforts coincide with an intensification of the war, with Israel stepping up strikes on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs and striking three times in the capital itself in the last three days.
The conflict spiralled in September when Israel began an offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes, sending troops into the south and killing many Hezbollah commanders including leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel started its offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which said it was acting in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel led to the start of the Gaza war.
Israel’s declared goal is to dismantle Hezbollah’s capabilities and secure the return of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the north.
An Israeli strike killed two people in the Chiyah district of Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the Lebanese health ministry.
At least 35 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday, some of which were intercepted, and two drones were also intercepted, said Israel’s military.
Lebanon has rejected Israeli demands to be granted “freedom of action”, which Cohen signalled should apply if Hezbollah attacked or restored its strength, and Berri said last week the US proposal did not mention this.
World powers say a ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Its terms require Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani River, about 30km north of the border with Israel.
Israel’s campaign has killed 3,544 people in Lebanon since hostilities began, say Lebanese authorities. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hezbollah strikes have killed 43 civilians in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while 73 soldiers have been killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli figures.
Four UN peacekeepers wounded in rocket strike in Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said that four Ghanaian peacekeepers were wounded on Tuesday when a rocket that was most likely fired by “non-state actors” hit their base in southern Lebanon.
Peacekeepers and facilities were targeted in three separate incidents on Tuesday, Unifil added.
Eight rockets hit the headquarters of the Italian contingent of Unifil in Shama, in southern Lebanon, said Italy’s defence ministry on Tuesday.
No injuries were reported, but five Italian soldiers were being monitored in the base’s medical facility, said the ministry in a statement.
The peacekeeping mission is deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the demarcation line with Israel, an area that has seen more than a year of hostilities between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
Italy has long been a major contributor to the multinational operation.
Investigations were under way to determine where the rockets originated and to identify those responsible, said the Italian ministry.
Argentina had notified the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon of its withdrawal from the force, a Unifil spokesperson said on Tuesday, in the first sign of cracks in the unity of the mission following attacks it has blamed on Israel.
US imposes sanctions on senior Hamas officials
The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas officials, said the US Treasury Department, in further action against the Palestinian militant group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of the Hamas military wing and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the group and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
“Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza,” said the Treasury's Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, in the statement.
“Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’ efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account.”
Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’ military wing who is now based in Turkey, said the Treasury, accusing him of being involved in multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks.
Two other officials based in Turkey, a member based in Gaza who has participated in Hamas’ engagements with Russia and a leader authorised to speak publicly on behalf of the group and who previously oversaw border crossings at Gaza were also among those targeted, according to the Treasury.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, say Palestinian health officials, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than two million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.
Iran offers to cap sensitive uranium stock to avoid IAEA resolution
Iran has offered not to expand its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, near the roughly 90% of weapons grade, and made preparations to do that, said the UN nuclear watchdog in confidential reports to member states on Tuesday.
The offer is conditional, however, on Western powers abandoning their push for a resolution against Iran at this week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors over its lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said diplomats, adding that the push was continuing.
During IAEA chief Rafael Grossi's trip to Iran last week, “the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed”, read one of the two confidential quarterly IAEA reports, both seen by Reuters.
It added that the IAEA had verified that Iran had “begun implementation of preparatory measures”.
Iran's offer was to cap the stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% at around 185kg, or the amount it had two days ago, a senior diplomat said. That is enough in principle, if enriched further, for four nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
The report said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% had grown by 17.6kg since the previous report to 182.3kg as of 26 October, also enough for four weapons by that measure.
The second report said Iran had also agreed to consider allowing four more “experienced inspectors” to work in Iran after it barred most of the IAEA’s inspectors who are experts in enrichment last year in what the IAEA called a “very serious blow” to its ability to do its job properly in Iran.
Israeli forces kill three Islamic Jihad militants in West Bank
Israeli forces shot and killed three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group on Tuesday during an army raid into Qabatiya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Palestinian health ministry and the group.
The armed wing of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group said three of its members were killed as they confronted Israeli forces who raided Qabatiya near the city of Jenin. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Violence has surged across the West Bank since the start of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza more than 13 months ago. Hundreds of Palestinians — including armed fighters, stone-throwing youths, and civilian bystanders — have been killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.
The Palestinian health ministry put the number killed in the West Bank since the Gaza war erupted at 787, including 167 children. It doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death tallies.
Dozens of Israelis have been killed in Palestinian street attacks over the past year, said Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led force targets gangs looting Gaza aid convoys
Fighters from Hamas and other Gaza factions had formed an armed force to prevent gangs from pillaging aid convoys in the embattled territory, said residents and sources close to the group, after a big increase in the looting of scarce supplies.
Since being formed this month amid rising public anger at aid seizures and price gouging, the new force had staged repeated operations, ambushing looters and killing some in armed clashes, said the sources.
Hamas’ efforts to take a lead in securing aid supplies point to the difficulties Israel will face in a post-war Gaza, with few obvious alternatives to a group it has been trying to destroy for over a year and which it says can have no governing role.
Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid. The group denies that and accuses Israel of trying to foment anarchy in Gaza by targeting police guarding aid convoys.
Amid the chaos of the war, armed gangs have increasingly raided supply convoys, hijacking trucks and selling the looted stock in Gaza markets at exorbitant prices.
As well as driving anger at the Israeli military, the shortages had also prompted questions of Hamas for its seeming inability to stop the gangs.
The new anti-looting force, formed of well-equipped fighters from Hamas and allied groups, had been named “The Popular and Revolutionary Committees” and was ready to open fire on hijackers who did not surrender, said one of the sources, a Hamas government official.
The official, who declined to be named because Hamas would not authorise him to speak about it, said the group operated across central and southern Gaza and had carried out at least 15 missions so far, including killing some armed gangsters.
Thirteen months into Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, major shortages of food, medicine and other goods are causing widespread hunger and suffering among civilians.
Israel put commercial goods imports on hold last month and only aid trucks have entered Gaza since then, carrying a fraction of what relief groups say is needed for a territory where most people have lost their homes and have little money. DM
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