Netanyahu to recommend Lebanon ceasefire deal to cabinet and claims Hezbollah ‘not the same’ – Middle East crisis live

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he will recommend his cabinet approve a ceasefire deal agreement to end fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a televised address, Netanyahu said he will put the deal to his full cabinet later on Tuesday. He said a vote was expected.

According to Israeli media, Israel’s smaller security cabinet approved the deal earlier today.

Netanyahu did not provide any details about the ceasefire deal during his address, and it was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect. Earlier Lebanese media reports said the ceasefire would go into effect on Wednesday.

Netanyahu warned that Israel will “respond forcefully to any violation” of the deal by Hezbollah. “For every violation, we will attack with might,” he said.

The ceasefire deal with Hezbollah would not affect Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and would allow Israel to turn its focus to Iran – Hezbollah’s backer and Israel’s biggest threat in the region.

Sirens have sounded in northern Israel following long-range rocket fire from Lebanon, according to Israeli reports.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said three missiles launched from Lebanon were successfully intercepted by air defences a short while ago, the Times of Israel is reporting.

ActionAid has said reports that Israel has agreed to a temporary ceasefire deal for Lebanon is “not an acceptable long-term solution to the crisis”.

The announcement offers “temporary relief” for the millions of civilians caught in the conflict in Lebanon but it is not enough, the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

Are people in Lebanon now to live in limbo until bombs start dropping on their homes again? A permanent ceasefire is the only way to end the suffering and enable people in Lebanon to rebuild their lives.

It said the Israeli government’s attacks on Lebanon have “devastated entire communities, destroying homes, killing thousands and displacing countless families.”

“Crucially, we are still no closer to a ceasefire in Gaza,” ActionAid said.

Israel continues its plausible genocide in Gaza with impunity, murdering thousands of Palestinians – most of them women and children - and causing unimaginable human misery. An immediate ceasefire in Gaza in needed desperately.

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said it should occupy the Gaza Strip and halve its Palestinian population by the “encouragement of voluntary emigration”.

“We can and must conquer the Gaza Strip. We should not be afraid of that word,” Smotrich said at an event late on Monday organised by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

There is no doubt that in Gaza – with the encouragement of voluntary emigration – there is here, in my opinion, a unique opportunity that is opening up with the new administration.

He said it was possible to “create a situation in which, within two years, the population of Gaza will be reduced by half.”

“It won’t cost too much money,” he added, noting that “even if it does, we should not be afraid to pay for it.”

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Smotrich and fellow far-right cabinet minister, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, previously sparked outcry in January with “voluntary transfer” plans for Gaza’s 2.4m population.

Israeli airstrikes targeted a building in a bustling commercial area of Beirut on Tuesday for the first time since the start of the 13-month war between Hezbollah and Israel.

The strike on the Hamra district was about 400 metres from Lebanon’s central bank, Associated Press reported. A separate strike hit the Mar Elias neighbourhood in the country’s capital today.

Residents in central Beirut were seen fleeing after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for four targets in the city.

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Israel’s extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said he will oppose the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah.

In a statement posted to X, he described the ceasefire agreement as a “historic mistake” but did not say that his party will quit in protest.

“This is not a ceasefire. It’s a return to the concept of silence for silence, and we have already seen where this leads,” Ben-Gvir wrote.

The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City has risen from 10 to 13, Reuters is reporting, citing medics.

Dozens of people were also wounded in the strike that hit the Al-Hurreya School in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, medics said.

Meanwhile seven people were killed during an Israeli airstrike on a house also in the Zeitoun area, they said.

Another Israeli strike killed at least one man in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, raising the number of Palestinians killed by Israel on Tuesday to 21, Reuters said.

Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, has called on the international community to “act swiftly” and “implement an immediate ceasefire” to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Netanyahu’s address came after an intense wave of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 killed.

At least seven people were killed and 37 others injured after Israel launched attacks on 20 targets on the Lebanese capital in just 120 seconds, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The strikes on Beirut “reaffirms that the Israeli enemy has no regard for any law or consideration,” Mikati said in a statement posted to X.

At least 3,823 people have been killed and 15,859 others wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October of last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry on Tuesday.

The latest figures include 55 people killed and 160 injured in strikes on Monday alone, the ministry said.

The US president, Joe Biden, will deliver remarks at 2.30pm ET (1930 GMT), the White House said shortly after Benjamin Netanyahu’s televised address.

During his speech, Netanyahu said Israel will “retain complete military freedom of action” “in full coordination with the United States”.

He added that Israel will enforce the ceasefire agreement and respond “forcefully to any violation” by Hezbollah.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he will recommend his cabinet approve a ceasefire deal agreement to end fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a televised address, Netanyahu said he will put the deal to his full cabinet later on Tuesday. He said a vote was expected.

According to Israeli media, Israel’s smaller security cabinet approved the deal earlier today.

Netanyahu did not provide any details about the ceasefire deal during his address, and it was not immediately clear when the ceasefire would go into effect. Earlier Lebanese media reports said the ceasefire would go into effect on Wednesday.

Netanyahu warned that Israel will “respond forcefully to any violation” of the deal by Hezbollah. “For every violation, we will attack with might,” he said.

The ceasefire deal with Hezbollah would not affect Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and would allow Israel to turn its focus to Iran – Hezbollah’s backer and Israel’s biggest threat in the region.

Netanyahu says that if Hezbollah breaches the ceasefire deal by rearming itself and attacking, then Israel will react "very forcefully”.

The Israeli prime minister says there are three main reasons as to why this is the right time for a ceasefire agreement. He says that the deal means that Israel can focus on the “Iranian threat”.

The deal also allows Israel to “refresh” and “rearm” its troops, Netanyahu says, adding that “it’s no secret” that there have been “big delays” in the supply of weapons.

Soon, we will arm ourselves with sophisticated weapons that will help us protect our troops and give us even greater force to complete our missions.

The third reason, he says, is to isolate Hamas. “Hamas was counting on Hezbollah fighting together and once Hezbollah is eliminated, Hamas is left alone,” he says.

Our pressure on Hamas will grow stronger, and this will help us … in bringing back our hostages.

Netanyahu says the duration of the ceasefire “depends on what happens in Lebanon”.

He says Israel has an “understanding” with the US, and that it will maintain its “full liberty to take military operations if Hezbollah tries to attack us”.

If Hezbollah tries to attack us, if it arms itself and rebuilds infrastructure near the border – we will attack. If they launch missiles, if they dig big tunnels – we will attack.

Netanyahu says Hezbollah is “not the same Hezbollah anymore” and that Israel has pushed the group “decades back”.

The Israeli leader says Hassan Nasrallah, “the head of the snake”, has been killed as has “all of the leaders” of Hezbollah.

We’ve destroyed most of the rockets and missiles. We’ve killed thousands of terrorists, and we destroyed the underground and terrorist infrastructure near our borders.

He says that all of this “sounded like science fiction” just three months ago, but “we made it.”

Netanyahu says he is “determined’ to keep Israel’s soldiers alive and safe.

“That’s why tonight, I will bring before the cabinet a plan for a cease fire in Lebanon,” he says.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has started delivering a statement following a meeting of his security cabinet on an expected ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

Netanyahu says Israel will “guarantee” that Gaza will no longer be a “threat” and vows to return the residents of the northern parts of Israel safely back to their homes.

“The war will not end until we obtain all of [our goals],” Netanyahu says.