By Euan Ward and Isabel Kershner
On Monday, the Israeli military issued fresh evacuation alerts for more than 20 towns and villages in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah launched a significant missile attack into northern Israel, signaling that the conflict shows little sign of lessening.
These extensive alerts across southern Lebanon, the first in nearly a month, urged civilians to evacuate their residences immediately and relocate north of the Awali River, which marks a boundary away from the Israeli border. This river delineates southern Lebanon, which Israel entered last month to dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure and prevent it from launching rockets and missiles into Israel.
As the ground offensive persisted on Monday, Israel’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, indicated that renewed diplomatic endeavors, facilitated by the U.S., were now in progress to mitigate the conflict.
“We are making headway,” Saar stated during a press conference. “Ultimately, the primary challenge will be enforcing whatever agreements are reached.”
Repeated efforts at shuttle diplomacy over the past year, spearheaded by the Biden administration, have not succeeded in curbing the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted in October 2023 following Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks in support of Hamas in Gaza. Tensions have escalated sharply in recent weeks, with officials reporting that 3,200 individuals have died in Lebanon and over 20% of the population has been displaced.
Attempts to negotiate a temporary cease-fire are complicated by the uncertainty surrounding the enforcement of any potential demilitarization agreement with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. It remains unclear who would ensure compliance. A U.N. resolution that concluded the last major conflict in 2006 also demanded that Hezbollah disarm along the border but has been widely viewed as ineffective.
Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs and an intimate ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, traveled to Russia last week to explore a potential Russian role in upholding a truce in Lebanon, as per an official familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
In response to inquiries about his trip on Monday, Saar suggested that Russia could “aid” efforts to prevent Hezbollah from rearming through land routes in Syria, where Russia maintains a military force. The exact nature of Russia’s anticipated assistance remains unclear.
A newfound momentum towards diplomatic resolution in recent days reflects a growing conviction among Israeli officials that Hezbollah has suffered considerable setbacks. There is hope that a resolution facilitated by Israeli military successes in Lebanon will enable the thousands of Israeli civilians displaced along the border to return home.
Following comments from Israel’s new defense minister, Israel Katz, on Sunday asserting that Hezbollah had been “defeated,” Saar remarked in his press conference that the group had “lost the majority” of its stockpile of missiles and rockets.
However, just hours later, Hezbollah countered these assertions by executing a significant rocket barrage near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, resulting in injuries to at least three individuals, according to Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency service.
This barrage served as a stark reminder that Hezbollah continues to represent a substantial threat, despite Israel’s concentrated efforts to hinder the group’s cross-border activities. The Israeli military reported that a total of 90 projectiles crossed the border, with not all of them intercepted by the country’s air defense system.
The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammed Afif, stated on Monday that the group had yet to receive any proposals regarding a cease-fire arrangement in Lebanon, although there had been “contacts between Washington, Moscow, Tehran, and other nations” concerning the matter since the election of former President Donald Trump last week.
“Nothing official has reached Lebanon or us,” Afif commented at a press conference in the Dahiya, the area adjacent to Beirut where the militant group is influential.
Hezbollah, he warned, remains “prepared for a prolonged conflict.”
