THE Israeli ambassador to Washington says that a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah could be reached “within days.”
Ambassador Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio today that there were “points to finalise,” but “we are close to a deal” and the deal “can happen within days.”
Among the issues that remain is an Israeli demand to reserve the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations under the emerging deal. The deal seeks to push Hezbollah and Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon.
But Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker today accused Israel of ramping up its bombardment of Lebanon in order to pressure the government to make concessions in indirect ceasefire negotiations with Hezbollah.
Elias Bousaab told reporters he was hopeful of a ceasefire, “but nothing is guaranteed with a person like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
Journalists are one of the groups that appear to have been targeted by Israeli forces.
International human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today that an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.
The October 25 air strike killed three journalists as they slept at a guest house in south-east Lebanon in one of the deadliest attacks on the media since the Israel-Hezbollah war began 13 months ago.
Eleven other journalists have been killed and eight wounded since then, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
HRW said that Israeli forces had carried out the October 25 attack using a bomb equipped with a US-produced guidance kit.
The group said that the US government should suspend weapons transfers to Israel because of the military’s repeated “unlawful attacks on civilians, for which US officials may be complicit in war crimes.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
This came a day after the Israeli government ordered all public entities to stop advertising in the Haaretz newspaper, which is known for its critical coverage of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said on Sunday that the decision was taken after Haaretz’s publisher called for sanctions against Israel and referred to Palestinian militants as “freedom fighters.”
In a speech in London last month, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken said Israel was battling “Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls ‘terrorists’.”
He later walked back the remarks, posting on X that “Hamas are not freedom fighters.
“I should have said: using terrorism is illegitimate. I was wrong not to say that.”
Noa Landau, the deputy editor of Haaretz, accused Mr Netanyahu of “working to silence independent and critical media.”
