President-elect Donald Trump hopes to seal a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza before he takes office, while Hezbollah’s leader said he would work with the Lebanese army to enforce a ceasefire the group has agreed with Israel, as a shaky truce largely holds for a third day after more than a year of fighting.
Trump wants to seal Israel-Gaza ceasefire before he takes office
President-elect Donald Trump hopes to seal a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza before he takes office, US media reported on Saturday.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina confirmed the incoming president’s position in an interview with media. Graham advises Trump on foreign policy and has just returned from a trip to the Middle East where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Graham said Trump “wants to make a deal to release the hostages and end the war as soon as possible, preferably before he takes office.” She also added:
“Trump is more determined than ever to release the hostages and supports a ceasefire that includes a hostage deal. He wants to see it happening now. I want people in Israel and in the region to know that Trump is focused on the hostages issue. He wants the killing to stop and the fighting to end.”
There are currently 101 hostages in Gaza, including seven American citizens. However, it is unknown how many of them are still alive. President Joe Biden has stated his intention to strike a deal before he leaves office, but the lack of recent progress suggests Trump may be in charge of the operation.
Graham said it was important for the former president to reach an agreement quickly so Trump could focus on other issues, such as normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and a regional alliance against Iran. Graham opposed proposals for Israel’s indefinite occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that after Trump’s reelection, the country had an opportunity for voluntary immigration from Palestine, which could lead to a shrinking Palestinian population. He also added:
“I think he should talk to Trump and hear what he wants. If you haven’t spoken to him, I wouldn’t put words in his mouth.”
However, he added that a peace deal would not include the reoccupation of Gaza. He said:
“The best insurance policy against Hamas is not an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza but a reform in the Palestinian society. The only ones who can do that are the Arab countries.”
The senator said he believes a ceasefire will be easily achieved with Trump in charge because world leaders fear him.
Hezbollah chief says will work with Lebanon army to implement ceasefire
Hezbollah’s leader said he will work with the Lebanese army to enforce a ceasefire the group agreed with Israel, as a shaky truce largely holds for a third day after more than a year of fighting.
In his first televised address since the truce took effect, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said on Friday he did not foresee “problems or disagreements” with the army, which under the terms of the agreement will be deployed in southern Lebanon within 60 days as Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops withdraw. Qassem also said:
“The coordination between the resistance and the Lebanese army will be at a high level to implement the commitments of the agreement. We will work to … strengthen Lebanon’s defensive capacities. The resistance will be ready to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of Lebanon’s weakness along with our partners … first and foremost the army.”
The Lebanese army has sent some troops to the south of the country and is preparing a detailed deployment plan to be presented to Lebanon’s cabinet, Reuters reported, citing security sources and officials.
Under the terms of a US-brokered truce, Israeli troops have 60 days to complete the withdrawal, which could delay a larger deployment of Lebanese army forces.
The Israeli military has imposed restrictions on the return of people to villages along Lebanon’s border with Israel and has opened fire on residents of those villages in recent days, calling the movements a violation of the truce.
The Lebanese army and Hezbollah accused Israel of violating the truce in those cases, as well as an airstrike north of the Litani River on Thursday. On Friday, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, saying they targeted Hezbollah weapons. Israeli troops stationed in the town of Hiam, which includes at least four tanks, opened fire Friday on people trying to bury a body in a cemetery.
US and French officials, as members of a committee set up to monitor the ceasefire, were in Beirut on Friday and met with Lebanese army officials.
The Israeli army continues to call on the Lebanese to evacuate from areas near the border and to refrain from returning to their homes. Analyses of geographical data by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad showed that the Israeli warnings also extended to 20 villages that had not previously been invaded by Israeli troops and had not witnessed major clashes.
In a summary of military operations against Hezbollah since the conflict began in October 2023, the Israeli military on Friday said it had hit more than 12,500 Hezbollah targets, including 1,600 command centres and 1,000 weapons depots.
The ground invasion of southern Lebanon, which began in October, included more than 100 special operations by 14 brigade-level Israeli task forces. The Israeli side claimed to have killed at least 2,500 Hezbollah members and senior officials. According to Lebanese health authorities, at least 3,961 people have been killed and 16,520 injured in the fighting since October 2023.
Israeli strikes kill 40 in Gaza
Israeli airstrikes killed 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday and Friday, while efforts to restart ceasefire talks received a boost as officials from the Palestinian group Hamas travelled to Cairo for a new round of talks.
Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern neighbourhoods of Nuseirat, one of eight long-running refugee camps in the enclave.
Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. Others were killed in northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli tanks entered the northern and western neighbourhoods of Nuseirat. They withdrew from the northern neighbourhoods on Friday, but remained active in the western parts of the camp. The Palestinian Emergency Services said brigades were unable to respond to calls for help from residents trapped in their homes.
Dozens of Palestinians returned Friday to areas where the army had retreated to check on the destruction of their homes. Medics and relatives covered the bodies of the dead, including women, lying on the road with blankets or white shrouds and carried them away on stretchers.
Medics said an Israeli drone killed Ahmed Al-Kahlout, head of the intensive care unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army has been conducting operations since early October, on Friday. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of a strike at that location and time.
Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of three medical facilities on the northern outskirts of the Gaza Strip that are now virtually non-functional due to shortages of medicine, fuel and food. Most of the hospital’s medical staff have been detained or expelled by the Israeli army.
