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Israeli minister says ‘certain progress’ on Lebanon ceasefire talks but Hezbollah says it has not been involved – Middle East crisis live | Israel-Gaza war

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Israel says some progress made on Lebanon ceasefire, but Hezbollah says not directly involved in talks

William Christou

William Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian

Israel’s newly appointed foreign minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that “certain progress” had been made on ceasefire talks in Lebanon, where Israel has been engaged in fighting Hezbollah for over 13 months, however a spokesperson for Hezbollah said they were yet to be directly engaged in talks.

“We will be ready to be there if we know, first of all, that Hezbollah is not on our border, is north of the Litani River, and that Hezbollah will not be able to arm with new weapons systems,” Saar said. He added that diplomatic efforts were taking place through US mediation, but that the lack of enforcement mechanism in any future deal remained a stumbling block.

Israel’s stated objective in its ground invasion of south Lebanon was to bring back residents of north Israel, of which tens of thousands were displaced after Hezbollah began firing rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas on 8 October 2023. Israel has said that Hezbollah would need to retreat back of the Litani river, about 18 miles from its northern border, to ensure the security of north Israel.

Diplomatic efforts were not only confined to American channels, as Israel’s army radio reported that Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, visited Russia last week to discuss ways to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon. Saar said that Russia could play a role in a ceasefire agreement by helping ensure that arms do not flow to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russian troops are present.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, also met with a number of Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the Crown Prince of Kuwait, at the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on Monday.

Despite the reported progress on a ceasefire deal, Hezbollah has said that it had not seen any actual proposal come across its desk, nor does it expect to any time soon.

Mohammad Afif, the head of Hezbollah’s media office, said at a press conference on Monday: “There is great movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals. I believe that we are still in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas and proactive discussions, but so far there is nothing actual yet.”

Any ceasefire in Lebanon would have to be approved by Hezbollah, and presumably its patron, Iran. Hezbollah’s secretary general, Naim Qassem, has said that the group is ready for a ceasefire with Israel and that it has backed away from its previous demand that a ceasefire in Gaza come before it stops fighting.

Key events

Israeli military issues new urgent evacuation order for southern Lebanon

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee has issued forced evacuation orders for residents of southern Lebanon, saying people there must move north of the Awali river, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.

The order was aimed at the towns of Sheheen, al-Jebbayn, Tayr Harfa, Abu Shash, Beit Shama, Majdal Zoun, al-Mansouri, Zebqin, Rashidieh, Barghliyeh, Qasmiyeh, al-Bayyaada, Naqoura, Bint Jbeil, Ainata, Kounine, Aitaroun, Taybeh, Rab Thalathin, Markaba, and Bani Hayyan.

In a post on X, Adraee wrote:

For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali river. For your safety, you must evacuate without delay.

Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities or weapons is putting his life in danger. You are prohibited from heading south. Any movement south could be dangerous to your life.

We will inform you of the appropriate time to return to your homes as soon as the conditions are suitable for this.

#عاجل بيان عاجل إلى سكان #جنوب_لبنان في القرى التالية:

🔸 شيحين, جبين, طير حرفا, ابو شاش, شاما, مجدل زون, المنصوري, زبقين, الراشدية, البرغلية, قاسمية, البياضة, الناقورة, بنت جبيل, عيناتا, كونين, عيترون, الطيبة, رب الثلاثين, مركبة, بني حيان

🔸نشاطات حزب الله الارهابي تجبر جيش… pic.twitter.com/Mkh7N9BdFe

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 11, 2024

Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, will meet with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Monday in Washington at 5pm ET (2200 GMT), the State Department said.

The US government said in a letter on 13 October that Israel had 30 days to take specific steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The letter was sent to Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister, and Dermer, and came to light after being posted on social media by Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist who works for Axios, after apparently being leaked.

Since that letter, Blinken has urged Israel to substantially increase humanitarian aid. Earlier this month, he was said to have spoken to Dermer and discussed a diplomatic solution to Israel’s assault on Lebanon as well as ending its war on Gaza.

Humanitarian groups have made repeated calls for increased deliveries of food and medicine to Gaza amid accusations that the Israeli military is blocking food aid deliveries.

Israel has been accused of putting into practice a blueprint known as the “generals’ plan”, a “surrender or starve” campaign aimed at depopulating northern Gaza. Israel denies it is carrying out the plan.

Palestinian children wait for meals distributed by charities in the Gaza Strip. Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

We have some more of what the Lebanese caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said at the Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh earlier (see post at 13.40 for more details).

He said Israel’s war has caused “unprecedented losses” with more than 3,000 having been killed, including 775 women and children.

He said the war also had caused $8.5bn in losses, including $3.4bn caused by the destruction or damage of about 100,000 housing units in different parts of the country.

“No state can take the burden of this huge destruction,” Mikati said, adding that Beirut is about to set up a fund that will be funded by friendly states for the reconstruction process.

He said, according to the Associated Press, that the fund will be under international supervision and subject to international auditing.

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Israel says some progress made on Lebanon ceasefire, but Hezbollah says not directly involved in talks

William Christou

William Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian

Israel’s newly appointed foreign minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that “certain progress” had been made on ceasefire talks in Lebanon, where Israel has been engaged in fighting Hezbollah for over 13 months, however a spokesperson for Hezbollah said they were yet to be directly engaged in talks.

“We will be ready to be there if we know, first of all, that Hezbollah is not on our border, is north of the Litani River, and that Hezbollah will not be able to arm with new weapons systems,” Saar said. He added that diplomatic efforts were taking place through US mediation, but that the lack of enforcement mechanism in any future deal remained a stumbling block.

Israel’s stated objective in its ground invasion of south Lebanon was to bring back residents of north Israel, of which tens of thousands were displaced after Hezbollah began firing rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas on 8 October 2023. Israel has said that Hezbollah would need to retreat back of the Litani river, about 18 miles from its northern border, to ensure the security of north Israel.

Diplomatic efforts were not only confined to American channels, as Israel’s army radio reported that Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, visited Russia last week to discuss ways to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon. Saar said that Russia could play a role in a ceasefire agreement by helping ensure that arms do not flow to Hezbollah via Syria, where Russian troops are present.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, also met with a number of Arab leaders, including Jordan’s King Abdullah II and the Crown Prince of Kuwait, at the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on Monday.

Despite the reported progress on a ceasefire deal, Hezbollah has said that it had not seen any actual proposal come across its desk, nor does it expect to any time soon.

Mohammad Afif, the head of Hezbollah’s media office, said at a press conference on Monday: “There is great movement between Washington and Moscow and Tehran and a number of capitals. I believe that we are still in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas and proactive discussions, but so far there is nothing actual yet.”

Any ceasefire in Lebanon would have to be approved by Hezbollah, and presumably its patron, Iran. Hezbollah’s secretary general, Naim Qassem, has said that the group is ready for a ceasefire with Israel and that it has backed away from its previous demand that a ceasefire in Gaza come before it stops fighting.

Israeli minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer will meet US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Monday in Washington, Reuters reports the US state department has announced.

Israel’s military reports that a barrage of about 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel between 3.40pm and 4.03pm local time (1.40pm-2.03pm GMT).

The Times of Israel is reporting that three people were wounded, with the Magen David Adom emergency services saying one man was taken to hospital.

Three people were reported wounded by an earlier barrage on Monday.

A left-wing MK who supported South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza has been expelled from the Knesset for six months.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Ofer Kasif, who represents the joint Hadash-Ta’al list, was “expelled for accusing the IDF of committing war crimes, as well as his signing of South Africa’s genocide petition to the International Court of Justice.”

Far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has said the punishment is not sufficient, and that Kasif should be “permanently removed from the Israeli Knesset and deported to Syria.”

Israel’s finance minister declares 2025 to be a year for Israel to annex occupied West Bank

A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has posted to social media to declare that next year will be a year for Israel to take full sovereign control of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

In the message, posted in Hebrew, Bezalel Smotrich said “2025 – the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

2025 – שנת הריבונות ביהודה ושומרון

— בצלאל סמוטריץ’ (@bezalelsm) November 11, 2024

Judea and Samaria is a term used by Israeli nationalists to refer to the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich has previously said he aims to establish sovereignty over the occupied territory and thwart the creation of a Palestinian state. He has also threatened to collapse Netanyahu’s coalition government if a ceasefire is agreed with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern front. He has remained in Netanyahu’s cabinet.

Israel’s military has stated that as of 3pm local time (1pm GMT) “approximately 75 projectiles” had been fired today towards Israel from Lebanon. It stated that it held Hezbollah responsible.

Israeli forces detained at least 20 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank from last night into the morning, the Palestinian Authority’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said.

According to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, the detentions were carried out in Hebron, Ramallah, al-Bireh, Qalqilya, Nablus and Jerusalem.

It is estimated that at least 11,600 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since last October.

Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the West Bank.

They have described alleged abusive and humiliating treatment, including holding blindfolded and handcuffed detainees in cramped cages as well as beatings, intimidation and harassment.

Lebanon PM warns that Lebanon is going through an ‘unprecedented existential crisis’

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, has warned that his country was suffering an “unprecedented” crisis that threatens its existence, as Israel’s assault on Lebanon continues.

He told the joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh:

Lebanon is going through an unprecedented historical and existential crisis that threatens its present and future.

Saudi deputy governor of the Riyadh region Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz (R) welcoming Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati upon his arrival in Riyadh. Photograph: SPA/AFP/Getty Images

Mikati also demanded that countries stop “interfering in its internal affairs by supporting this or that group, but rather support Lebanon as a state and entity”.

Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

The Israeli military unleashed its assault on Lebanon in October, claiming its aim was to return tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in northern Israel due to the cross-border hostilities.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed over 3,100 people since October 2023, the Lebanese health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced across Lebanon.

Government services for the huge numbers of displaced people – and those injured by Israeli bombardments – have been inadequate as the caretaker government struggles to fill the demand.

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The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has met with Jordanian King Abdullah II on the sidelines of the joint Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Abbas discussed Israel’s war in Gaza, ways to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and how to preserve the legal and historical status of Islamic and Christian holy sites, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported.

Abbas also discussed the importance of preserving the presence of the UN relief and works agency (Unrwa) in the region and to increase the amount of aid being allowed into Gaza. The Israeli military has been accused of blocking food aid deliveries.

Last month, the Knesset – the Israeli parlimanet – banned Unrwa from conducting “any activity” or providing any service inside Israel, including the areas of annexed East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. A second vote declared Unrwa a terror group, effectively banning any direct interaction between the agency and the Israeli state.

Unrwa head Philippe Lazzarini called the Israeli decision “unprecedented” and said it was “nothing less than collective punishment” for Palestinians. The bills “will only deepen the suffering Palestinians, especially in Gaza, where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell”. An Unrwa spokesperson said the law would be a “disaster” and have a serious impact on the humanitarian operation in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said the vote was “part of the systematic targeting” of Unrwa and a “continuation of Israel’s frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically, in addition to its aggressive war on the Palestinian people”.

Abbas arrived in Riyadh yesterday evening to take part in the Arab-Islamic summit, which will focus on addressing Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

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The number of people injured by rocket fire into northern Israel from Lebanon today has increased to three, according to reports in Israeli media. The Magen David Adom emergency services said a woman was “moderately wounded by shrapnel” and a man and a baby were “lightly wounded”.

Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi Arabia opposes ‘genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people’

Speaking in Riyadh at a conference today of Arab and Muslim leaders to address conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people, and said the Israel’s actions deliberately “violate Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

He said:

Israel’s continued aggression towards the Palestinian people hinders peace efforts. We emphasise our opposition to the genocide Israel is committing against the Palestinian people, and the deliberate military actions which violate Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Israel’s military has posted to its official Telegram channel to claim that during operations in Rafah in the Gaza Strip it located “weapons storage facility containing observation equipment, drones, enemy manufacturing supplies, explosive devices, and dozens of mortar shells.”

In the update, it claims IDF soldiers “eliminated many terrorists.”

It also claims that the weapons storage was found “near a mosque and a hospital.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with about 2.2 million people crammed into a narrow strip of territory that is 40km (25 miles) long.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Lebanon.

Mourners stand near bodies of people wrapped in Hezbollah and Amal flags who were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Deir Qanoun Ras Al-Ain, in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 11 November. Photograph: Ali Hankir/Reuters
A woman carries clothes as she leaves a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP
Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammad Afif speaks in front of a portrait of late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, during a press conference in south Beirut on 11 November. Photograph: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Arab and Muslim leaders are meeting at a summit in Riyadh to discuss the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon. King Abdullah II of Jordan’s social media has published some of his words. The king said:

How can we justify … the global failure to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Lebanon? Immediate action is needed to end the aggression and the killing, destruction and escalation it is causing in the region. We do not want words, we want serious positions and tangible efforts to end the tragedy, save our people in Gaza, and provide the aid they need. I call on our brothers and friends to participate in launching a humanitarian bridge to deliver emergency aid to Gaza.

Summary of the day so far …

It is approaching 2pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here are the latest headlines …

  • Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the pager and walkie-talkie explosion attacks inside Lebanon and Syria. Omer Dostri, spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, confirmed Israeli responsibility on Monday. The pager attack killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu claimed responsibility during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers senior defence officials and political figures were opposed, but that he went ahead with the operation intended to target Hezbollah operatives. Taiwan said it had closed its probe into the explosions, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved despite the pagers carrying the name of Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo

  • A senior Hezbollah figure has said Israel “will never win” its war against the group, and said it retains resources for a long war. Hezbollah’s media relations official Muhammad Afif boasted that after “45 days of bloody fighting … the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village”

  • Israel’s military has announced an expansion of what it calls “the humanitarian area” in the Gaza Strip, which it has had under seige for over a year. Over 40,000 people have been reported killed by Israel’s military action during that period. Nearly 70% of the people killed in the war have been women and children, according to a UN analysis of verified deaths

  • Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service says it is treating injuries after rockets were fired at Karmiel in northern Israel

  • Syria’s main Homs-Damascus highway was temporarily cut off after an Israeli strike targeted an aid gathering centre for displaced Lebanese south of the city of Homs, according to Syria’s state news agency

  • Lebanon’s government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee of the Red Cross to equip four mobile medical clinics to help provide for the needs of the 1.2 million people estimated displaced from their homes by Israel’s campaign of airstrikes

  • Netanyahu’s legal team has filed a request to delay the prime minister’s testimony at his corruption trial, saying recent developments in the war have prevented him preparing for the hearing

  • Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces have demolished a mosque near Jaba’ to the east of Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It said more than 20 people had been arrested by Israeli security forces overnight





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