Netanyahu ‘greenlights’ temporary cease-fire with Hezbollah: Israeli media

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has greenlighted a temporary cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli media said on Thursday.

The US, EU, and nine other nations called on Israel and Hezbollah late Wednesday to agree to a 21-day cease-fire amid an escalation in their cross-border warfare.

Israeli Channel 12, citing an official in Netanyahu’s office, said there is a “greenlight for a cease-fire” with Hezbollah to pave the way for negotiations.

Several Israeli ministers have voiced opposition, however, to any proposed cease-fire with Hezbollah.

Sports Minister Miki Zohar called any cease-fire with the Lebanese group "a grave mistake that jeopardizes the big security achievements Israel made in the past days."

Minister of Diaspora Amichai Chikli demanded the army launch a ground invasion into Lebanon to establish what he called a “buffer zone.”

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for his part, said the battle in the north must end with "crushing Hezbollah."

Despite the opposition, an Israeli official said that accepting a temporary cease-fire proposal with Lebanon will serve Israel’s “political interest.”

"Practically, the cease-fire proposal came too early for Israel,” the official was quoted by Israel Hayom newspaper. “At the same time, Israel is not interested in confronting the United States, and therefore it is in its political interest to accept the offer."

Israel has pounded Lebanon since Monday morning, killing at least 610 people and injuring 2,000 others, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border clashes since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,500 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of spreading the Gaza conflict regionally.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar