On Wednesday, the United States and France took steps to establish a temporary ceasefire in the impending ground war in Lebanon.
As Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi instructed the military to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon, efforts to mediate ceasefire negotiations intensified.
According to the Financial Times (FT), citing sources, U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron used the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to engage in diplomatic mediation for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
One source indicated that the U.S. and France are planning a 21-day ceasefire, aiming first to establish peace and then negotiate a more long-term agreement during this period.
The plan seeks to temporarily halt the escalating conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hezbollah and implement the United Nations resolution agreed upon in 2006.
Sources say that the 2006 UN agreement, aimed at resolving the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, includes demilitarizing southern Lebanon, which borders northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that although he is open to international mediation, he will not halt the offensive until residents of the north can return home. However, the exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah continue, with other regional Islamic forces joining the conflict.
The umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups in the region Islamic Resistance (IR) claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a drone attack on Israel’s southern port city of Eilat.
IR stated that the attack was carried out in support of “our people in Palestine and Lebanon.”
Israel has not specified the perpetrators of the drone attack, only stating that the drones approached from the east.
As ground operations preparations are underway, Israel announced that since the airstrikes began in Lebanon on Monday, approximately 2,000 targets had been destroyed.
According to CNN, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari noted that particularly on this day, 70 buildings housing Hezbollah’s intelligence were destroyed in a massive airstrike aimed at disrupting Hezbollah’s intelligence capabilities.
