A US envoy has returned to Beirut, where Lebanese officials have tentatively welcomed a proposal for an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, while in the Gaza Strip there was no such optimism, with the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsening an already severe food crisis.
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, arrived as Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government said it had responded positively to the proposal, which would entail both the militants and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
It is unclear how close they are to clinching an agreement.
The buffer zone would be policed by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism, potentially including the ability to operate against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.
Mr Hochstein’s arrival comes hours after an Israeli strike in central Beirut killed five people and wounded others. It was the third Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut in two days.
Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to severely weaken Hezbollah and end its rocket barrages into Israel.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, and drawing Israeli retaliation, on October 8 2023, a day after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Both groups are supported by Iran.
The fighting has left more than 3,500 dead in Lebanon and almost 15,000 wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
It also has displaced nearly 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including some foreign labourers who work in agriculture, have been killed by attacks involving rockets, drones and missiles.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the theft of nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and other humanitarian aid over the weekend sent prices soaring and caused shortages in central Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 million people have fled and where hundreds of thousands are crammed into tent camps.
An even more severe hunger crisis is under way in the north, where Israel has been waging a weeks-long offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Experts say a famine might already have set in there.
The United Nations said the armed men had stolen food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest single incident of its kind since the start of the war. It did not say who was behind the theft.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the convoy of 109 trucks was instructed by the Israeli military to take an “alternative, unfamiliar route” after the aid was brought in through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the trucks were stolen near the crossing itself.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, allegations denied by the militant group.
Al-Aqsa TV, a media outlet operated by the militants, said Hamas-run security forces in Gaza had launched an operation against looters, killing 20 of them.
Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based abroad, said the looters were young men from Bedouin tribes in the area, emphasising that they did not necessarily represent the tribes. He said they operated east of Rafah near Israeli military positions.
The Hamas-run government had a police force of tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war, but they have vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israeli strikes.
Hamas says it has taken measures to prevent both looting and price-gouging in local markets.
Hamas ignited the war in Gaza when its fighters stormed into Israel on October 7 last year, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their toll.
The war has left much of the territory in ruins and forced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million to flee, often multiple times.
The Biden administration has spent several months trying to broker ceasefires on both fronts.
US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how he would do it. He was a staunch supporter of Israel and its hawkish government during his first term.
