Israel-Palestine war: Pressure mounts for diplomatic solution on Lebanon-Israel border
Hezbollah has signalled interest in negotiations, but what is on the table?
6 February 2024
Lebanon’s southern border with Israel is a ticking time bomb as the clock counts down in the absence of a diplomatic solution. Fighting between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel has been escalating incrementally since 7 October, when Hezbollah was pulled into Israel’s war on Gaza.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on 30 January said the Israeli army was readying for a potential war with Hezbollah and on 2 February announced that Israel will continue its destructive military campaign in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, despite the nearly one million civilians who are sheltered there and have nowhere else to go.
After a heavy day of fighting on Israel’s northern front on Sunday, Gallant warned Israel still had many offensive tools to use at its disposal. He also reiterated that a ceasefire in Gaza would not lead Israel to stop attacks on Hezbollah, saying the fighting would continue until residents of northern Israel could return “safely to their homes”.