Middle east crisis live: Lebanese PM expresses hope for ceasefire deal | Middle East and north Africa

Lebanon’s prime minister has expressed hope that a ceasefire deal with Israel could be reached within days, after Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Qassem said the militant group could agree to a possible truce under certain parameters.

In his first public comments a day after being named to replace former longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, Qassem said however that Israel had yet to agree to any proposal that could be discussed, and that the Iran-backed group will keep fighting until it is offered terms it deems acceptable.

“If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,” Qassem said, speaking from an undisclosed location in a pre-recorded televised address. “We will not beg for a ceasefire.”

It came as Israel’s security cabinet met to discuss a possible truce, but also as Israel expanded their bombardment of the group’s bastions, attacking the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, and said it had killed another senior Hezbollah commander.

Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said he had previously not believed a deal would be possible until after Tuesday’s US presidential election. But he said he became cautiously optimistic after speaking on Wednesday with the Biden administration’s Middle East envoy Amos Hochstein, who was due to travel to Israel on Thursday.

“Hochstein, during his call with me, suggested to me that we could reach an agreement before the end of the month and before November 5th,” Mikati told Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan published what it said was a draft agreement providing for an initial 60-day truce. The document, which the broadcaster said was a leaked proposal written by Washington, said Israel would withdraw its forces from Lebanon within the first week of the 60-day ceasefire. It largely aligned with details reported earlier by Reuters.

Although negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah have made significant progress in the last 24 hours, the Biden administration has not reached a final agreement with either Israel or Lebanon, Axios reported citing two US officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

The draft published by Kan was dated Saturday. When asked to comment, White House national security spokesperson Sean Savett said:

There are many reports and drafts circulating. They do not reflect the current state of negotiations.”

In other developments:

• The Israeli army launched heavy airstrikes on the eastern city of Baalbek, famed for its Roman temples, and nearby villages. Tens of thousands of Lebanese, including many who sought shelter in Baalbek from other areas, fled after an Israeli evacuation warning. Lebanon’s health ministry said 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two towns in the Baalbek area on Wednesday. After the airstrikes, the Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah fuel reservoirs in the Bekaa valley region.

• In his first remarks as leader, Nassim Qassem said the series of blows dealt to the group in recent weeks had “hurt” Hezbollah, but asserted that the group had been able to reorganise its ranks swiftly after Nasrallah’s death. “Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.

• Qassem said he would stick to the war strategy laid out by his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel last month after full-scale fighting broke out. “My work programme is a continuation of the work programme of our leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Qassem said, pledging to press on with “the war plan that he [Nasrallah] developed with the leadership” of the Iran-backed group.

• Donald Trump promised that he will bring “peace” to the Middle East, with the US Republican nominee for president making the pronouncement in a letter just six days before the US election for the White House on 5 November. “During my administration, we had peace in the Middle East, and we will have peace again very soon!” he said in his letter to Lebanese Americans.

• At least 30 people were killed as Israel pummeled Gaza with new bombardments, Palestinian medics said. Eight of today’s victims were killed in northern Gaza. The area Israel hit is near to where medics said at least 93 people had been killed or reported missing on Tuesday in an Israeli strike Washington called “horrifying”.

• The UN security council “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish” the operations and mandate of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, after Israel passed a law banning its operations. In a statement adopted by consensus, the 15-member body expressed grave concern over the legislation adopted by the Israeli parliament on Monday.

• The Israeli army said it had killed the deputy head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon. “In an intelligence-directed strike, the Israeli air force struck and eliminated Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, deputy commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces, in the area of Nabatieh,” the army said in a statement.

• At least 43,163 Palestinians have been killed and 101,510 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry said on Wednesday that 102 Palestinians had been killed and 287 injured in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

• Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it had launched drones at an Israeli base in the port city of Haifa. Hezbollah fighters “launched an air attack at 7.45am (0545 GMT) … with a squadron of attack drones” on a “base in southern Haifa”, the group said in a statement.