JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the death toll mounted on both sides of the border.
Netanyahu told Washington envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any Lebanon deal must guarantee Israel’s longer term scrutiny.
While their talks took place, Israeli medics and a local leader reported seven Israelis killed by cross-border fire from Lebanon — one of the highest one-day tolls in Israel in more than a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated to full-scale war last month.
Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Gaza, where Israel’s actions in the territory’s north have drawn increasing scrutiny more than a year into its war against Hamas Palestinian militants.
“The prime minister specified that the main issue is not paperwork for this or that deal, but Israel’s determination and capacity to ensure the deal’s application and to prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also met the Americans for a separate discussion.
He said in a statement their talks focused on “security arrangements as these relate to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to ensure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza”.
Israeli emergency services said a rocket from Lebanon killed two people in a northern olive grove.
Separately, the regional council head in Metula said a farmer and four foreign farm workers were killed in another incident. Their nationality was not immediately available.
The death toll since late September has soared on the Lebanese side of the border, and on Thursday the country’s health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah or its ally Amal.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday negotiators have made “good progress” towards a deal on a Lebanon ceasefire.
