Lebanon offers to enter negotiations to end Israeli strikes and retake occupied border hills

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has said that his country is ready to negotiate an agreement that would end Israeli truce violations and lead to Israel’s withdrawal from five border hills it has occupied since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended last year.

In a televised speech marking Independence Day on Friday, Aoun said Lebanese troops are prepared to deploy at all positions from which Israeli forces withdraw.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel would accept the offer, as it comes at a time when Israeli strikes on Lebanon, violating agreed truce, have intensified.

Thousands killed in Lebanon

On Tuesday, Israel bombed Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern city of Sidon, killing 13 people — the deadliest attack since a ceasefire took effect a year ago.

Aoun did not specify whether any negotiations with Israel would be direct, saying the talks could be sponsored by the United States, the United Nations or the international community.

He said the ceasefire monitoring committee — made up of the United States, France, Israel, Lebanon and the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL — could then verify that only Lebanese state forces are deployed along the border.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on October 8, 2023, in which Tel Aviv carried a widespread bombardment of Lebanon for two months, followed by a ground invasion.

During the Israeli war — the most recent in a series of conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades — Israel killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated 11 billion dollars’ worth of destruction, according to World Bank.