Report: Netanyahu says ready for talks with Hamas, Hezbollah

Two days after the assassination of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fouad Shukur and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed international mediators that “Israel has become readier to engage in a deal over Gaza,” a media report said.

“Bring me the other party so that I talk to them over the deal!” the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Netanyahu as saying.

“Secondly, he asked his Western allies -- the Americans, Britons and others -- to inform Lebanon that he is ready to immediately engage in negotiations to settle the issue of the disputed border points, on the condition that the issue takes place as part of a political-security agreement that would create new arrangements in south Lebanon,” the daily said.

As for the Palestinian part, Israel has suggested that all previous papers be amended and that an intensive discussion be launched over “a deal based on a prior agreement over a new administration for the Gaza Strip that would be responsible for compelling Hamas not to return to taking up arms,” the newspaper added.

As for Lebanon’s file, Israel “has acknowledged that Hezbollah will have its retaliation to the assassination of the commander Shukur, but it wants the mediators to warn Hezbollah that the response should not be of the type that would oblige it to make a counter-response,” al-Akhbar reported.

“Mediators have talked to Lebanese officials about the possibility that Hezbollah carry out a rational response that would allow for moving instantly to negotiations on a deal leading to a ceasefire on Lebanon’s front,” the daily said.