Lebanon to ask Hochstein to press Israel to keep war ‘within 7km from border’

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein is discussing with Israeli officials means to avoid escalation on the Lebanese front and “the conditions that can guarantee the return of calm to the border with Lebanon,” a media report said.

“Lebanon will ask Hochstein to press Israel to halt this escalation and revive an equation that had been previously discussed with him and which Israel did not abide by, which is aimed at keeping the confrontation within a distance ranging between three and five kilometers (from the border), or a maximum of seven kilometers,” Kuwait’s al-Jarida newspaper reported.

Hochstein’s ongoing visit to Israel and his expected trip to Lebanon come in the wake of Israel’s assassination of Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are a Hezbollah stronghold. The brazen Israeli airstrike is a major escalation in the ongoing clashes between Israel and Hezbollah and marks the first time the Lebanese capital has been bombed since the 2006 war.

Since the cross-border hostilities began on Octover 8, more than 170 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah combatants but also more than 20 civilians, three of them journalists. On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military.

Exchanges of fire have been largely confined to the border area, although Israel has conducted limited strikes deeper into Lebanese territory.

Israel has been pushing for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers north of the border, arguing that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) had stipulated that.