Israel says 'certain progress' on Lebanon ceasefire

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Monday said there had been "certain progress" on a ceasefire in Lebanon after the Israeli army launched an operation in the country targeting Hezbollah.

"There is certain progress," Saar said in response to a question about a possible ceasefire. "We are working with the Americans on the issue," he told reporters in Jerusalem.

"We will be ready for a settlement if Hezbollah becomes far from our border and if it retreats beyond the Litani River," Saar added.

Saar said any agreement would have to include enforcement mechanisms to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its military infrastructure near the border.

“The most important thing will not (be) the words but the enforcement,” he said, adding that if any agreement is breached, Israel “will act immediately, militarily.”

He also said that the international community "can help guarantee Lebanon's future as a free state, not an agent of Iran."

The U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war required both Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon that was to be patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army.

Israel says Hezbollah maintained a military presence right up to the border, while Lebanon accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution. Lebanese officials are opposed to any changes to the resolution.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. All-out war erupted in September, when Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.