'We're still in the eye of the storm,' Netanyahu says amid Lebanon ceasefire deal hopes

Israel is “still in the eye of the storm,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said amid US hope that an IDF-Hezbollah ceasefire deal might soon be in reach.

“There are still great challenges ahead,” Netanyahu said at an officers’ graduation ceremony Thursday after meeting with US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, who were in the region to advance a deal to end the year-long IDF-Hezbollah war.

Netanyahu has given a nod in the direction of a deal but has stressed that Israel’s security rests ultimately on the IDF’s military might.

He clarified to Hochstein and McGurk that any deal must allow for the IDF to thwart any threats from Lebanon. Later in his speech to the soldiers, he underscored this point.

“As for the talk about an arrangement in Lebanon, I would like to make it clear: The agreements, documents, proposals, and numbers – [UN Security Council resolutions] 1701, 1559 – with all due respect, are not the main points.

“The main point is our ability and determination to enforce security, thwart attacks against us, and act against the arming of our enemies, as necessary and despite any pressure and constraints,” he said.

Israel wants to maintain the ability to re-enter southern Lebanon if necessary and to conduct aerial strikes against Hezbollah’s infrastructure.

Netanyahu spoke on a day that seven civilians – three Israelis and four foreigners – were killed in the North by Hezbollah fire and a month into Israel’s revved-up military campaign against the Iranian proxy group.

It has included the IDF’s entry into southern Lebanon and the bombing of Hezbollah targets in Beirut including the assassination of leader Hassan Nasrallah.

IDF seeks to push Hezbollah back from border

Its objective has been to push Hezbollah out of the southern Lebanon area by Israel’s border and north of the Litani River as mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1701. It has in particular targeted Hezbollah terror infrastructure by the border.

Sources previously told Reuters that talks were centered on a 60-day pause to allow for the implementation of Resolution 1701.

The US and Israel have spoken about the necessity of ensuring that any deal would include a mechanism for the implementation of Resolution 1701. That resolution set the ceasefire terms that ended the Second Lebanon War.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington, “We are working very hard and making progress on reaching an understanding of what would be required for the effective implementation of UNSC 1701.”

This will include, he said, the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the border, the deployment of Lebanon armed forces” in that area as well as an understanding of the authority “under which they’d be acting” and the appropriate enforcement mechanism,” he said.

“We still have more work to do, but that’s what’s necessary to get us to a diplomatic resolution,” he said.

Lebanon’s prime minister expressed hope on Wednesday that a ceasefire deal with Israel would be announced within days.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking alongside Blinken said he was hopeful the US would see a transition in Lebanon soon, but he did not specify further.

“We’re hopeful that we... will see things transition in Lebanon in a not too distant future. I think there’s an opportunity for that to happen,” he said, adding that the US would continue to press to ensure it happens sooner rather than later.

Netanyahu, however, doubled down on the IDF’s military efforts, including its indirect and direct confrontation with Iran.

The IDF, he said, is “severing Iran’s weapons pipelines to Hezbollah – through Syria and from there to Lebanon.”

Israel, he said, is dismantling Iran’s axis of evil, which “we face, with calculated blows” as it destroys the proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah on its borders.

Israel also remains committed to preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons, he said.

“Halting the nuclear program has been – and remains – our chief concern. I have not taken, we have not taken, and we will not take our eyes off this objective.

“Obviously, I cannot detail our plans to achieve this supreme goal,” Netanyahu stated.

He also issued a warning to the Islamic Republic, as Israel remained braced for a direct Iranian strike. Netanyahu reflected on Israel’s strike against Iran last weekend, which took out missile production facilities.

“We struck its soft underbelly. The haughty words of the Iranian regime’s leaders cannot cover up the fact in Iran today, Israel has greater freedom of action than ever before. We can go anywhere that we need to in Iran,” Netanyahu stated.

Reuters contributed to this report.