Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has indicated he is open to a cease-fire in the yearlong conflict with Hezbollah, as U.S. officials pressured him to finalize a deal before Thanksgiving, according to two Israeli officials briefed on his thinking.
Mr. Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with his cabinet on Tuesday to discuss a proposed deal to end the war in Lebanon, two other Israeli officials said. Mediators have made significant progress toward a cease-fire over the past week, but a key sticking point has been Mr. Netanyahu’s insistence on securing some assurance that Israel could restart the fighting if Hezbollah broke the truce, Israeli officials said.
The latest proposal is seen as the best chance to end fighting that has killed thousands in Lebanon and close to 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers, while displacing roughly 60,000 people in Israel and about one million in Lebanon. But negotiations have been starting and stopping for weeks, and the two sides may not come to terms.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on his intentions. All of the officials who described his thinking spoke on the condition of anonymity, in order to discuss the sensitive, private negotiations.
Under the proposal, Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days, while Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia, would move north, farther from the Israeli border, according to the officials.
The Lebanese Army would deploy to southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah stays north of the Litani River, the officials said, in effect creating a buffer zone along the Israeli border.
The cease-fire would officially be an agreement among Israel, Lebanon and the mediating countries, including the United States. A top Lebanese lawmaker has been acting as a liaison with Hezbollah, which the country’s government does not control, and any deal would include the group’s unofficial approval, two of the officials said. Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Iran, which is Hezbollah’s primary ally and backer, urged the group to accept a cease-fire earlier this month. Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, suggested in a video last week that the group would agree to a cease-fire if Israel ended its attacks on Lebanon and Lebanon retained its sovereignty.
If all sides agree, the deal would be the first cease-fire in either Lebanon or the Gaza Strip in almost exactly a year. Last November, Israel and Hamas observed a weeklong truce in Gaza while they exchanged some hostages and prisoners. Israel and Hezbollah — which had begun launching rockets at Israel weeks earlier, in solidarity with Hamas — also stopped firing at each other that week, though they had not agreed to an official pact.
