US sends ceasefire proposal to Hezbollah as IDF troops push deeper into Lebanon

Despite the U.S. transmitting a new ceasefire proposal to Hezbollah on Thursday, the fighting only seemed to intensify in recent days as the IDF confirmed its troops advanced beyond the initial targets of the ground offensive into Lebanon, leading to several soldiers losing their lives.

Reuters reported Thursday that the new outline was sent to Lebanon’s speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who represents Hezbollah in the talks, through U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson. The draft had been agreed upon in recent meetings by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.

“It is a draft to get observations from the Lebanese side,” an unnamed political source told Reuters, without providing further details on the content of the document.

This week, Hezbollah and France, which also serves as a mediator in the talks, signaled they would reject an Israeli demand to have the right to enforce a possible agreement with military force.

This was even rejected by fierce Hezbollah critic and Christian Lebanese leader Samir Geagea. “The idea that Israel can enforce at any time - that is unthinkable,” Geagea told Reuters, while granting that Lebanon had little power to stop Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli losses have increased sharply in recent days as the IDF re-intensified its operations in Lebanon, pushing beyond its initial goals to tackle the second line of Lebanese villages from the Israeli border, after largely capturing and clearing the first line in just over a month of fighting.

On Thursday, IDF officer Lt. Ivri Dickshtein (21) was killed and another officer was seriously wounded, just one day after six soldiers fell in battle. IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari explained that the two officers were ambushed by several terrorists who survived preparatory tank fire on their building.

After granting several units a break from the fighting in recent weeks, the IDF said that the 91st Division re-joined the two other divisions fighting in Lebanon.

After the first phase of the fighting focused on villages within several kilometers from the border, the IDF said that now, raids were carried on villages out as far as 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) within Lebanese territory.

These areas still pose a threat to northern Israeli settlements by being used as launch positions for anti-tank missiles, rockets and mortars. However, the IDF also clarified that at this stage, the goal is not to completely clear these areas but to reduce weapons stockpiles that can’t be struck from the air, according to Army Radio.

Hagari said that over 300 targets were struck from the air this past week, 40 of them in Hezbollah’s Dahiyeh stronghold, among them rocket depots and command centers.

מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת אגף המודיעין, השלימו לפני זמן קצר סדרת תקיפות נוספת במרחב הדאחייה שבביירות בה הותקפו מחסני אמצעי לחימה, מפקדות צבאיות ותשתיות נוספות שהיו בשימוש ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה>> pic.twitter.com/4aIVr3LVyH

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 14, 2024

“We destroyed most of Hezbollah's production sites in Beirut. We recognize that there are additional rockets that were produced in Syria and were transferred from there to Hezbollah - we will attack any infrastructure that we identify in Syria whose purpose is to produce weapons for Hezbollah,” Hagari added.

מוקדם יותר היום, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון תקפו מספר מבנים צבאיים ומפקדות של ארגון הטרור הג׳יהאד האיסלאמי בסוריה>> pic.twitter.com/8XjXqleY2C

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 14, 2024

On Thursday, the IDF struck several sites of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in Damascus, Syria. The attack was aimed at the organization’s headquarters and not a targeted elimination attempt, and according to Syrian media, hit two residential buildings in the al-Mazzah neighborhood.

Among some 120 airstrikes on Thursday, the IDF hit a military building used by Hezbollah’s "Badr" unit in Nabatiyeh. “Hezbollah is systematically taking over civilian spaces throughout the state of Lebanon, in order to carry out terrorism while assimilating its operatives and commanders into the civilian space,” the IDF said.

Other targets included weapons warehouses, terror squads and many launchers used to launch rockets at the Haifa area and the Upper Galilee on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued attacking northern Israel, with one drone strike wounding two soldiers near the northern town of Eliakim, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the border.

The strike again underlined the difficulty Israel’s aerial defense has in tracking and intercepting Hezbollah drones. The drone managed to fly through northern Israel for 40 minutes, triggering alarm sirens in large areas, and still managed hit its target and wound two IDF soldiers.