Israel ‘rushing to secure ceasefire in Lebanon as a gift for new President Donald Trump’

According to reports, Israel is rushing to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon as a ‘gift’ to newly elected US President Donald Trump.

Ron Dermer – Benjamin Netanyahu’s Minister of Strategic Affairs – met with Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday to discuss a possible peace proposal.

After this, he traveled to the White House to speak with the Biden administration – a clear sign of Netanyahu’s realignment of priorities before Trump is inaugurated in January.

Israeli officials who spoke to the Washington Post said their country Israel hopes to give Trump a foreign policy victory by agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

An Israeli official told the Post anonymously that there is “an understanding that Israel would give something to Trump… that there will be an agreement on Lebanon in January.”

Netanyahu’s office and a spokesperson for Donald Trump declined to comment on an impending ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, Dermer’s office told The Washington Post that a wide range of issues were discussed during his visit to the US.

The talks emerged as a senior Hamas official claimed that the terror group is ready to “immediately” conclude a ceasefire in Gaza with Israel, but that they have not received any “serious proposals” from Israel in months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is believed to be trying to expedite a ceasefire deal with Lebanon

Dr. Basem Naim – who appeared on Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim – also suggested that Hamas had no regrets about carrying out the October 7 terror attacks, which killed 1,200 Israelis and sparked the subsequent war in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians. last year’s massacre as an ‘act of defense’.

Trump has long said he wants to end wars in the Middle East and Europe once elected, but last month the US president told Netanyahu in a phone call to “do what you gotta do” to Defeat Hezbollah and Hamas.

Last night, Frank Lowenstein, a former special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Barack Obama who served during the transition to the first Trump administration, told the Washington Post: “Netanyahu has no loyalty to Biden and will be fully focused on gaining favor with Biden. Trump.

‘[And] Trump will not hesitate to act as if he is already president if he sees an opportunity.”

As a ceasefire approaches, Netanyahu released a video statement on Sunday saying he had spoken with President-elect Trump three times and that they both saw “great opportunities for Israel, especially in promoting peace.”

According to Israeli and US sources, a ceasefire plan would aim to force Hezbollah to withdraw beyond the Litani River, a strategic region in southern Lebanon.

Since October 2023, following Hamas’s brutal terror attack in Israel, Lebanese terrorists have fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel, killing 45 civilians and 31 soldiers and driving more than 60,000 people from their homes.

Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the US, met with Donald Trump in Florida

Trump has said that once elected he wants to end the wars in the Middle East and Europe

Meanwhile, more than 3,300 people have been killed in Lebanon as a result of Israel’s “limited incursion” into the country, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry – which makes no distinction between civilians and fighters.

A source familiar with Hezbollah said the terror group would be willing to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani as part of a temporary ceasefire.

But they added that the group’s “condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations on Lebanese territory.”

It is believed that any deal would see the Lebanese army take control of the border area for an initial period of 60 days, under the supervision of the United States and Britain.