US President Joe Biden has suggested that negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah could be easier than forging one between Israel and Hamas.
Biden said he discussed the way ahead to end the Middle East conflict following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their meeting in Berlin on Friday.
“There’s an opportunity in my view and my colleagues agree, that we can probably deal with Israel and Iran in a way that ends the conflict for a while,” he said.
“In other words, that stops the back and forth. We think that there is a possibility of working for a ceasefire in Lebanon. And it’s going to be harder in Gaza. But we agree that there has to be an outcome.”
Biden declined to say whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him assurance in their phone call on Thursday following the confirmation of Sinwar’s death that the Israelis are ready to get back to negotiations on a hostage and ceasefire deals.
“We’re in the middle of discussions about that,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said allies were working to de-escalate tensions in the region and agreed that there was no “military-only solution”.
“The answer is diplomacy. And now we must make the most of this moment. What is needed now is a ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, immediate access to humanitarian aid and return to the path towards the two-state solution as the only way to deliver long term peace and security,” he said.
Israel and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah have traded almost daily fire since the war in Gaza broke out in October, displacing thousands on both sides of the border.
Those hostilities have ramped up significantly recently with both sides striking targets deeper inside each other’s countries.
On 30 September, Israel launched what it called a targeted ground operation in Lebanon, it says to find and eliminate Hezbollah positions.
It’s believed there could be up to 15,000 Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon.
On Friday, Hezbollah said the its fight against Israel was entering a new phase, as the region reckons with the killing of Yahya Sinwar.
Hezbollah is ideologically aligned with the Gaza-based militant group Hamas and began firing at Israel it says in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The war in Gaza broke out on 7 October last year after the militant group Hamas launched a lightning incursion into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 others back to the Strip as hostages.
The Israeli military response was almost immediate and has devastated Gaza. The UN said in August that around 80% of all buildings in the Strip had been destroyed.
That’s sparked a massive humanitarian catastrophe with tens of thousands of Gazans internally displaced, often living in squalid tent camps with little to no access to food, fresh water and medical facilities.
The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 42,000 people have been killed in just over a year of fighting but it doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally.
