With Cease-Fire Deal in Sight, Israeli Bombings Kill at Least 12 in Lebanon

A cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be within reach on Monday amid reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has repeatedly scuttled diplomatic efforts in recent months—has broadly accepted the proposed terms of a truce after months of devastating bombing that has ramped up in recent days.

Citing an unnamed senior U.S. official, Axiosreported Monday that "Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the terms of a cease-fire agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict."

The proposed agreement could still collapse: Netanyahu sparked fury within the Biden White House by publicly dismissing a U.S.-led cease-fire push in late September, and the far-right prime minister has been an obstacle to diplomatic attempts to end Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

According to Axios, Israel's Security Cabinet is expected to approve the newly proposed deal as early as Tuesday.

"We think we have a deal. We are on the goal line but we haven't passed it yet," the anonymous U.S. official said. "The Israeli cabinet needs to approve the deal on Tuesday and something can always go wrong until then."

Michael Herzog, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., said in a radio interview Monday that "we are close to a deal."

In its current form, the deal would reportedly entail an initial 60-day halt to fighting and a withdrawal of the Israeli military from Lebanon. During that two-month period, according to the Financial Times, "Lebanon and Hezbollah would move its weapons north of the Litani river, which runs 30 kilometers from the U.N.-drawn border."

The Israeli outlet Channel 12reported Monday that the Biden administration has signaled U.S. support if Israel decides to attack Lebanon again "whenever it sees an immediate threat."

Israel's large-scale bombardment of Lebanon—which began in mid-September and was soon followed by a ground invasion—has killed more than 3,000 people, including hundreds of children; displaced more than a million; and sparked a massive humanitarian crisis.

Hezbollah rocket fire has killed dozens of civilians in Israel, according toThe Associated Press, and more than 50 Israeli soldiers have been killed on the ground in Lebanon.

Israel bombings intensified in densely populated areas of Lebanon over the past several days as negotiators raced to finalize a cease-fire agreement. One Israeli attack on a multistory residential building in central Beirut on Saturday killed at least 29 people and injured dozens more.

In response, Hezbollah fired a large barrage of rockets into Israel in what was described as the group's largest attack in weeks. Reutersreported that "the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set alight near Tel Aviv" as a result of the rocket attack.

Israel's military launched fresh attacks across Lebanon on Monday, killing at least a dozen people.

"Israeli strikes hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut as well as in the port city of Tyre," APreported. "Military officials said they targeted areas known as Hezbollah strongholds. They issued evacuation orders for Beirut's southern suburbs, and strikes landed across the city, including meters from a Lebanese police base and the city's largest public park."

Humanitarian organizations and United Nations officials have been pleading for a cease-fire in Lebanon for weeks amid the surging death toll and intensifying humanitarian emergency sparked by Israel's assault.

James Elder, a spokesperson for the U.N. Children's Fund, told reporters last week that "for the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalization of horror."

"In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable. And the appalling is slipping into the realm of the expected," said Elder. "And once more, the cries of children go unheard, the world's silence grows deafening, and again we allow the unimaginable to become the landscape of childhood. A horrific and unacceptable new normal."