A US envoy has arrived in Beirut to meet with Lebanese officials about a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, arrived on Tuesday, a day after Hezbollah reportedly gave a positive response to a draft US proposal to end the war, which is well under way for 13 months.

The US is working on a proposal to end hostilities that would remove Israeli ground forces from Lebanon and remove Hezbollah forces from the Israeli border. More Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would be sent the buffer zone in southern Lebanon as part of the deal.

Hochstein’s main meeting on Tuesday will be with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who mediates for the militants.

Hochstein’s arrival came hours after an Israeli attack in central Beirut killed five people and wounded others. It was the third Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut in two days.

People stand near a destroyed building hit by an Israeli airstrike late Monday in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Bilal Hussein

Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombing of Lebanon, vowing to severely weaken Hezbollah and end its rocket fire into Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets and drawing Israeli retaliation on October 8, 2023, a day after a Hamas attack on southern Israel sparked the Gaza war. Both groups are backed by Iran. The fighting has left more than 3,500 dead in Lebanon and nearly 15,000 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It also displaced nearly 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including some foreign laborers working in agriculture, were killed by attacks involving rockets, drones and rockets.

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The UN peacekeeping force says it is maintaining its positions in Lebanon

GENEVA — The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, under pressure from an Israeli military campaign against the Hezbollah militant group in its area of ​​operations, says Argentina has asked three of its officers in the contingent to return home, while all other countries contributions maintain their commitments.

UNIFIL spokeswoman Andrea Tenenti said “its operational capabilities have not changed” following Argentina’s move, and UN forces have not moved from their positions – despite requests from the Israel Defense Forces to are moving from positions near the “blue line” along the Lebanon – Israel border a month ago.

“The position of more than 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries remains unchanged,” he told a UN briefing in Geneva via video conference from Beirut. UNIFIL forces have not left the 50 positions in their area of ​​operations, aiming to monitor and report on this situation since Israeli forces began their military campaign in Lebanon in September.

He said UNIFIL has limited means to monitor the situation amid the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. While Israeli forces have at times moved deeper into Lebanon, it is not “permanent” and the level of destruction in UNIFIL areas has been “huge” and “shocking”.

Separately, UNICEF spokesman James Elder told the UN briefing that more than 200 children had been killed in Lebanon in less than the past two months, saying “their deaths are met with inertia from those capable of stopping this violence”.

“It’s become a silent normalization of horror,” Elder said.

Tuesday marks the 1 year anniversary of the Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Tuesday marks one year since Yemen’s Houthi rebels began attacks on ships in the Red Sea corridor.

On November 19, 2023, the Houthis captured the Galaxy Leader car carrier in a helicopter strike in the Red Sea. The ship and its 25 crew members remain in custody today, the United Nations Security Council said in a statement calling on the rebels to release the ship and its crew.

The Houthis have attacked more than 90 merchant ships since then. They sank two ships in the campaignwhich also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones were either intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to hit their targets, which included Western warships.

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