BEIRUT/NEW YORK — The United States is spearheading a new diplomatic effort to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, hoping progress on that front could help rekindle stalled Gaza peace talks.
Details are being discussed on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to two Lebanese officials, two Western diplomats, a source familiar with the thinking of the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah, a source in Washington and a further person briefed on the talks.
Western officials said the most urgent diplomatic focus for now is to stop the violence in Lebanon, which carries a greater risk of spiraling into a regional war.
At the United Nations, Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides told Reuters the U.S. and France were trying to hammer out an interim agreement “to avoid further escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah with a view to opening broader talks that would include efforts to achieve a long-sought ceasefire in Gaza.
But as the effort gathered pace, Israel suggested it could add a ground incursion in Lebanon to its expanding campaign of strikes against Hezbollah. Three Israeli officials told Reuters that, although the U.S. and France were working on ceasefire proposals, no significant progress had yet been made.
A broader deal involving the parallel war in Gaza would likely take more time to resolve. It would be envisioned to include the eventual release of hostages seized by the Palestinian armed group Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to a senior Lebanese official, the source familiar with Hezbollah’s thinking and the source briefed on talks.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.
Violence has gripped the region since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on communities in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage into Gaza.
The attack prompted an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 people, according to authorities there.
The day after Hamas attacked, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli military positions across Lebanon’s southern border, saying the attacks were in solidarity with Gaza.
Hezbollah has said it will not stop firing at Israel until the attack on Gaza stops, and repeated efforts by Washington to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the hostages’ freedom have failed.
Israel has now significantly stepped up its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching hundreds of airstrikes and killing several Hezbollah commanders as well as hundreds of other people, according to Lebanese authorities.
Tens of thousands had already fled from both sides of the border since October, and have been joined this week by around half a million fleeing a feared Israeli ground incursion into southern Lebanon.