Hezbollah says Israel 'cannot impose conditions' for truce

BEIRUT - Hezbollah's leader delivered a defiant speech on Wednesday, saying Israel cannot impose conditions for a truce in Lebanon, as visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein headed to Israel to try to negotiate an end to the war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a near-simultaneous statement, said any ceasefire deal must ensure Israel still has the "freedom to act" against Hezbollah.

Hochstein said in Beirut that he would head to Israel on Wednesday to try to seal a ceasefire agreement in the war in Lebanon, which escalated in late September after nearly a year of deadly exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border.

Israel has vowed to secure the north and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the cross-border hostilities to return home.

Israel has also sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it said Wednesday three soldiers had been killed -- bringing the total fallen to 52 since the start of ground operations.

The army announced two soldiers were killed in the same incident including 70-year-old reservist Ze'ev 'Jabo' Hanoch Erlich, after it had said earlier Wednesday that a 22-year-old soldier from Jerusalem "fell during combat in southern Lebanon".

"Israel cannot defeat us and cannot impose its conditions on us," Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in an address broadcast shortly after Hochstein announced his travel plans.

Qassem added that his armed group sought a "complete and comprehensive end to the aggression" and "the preservation of Lebanon's sovereignty".

He also vowed that the response to recent deadly Israeli strikes on Beirut would be on "central Tel Aviv", Israel's densely populated commercial hub.

Before heading to Israel, Hochstein met for a second time with Lebanon's Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the Iran-backed group.

Wednesday's meeting "made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can", Hochstein told reporters in the Lebanese capital.

Hochstein had said on Tuesday that an end to the war was "within our grasp".

Ahead of his arrival, Israel's top diplomat Saar said: "In any agreement we will reach, we will need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations."

AID TO GAZA

Hezbollah began its cross-border attacks in support of its ally Hamas following the Palestinian group's assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war has reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

The war has also created a grinding humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with residents suffering shortages of everything from food to fuel to medicine.

The Jordanian army said Wednesday that it had dispatched eight helicopters loaded with more than seven tonnes of food, medicine and supplies for children to Gaza, where it would be handed over to the World Food Programme near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

It was the first time Jordanian aircraft would land in Gaza to deliver aid in more than a year of fighting.

Since expanding its operations from Gaza to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.

More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September. Among them were more than 200 children, according to the United Nations.

Israel has also recently intensified strikes on neighbouring Syria, a key conduit of weapons for Hezbollah from its backer Iran.

In the latest reported attack, the Syrian defence ministry said 36 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in Israeli strikes on the oasis city of Palmyra.

FIGHTING IN SOUTH LEBANON

While Hochstein was in Beirut, the situation in the capital was relatively calm Tuesday and Wednesday, but south Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway, saw battles and strikes.

On Wednesday, the Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed one of its soldiers in the area, a day after it announced the deaths of three other personnel in a strike.

While not engaged in the ongoing war, the Lebanese army has reported 18 losses since September 23.

The Israeli military later said, without mentioning the deaths, that it was looking into reports of Lebanese soldiers wounded by a strike on Tuesday.

"We emphasise that the (Israeli army) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces," the military told AFP in a statement.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that it had twice targeted Israeli troops near the flashpoint southern town of Khiam.

The state-run National News Agency said that Israeli forces were "attempting to advance from the Kfarshuba hills... to open up a new front".

"Violent clashes are taking place" between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, it added.

Israel said it hit 100 "terror targets" around Lebanon in the past day.

Hezbollah said it had launched drones at two military bases in northern Israel and fired rockets at the town of Safed.