By Maayan Lubell and Nazih Osseiran
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT March 14 (Reuters) – Israel and Lebanon are expected to hold direct talks in the coming days, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on Saturday, in what would be a diplomatic milestone between the two states as Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah wage war.
Three Lebanese officials said Beirut is forming a delegation for talks but no date has been set. One of the officials said Lebanon needed clarity on whether Israel would abide by President Joseph Aoun’s first point – a demand for a full ceasefire to allow negotiations to take place.
There was no immediate comment on the Haaretz report from the Israeli government.
Lebanon was sucked into the war in the Middle East on March 2 when Hezbollah opened fire at Israel, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader. Israel has responded with an offensive that has killed more than 800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.
Aoun has expressed the state’s willingness for direct talks with Israel, seeking to secure an end to the war.
The Lebanese state’s readiness for talks with Israel has come at a time of sharpening tensions within Lebanon over Hezbollah’s status as an armed group. The Beirut government last week banned Hezbollah’s military activities. The group rejected the move and fought on, firing hundreds of rockets at Israel.
An Israeli official told Reuters on Friday that the campaign against Hezbollah would likely be intensified and continue even after strikes on Iran die down.
HAARETZ REPORT: KUSHNER TO BE INVOLVED IN TALKS
Haaretz, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter, said the negotiations are expected to focus on ending fighting in Lebanon and disarming Hezbollah.
Haaretz reported that U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be involved in the talks that may be held in Paris or in Cyprus, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dermer leading the Israeli delegation.
The Lebanese official said Lebanon still needed clarity on the framework for the talks including the agenda.
Lebanon and Israel have formally been in a state of war since Israel’s establishment in 1948. Critics have often described the heavily armed Hezbollah as a state within the state since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards formed it in 1982.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Friday that the group was ready for a long confrontation, and that any solution would require Israel to halt attacks, withdraw from Lebanese land, and to release prisoners.
A senior Lebanese politician said that Christian, Sunni Muslim and Druze members of Lebanon’s negotiating team had been chosen, but Hezbollah’s Shi’ite Muslim ally, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, had rejected any Shi’ite participation. Berri believed Israel would offer the Lebanese delegation nothing, said the senior politician, who was familiar with Berri’s view.
ISRAELI MILITARY WARNS IT MAY STRIKE AMBULANCES
The Israeli military warned that it may strike ambulances and medical facilities which it said were being used unlawfully by Hezbollah, though it did not provide evidence for the claim.
“As part of its terrorist activities, Hezbollah is using ambulances extensively for military purposes,” the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee said on X, adding that such use must immediately stop.
“If this practice does not stop, Israel will act in accordance with international law against any military activity carried out by the terrorist group Hezbollah using these facilities and ambulances,” Adraee said.
A Hezbollah official said that the group was not using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request to provide evidence that Hezbollah was using medical facilities or ambulances unlawfully.
At least 26 medics and first responders have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2 according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military says it takes precautions to try to reduce any harm to civilians.
On Friday, Israeli aircraft dropped flyers over Beirut threatening to inflict damage on Lebanon similar to the devastation wrought on Gaza during Israel’s two-year war with Palestinian militant group Hamas. Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and its population largely displaced.
During its war in Gaza, Israel launched numerous raids and attacks on hospitals, saying they were being used by militants. Hamas has denied embedding among Gaza’s civilians, though some of its tunnel network has been found running beneath hospitals.
Civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, are protected sites under international law. Both attacking hospitals and their use for military purposes are typically considered a breach of law, though they can lose their protected status under certain conditions.
(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Tom Perry in Beirut; Timour Azhari in Riyadh; Writing Maayan Lubell and Tom Perry; Editing by Toby Chopra and Andrew Heavens)
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