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US Working on 60-Day Truce to End War in Lebanon, Sources Say
Smoke billows over Khiam, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
US mediators are working on a proposal to halt hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, starting with a 60-day ceasefire, two sources said on Wednesday.
The sources — a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon — told Reuters the two-month period would be used to finalize full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms outside state control.
A US official said White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein will visit Israel on Thursday to engage on a range of issues “including Gaza, Lebanon, hostages, Iran, and broader regional matters.”
The latest effort comes as Israel‘s operation against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to expand. Its army on Wednesday issued a first evacuation order for Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek, where tens of thousands of mostly Shi’ite Muslim Lebanese, including many who had fled other areas, were residing.
Such notices are usually followed by bombardment, and governor Bachir Khodr called on residents to evacuate to the north.
Bilal Raad, the regional head of the Lebanese civil defense, said the largely volunteer force had been calling on residents to leave via megaphones after receiving phone calls from someone identifying themselves as being from the Israeli military.
Antoine Habchi, a lawmaker representing Christian-majority Deir al-Ahmar to the northwest of Baalbek, said more than 10,000 people were already sheltering in homes, schools, and churches before Wednesday’s evacuation order.
“We welcome everyone, of course, but we need immediate government help so that these people don’t stay out in the cold,” he told Reuters.
For a third straight day, Hezbollah reported intense fighting with Israeli forces in or around the southern town of Khiyam — the deepest Israel‘s troops have been reported to have penetrated into Lebanon since fighting began.
‘EARNEST PUSH’
Resolution 1701 has been the cornerstone of talks to end the last year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted in parallel with the war in Gaza and has dramatically escalated over the last five weeks.
Since Oct. 8 of last year, one day after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel, Hezbollah has been attacking northern Israel almost daily with barrages of missiles, rocket, and drones. The relentless attacks have forced about 70,000 Israelis to flee the northern part of the country, and Israel’s government has vowed to push Hezbollah away from the Lebanon border to ensure the displaced citizens can return to their homes.
“We’d like to reiterate that we seek a diplomatic resolution that fully implements 1701 and gets both Israeli and Lebanese citizens back to their homes on both sides of the border,” said Sama Habib, spokesperson at the US embassy in Beirut, when asked about the reported proposal.
US envoy Hochstein told reporters in Beirut earlier this month that better mechanisms for enforcement were needed as neither Israel nor Lebanon had fully implemented the resolution.
The two sources told Reuters that the 60-day truce has replaced a proposal last month by the United States and other countries that envisioned a ceasefire for 21 days as a prelude to 1701 coming into full force.
Both, however, cautioned that the deal could still fall through. “There is an earnest push to get to a ceasefire, but it is still hard to get it to materialize,” the diplomat said.
The person briefed on the talks said Israel was still pushing for was the ability to carry out “direct enforcement” of the truce via airstrikes or other military operations against Hezbollah if it was violating the deal.
Israel‘s Channel 12 television reported that Israel was seeking a reinforced version of UN Resolution 1701, to allow Israel to intervene if it felt its security threatened.
Lebanon had not yet been formally briefed on the proposal and could not comment on its details, Lebanese officials said.
The push for a ceasefire for Lebanon comes days before the US presidential election and in parallel with a similar diplomatic drive on Gaza.
Israeli and US officials believe that Hezbollah is finally willing to disconnect itself from Hamas in Gaza having taken major blows, including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, an Axios report said.
The post US Working on 60-Day Truce to End War in Lebanon, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.