US envoys in Israel to seek Lebanon truce plan

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US officials Thursday to discuss a possible deal to end Israel's war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the death toll mounted on both sides of the border.

Netanyahu told Washington envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any Lebanon deal must guarantee Israel's longer-term scrutiny.

While their talks took place, Israeli medics and a local leader reported seven Israelis killed by cross-border fire from Lebanon -- one of the highest one-day tolls in Israel in more than a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated to full-scale war last month.

Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Gaza, where Israel's actions in the territory's north have drawn increasing scrutiny more than a year into its war against Hamas Palestinian militants.

"The prime minister specified that the main issue is not paperwork for this or that deal, but Israel's determination and capacity to ensure the deal's application and to prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon," Netanyahu's office said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also met the Americans for a separate discussion.

He said in a statement their talks focused on "security arrangements as these relate to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to ensure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza".

Israeli emergency services said a rocket from Lebanon killed two people in a northern olive grove.

- Foreigners killed -

Separately, the regional council head in Metula said a farmer and four foreign farm workers were killed in another incident. Their nationality was not immediately available.

The death toll since late September has soared on the Lebanese side of the border, and on Thursday the country's health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south killed six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah or its ally Amal.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday negotiators have made "good progress" towards a deal on a Lebanon ceasefire.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati had said on Wednesday that Hochstein signalled in a phone call that a ceasefire was possible before next Tuesday's US presidential election.

According to Israeli media reports citing government sources, the US-brokered plan would see Hezbollah forces retreat around 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the border, north of the Litani river.

Israeli troops would withdraw from Lebanon and the Lebanese army would then take charge of the border, alongside UN peacekeepers.

Lebanon would be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from rearming itself with imported weapons, and Israel would retain its rights under international law to act in self-defence.

Analysts say Israel's onslaught against Iran-backed Hezbollah has put it in a position of strength to strike a deal.

Strikes on Thursday hit near east Lebanon's main city of Baalbek and close to the southern city of Tyre, state media said, after Israel issued evacuation calls for both areas.

- 'Appropriate and suitable' -

Israel's military later said it hit Hezbollah facilities in Al-Hawsh, near Tyre.

"From these compounds, the Hezbollah terrorist organisation planned terror attacks against" Israel and its forces, the military said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said Israeli strikes on Syria's Qusayr region bordering Lebanon killed 10 people, mostly civilians.

An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes aimed to thwart attempts to "transfer weapons from Iran via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon".

Hezbollah named Naim Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday, after Israel killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders.

In his first speech since taking over, Qassem did not explicitly link a Lebanon ceasefire to an end to fighting in Gaza, the group's previous position.

"If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable," he said.

Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to the group, said a ceasefire is a "priority" for Hezbollah so it can "reorganise its ranks".

Since fighting in Lebanon escalated on September 23, after tit-for-tat cross border exchanges which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, the war has killed at least 1,829 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said Thursday that the war has caused the death of a least one child per day and wounded an average of 10 daily since October 4.

Israel's military says 37 soldiers have been killed  in Lebanon since ground operations began on September 30.

- Urgent polio appeal -

In Gaza, mediators seeking to broker a ceasefire are expected to propose a truce of "less than a month" to Hamas, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Wednesday.

The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to the territory, the source added.

US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have long been trying to secure a truce and hostage-prisoner exchange in the Gaza war.

But on Thursday, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu reiterated that the group rejected a short-term pause.

"Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one," Nunu said.

AFP journalists and local authorities confirmed more strikes in Gaza, where the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory reported 41 deaths over 24 hours.

Blinken, the top US diplomat, called Thursday on Israel urgently to facilitate completion of a second round of polio vaccinations in Gaza.

The World Health Organization last week said it had to postpone the final phase in north Gaza because of "intense bombardment".

Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel last year triggered the war and resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground war have killed 43,204 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to data from the health ministry, figures the United Nations considers reliable.