TEL AVIV — Senior White House officials will travel to Israel on Thursday, a U.S. official and a source briefed on the matter told NBC News, as the Biden administration intensifies efforts to end the conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The officials are expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of a deal to end the fighting in Lebanon, the source said.
Brett McGurk, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East, and Amos Hochstein, a U.S. special envoy with a focus on Lebanon, are also expected to meet other senior Israeli officials, the source said. McGurk and Hochstein will engage the U.S. ally on a range of issues including Gaza, Lebanon, hostages and Iran, the U.S. official said.
Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla is also traveling to the Middle East to discuss regional defense while CIA Director William Burns will be in Cairo on Thursday, the official added. The U.S. and regional mediators are hoping to make progress in a renewed bid to pause the fighting in Gaza, where Israel's deadly assault on the north of the Palestinian enclave is fueling mounting alarm from global officials and aid groups.
But the visit of McGurk and Hochstein comes amid growing optimism in Israel that a cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon could now be reached without a deal to end the war in Gaza. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, has insisted it will keep fighting until there is a truce with Hamas.
But Israel has inflicted a number of serious blows against Hezbollah in recent months, including the assassination of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, while limiting the group's ability to cause major damage to Israeli cities with its vast arsenal of rockets.
“The feeling in the security echelon is they have had quite a bit of success against Hezbollah and it’s time to quit while you’re ahead,” said the source briefed on the matter.
The broad outlines of a deal would likely be similar to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006: a withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah fighters moving away from the Israeli border and staying north of the Litani River.
However, Israel is insisting on a firmer mechanism to ensure Hezbollah’s compliance. The details of that mechanism are likely to be one of the major sticking points in negotiations.
It isn’t clear if Hezbollah would agree to a truce to end the conflict, which Lebanese officials say has killed nearly 2,800 people and displaced more than 1 million. But mounting casualties among Israeli troops in Lebanon in recent days could allow the militant group to claim victory in front of a domestic audience.
The group's new leader, former deputy Naim Kassem, delivered his first public address Wednesday since being named to the role a day earlier.
He vowed to stick to the strategy of his predecessor. “We will continue to implement the war plan that he set with the resistance leadership and we will remain on the path of war within the drawn political directions,” Kassem added.
Raf Sanchez reported from Tel Aviv and Monica Alba and Gabe Gutierrez from Washington.
