Middle East: Lebanon cease-fire 'in our grasp' — US envoy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday promised safe passage from Gaza as well as large sums of cash to anyone there willing to help Israel free hostages held by the Islamist militant group Hamas.

"To those who want to leave this maze, I say: Whoever brings us a hostage will find a safe way for he and his family to get out. We will also give $5 million [€4.72 million] for every hostage," Netanyahu said during a brief visit to central Gaza.

"The choice is yours but the result will be the same… we will bring them all back," he concluded.

Hamas, which controls Gaza and took the hostages on October 7, 2023, has dismissed similar previous offers, saying it will only free the hostages in exchange for an end to the current war as well as reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

It is estimated that roughly 100 of the original 250 individuals abducted by Hamas are still in their control. It is unclear how many of those still unaccounted for remain alive.

During his statement, Netanyahu also said that Hamas would not govern Gaza in the future.   

While he says he is doing everything in his power to free the hostages, many in Israel blame him for their continued captivity, claiming he refuses to end the conflict in order to stay in power. They say his fragile coalition could collapse once a deal is inked.

There have been regular protests against Netanyahu's government in the country in recent months, often criticizing the intelligence failures that led to the original attack and what some see as Netanyahu's inability to bring the fighting to a conclusion and safely return the hostages.

The US Department of the Treasury on Tuesday announced that it had issued sanctions against several leaders of the militant Islamist group Hamas.

A total of six individuals, including Basem Naim and Ghazi Hamad, senior leaders in the group, were put on the US sanctions list.

The move comes as international mediators seek to facilitate an end to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip and the wider region. The sanctions are seen as a possible lever to force the release of hostages still held by Hamas and bring about a lasting cease-fire. 

According to the Treasury, the measures target the group's fundraising and arms smuggling operations.

"Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza," the Treasury's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.

"Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas' efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group's terrorist activities to account," Smith added.

With three of the sanctioned individuals living in Turkey, the US warned Ankara about harboring Hamas leaders, saying they should not be living comfortably.

The US, Israel, Germany, the EU and other governments define Hamas as a terrorist organization. The group's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel — which saw nearly 1,200 Israelis killed and about 250 kidnapped — sparked the current conflict. 

More than 43,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.

Houthi rebels harassing what they say are Israel-allied vessels in the Red Sea on Tuesday claimed to have been behind two separate attacks of a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship. 

Although the Houthis claimed a direct hit, a multinational naval force patrolling the area said neither of the missiles fired at the cargo ship had struck it, nor was any damage sustained.

A Houthi spokesman said the cargo ship had ignored directions to turn around, saying it was fired upon, "because it did not respond to the warnings of the naval forces and because the company that owns it violated the ban decision on entry to the ports of occupied Palestine (Israel)."

An average of roughly $1 trillion (€940 billion) in goods passes through the waters in normal times. Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the Iran-backed Houthis' first attack on international vessels in the area. 

The Yemen-based rebel group says it is acting in support of the Palestinian cause in Gaza.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly suggested it could cap uranium enrichment — which it has increased — in exchange for Western powers dropping their push for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution condemning Tehran for its lack of cooperation with the global atomic energy watchdog.

A quarterly IAEA report cited IAEA boss Rafael Grossi's trip to Iran last week, noting, "the possibility of Iran not further expanding its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60% U-235 was discussed."

The report says that Iran's uranium stockpile stood at 6,604.5 kilos (14,560 pounds) on October 26 — 852.6 kilos more than when last measured by the IAEA in August. 

Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% — a short technical step from weapons grade 90% enrichment — has also grown by 17.6 kilos since August, to a total of 182.3 kilos (402 pounds).

The IAEA estimates that Iran now has enough enriched uranium on hand to eventually produce four nuclear weapons.

Tehran last year barred most of the !AEA's inspectors from its nuclear sites and removed CCTV cameras that had been installed to monitor the sites. 

France, Germany, the UK and the US have prepared a draft IAEA resolution condemning Iran's lack of cooperation and requesting a full IAEA report on the issue.  

DW spoke to the Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs and expatriates, Dr. Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen, about the hopes for a Palestinian state and the concerns over orders from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last week to prepare for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Shaheen said the annexation plans, long advocated by Israel's political right, should alarm the international community and added that "statements are not enough" to counter these plans.

She told DW that 2025 "should be the time for the establishment of the State of Palestine."

"After what has happened in the last year in Gaza, with all the casualties, the killing, the destruction, everything that Palestinians have been undergoing: the immense suffering compounding the previous suffering only deserves that the world looks at our plight in a more respectful manner and looks at us as human beings," Shaheen said.

"We rely on international justice," Shaheen added. "We rely on international courts. We rely on the recent global coalition on the two states. We rely on the ICJ ruling that has called for the dismantlement of occupation. So all of this together, in an accumulative effort, might be able to push us a bit forward. But, in the final analysis, there needs to be a very strong voice that might need to obligate Israel to comply with international law."

Shaheen expressed hope that a second Donald Trump presidency may look at the Palestinian cause "in a more balanced way... given the interests of the United States in the region, the rallying of the Arab countries alongside many countries in Europe towards this global coalition for the two-states," referring to a negotiated "two-state solution."

The Israeli right is, however, optimistic that Trump will support moves to declare sovereignty for the occupied West Bank and allow the resettlement of the Gaza Strip.

Amos Hochstein, the US special envoy who arrived in Beirut for cease-fire talks on Tuesday, expressed optimism after talking to representatives of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

He said he had had "very constructive talks" with the Lebanese parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri, who has been mediating for the Iran-backed group.

Hochstein said there was a "real opportunity" to end the conflict in Lebanon, which has intensified since September following months of cross-border strikes by both sides.

"This is a moment of decision-making. I am here in Beirut to facilitate that decision but it's ultimately the decision of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. It is now within our grasp," the US envoy told reporters after the meeting.

Qatar confirmed on Tuesday that Hamas was no longer using its office in Doha — where its political wing had been based — but that the office had not been permanently closed.

"The leaders of Hamas that are within the negotiating team are now not in Doha," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said, adding: "The decision to ... close down the office permanently, is a decision that you will hear about from us directly."

Qatar had been hosting Hamas while also playing the role of one of the key mediators between the group, labeled a terror organization by the United States, Germany and others, and Israel.

However, the Gulf state suspended its mediation efforts amid a lack of progress on cease-fire talks.

More than 200 children have been killed and 1,100 injured in Lebanon since Israel stepped up its attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, a spokesperson for the UN's children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday

"Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: Their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence," James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

"Over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day," he said.

US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday and was set to continue talks with Lebanese government officials as well as a lawmaker close to Hezbollah.

A draft truce deal, which reportedly has received positive responses from the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, aims to end the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has left thousands dead and caused widespread destruction in the already crisis-hit Lebanon.

France and the United States have spearheaded the push to achieve a cease-fire, with Washington keen to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. The resolution obliges all armed groups apart from the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers to leave the region along the border with Israel.

In Lebanon, the talks have been conducted with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri who has been leading negotiations on behalf of Hezbollah.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that the draft had been discussed with Lebanese and Israeli officials, saying that: "Both sides have reacted to the proposals that we have put forward."

However, also on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue its operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah even if a cease-fire deal was reached.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the US and several Sunni Arab states. At the same time, Israel has been accused of genocide and war crimes for its operations in Gaza by several international organizations including a UN committee, with Netanyahu being investigated by the International Criminal Court. Israel has repeatedly rejected the accusations.

Israel has continued its strikes in central Beirut, with an attack on Monday killing five people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The strikes on central Beirut have become more frequent following weeks of bombardments against southern neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital where Hezbollah is strongest.

The Iran-backed group also continued its strikes against Israel on Monday, firing around 100 rockets into northern Israel, killing a woman in the town of Shfaram, just east of Haifa.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Health Ministry said that some 43,922 people, mostly civilians, had been killed in the Hamas-run enclave since October 7, 2023. The UN considers the figures reliable while other sources have suggested the death toll is likely to be much higher. The war in Gaza began after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel that killed some 1,200 people.

Members of the G20, who are meeting for a summit in Brazil, issued a joint statement on Monday calling for "comprehensive" cease-fires in both Lebanon and Gaza.

ab/sms (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)