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Israel shares Lebanon ceasefire demands with US: report

Israel has sent the White House a list of demands that it wants fulfilled before it will consider a ceasefire in Lebanon, the Axios news site reports.

Based on information from two Israeli and two US officials, Axios said the document was sent to the White House last week, in advance of US envoy Amos Hochstein’s scheduled visit to Lebanon today.

Two demands are revealed in the Axios report: Israel wants freedom for its air force to operate in Lebanon’s airspace and for the Israeli military to be allowed to carry out “active enforcement” in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.

  • Both demands contravene a UN Security Council resolution, which empowers the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to enforce a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

One US official told Axios that neither Lebanon nor the international community would likely agree to conditions that would “dramatically undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty”.

Source: Al Jazeera

Israeli air attacks pound south Lebanon, Hezbollah says advanced Israel drone downed

There have been several air raids overnight and into this morning. Some are still coming in – there was one in the town of Khiam. That border town came under intense air attacks yesterday.

Hezbollah said they have launched about nine different attacks into northern Israel, and also on Israeli positions inside southern Lebanon, including Maroun al-Ras. They say they have downed an Israeli drone.

They’ve had some success downing Israeli drones. The Hermes 450 is the one that they have been able to take out of the sky. Hezbollah is saying they have taken out the upgraded version of that particular Israeli drone – the Hermes 900.

That’s going to be a significant problem for the Israelis if Hezbollah have been able to knock out their more advanced technology.

Source: Imran Khan – Al Jazeera