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Lebanon and Israel are set to hold new talks in Washington starting Thursday as their latest ceasefire nears its end, despite continued Israeli strikes that Lebanese authorities say have killed hundreds of people during the truce.
The talks come after Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 22 people, including eight children, were killed on Wednesday as Israel intensified airstrikes. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the attacks hit about 40 locations in the country’s south and east.
The two countries last met on April 23 at the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire and expressed optimism for a historic agreement.
The ceasefire went into effect on April 17 and had been extended through Sunday.
Trump had predicted during the previous round that he would welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to Washington for a historic first summit between the countries within the latest ceasefire period.
The summit did not take place. Aoun said a security agreement needed to be in place and Israeli attacks needed to stop before such a meeting could happen.
A Lebanese official told AFP that Lebanon would seek “the consolidation of the ceasefire” during the talks in Washington.
“The first thing is to put an end to the death and destruction,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 people during the truce, according to an AFP tally based on figures from Lebanese authorities.
Israel has said it will continue attacks against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia armed group and political movement, despite the ceasefire.
“Anyone who threatens the State of Israel will die because of his actions,” Netanyahu said last week after an Israeli strike in central Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Feb. 28.
Iran has demanded a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon before any agreement to end the wider war, as it has rejected Trump’s appeals for an accord on his terms.
The Middle East war has spread across the region, affecting the global economy and hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that the Israeli leader had “paid a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates” during the conflict and met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The UAE, which has been frequently targeted by Iran during the war, later denied reports of an alleged Netanyahu visit. It also denied “receiving any Israeli military delegation in the country.”
More than 2,800 people have died in Lebanon since Israel launched strikes in early March, including at least 200 children, according to Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah said the toll includes its fighters.
Israel has struck areas of Lebanon with large Shia populations, including Beirut’s southern suburbs, and has invaded the border region. It has seized control of an area it occupied from the 1982 Lebanon War until withdrawing in 2000.
The U.S. has backed Lebanon’s calls to maintain sovereignty over all its territory, while also repeatedly pressing Beirut to act against Hezbollah.
The U.S. “recognizes that comprehensive peace is contingent on the full restoration of Lebanese state authority and the complete disarmament of Hezbollah,” the State Department said.
“These talks aim to break decisively from the failed approach of the past two decades, which allowed terrorist groups to entrench and enrich themselves, undermine the authority of the Lebanese state, and endanger Israel’s northern border,” it said.
The upcoming meeting will be the third round of talks between Lebanon and Israel, which have no diplomatic relations.
Unlike the previous White House round, neither Trump nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take part, as Trump is on a state visit to China.
U.S. mediators for the two-day meeting at the State Department will include U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and Mike Needham, a close aide to Rubio.
Lebanon will be represented by special envoy Simon Karam and its ambassador in Washington.
Israel’s team will include its ambassador in Washington, Yechiel Leiter.
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