Following reports of an emerging ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday invited mayors from the north of the country to a meeting about the controversial move.
The purpose of the meeting is to tell the mayors — some of whom had criticized the emerging deal as a form of surrender or defeat — about the terms of the reportedly imminent agreement, according to the news site Walla.
The New York Times on Monday reported that under the proposal being considered, during an initial 60-day ceasefire, Israel Defense Forces troops would withdraw from Lebanon; Hezbollah would move northward, beyond the Litani River; and the Lebanese Army would deploy to southern Lebanon and prevent Hezbollah from returning.
The deal would not require the evacuation of Lebanese border-adjacent villages, including those that Hezbollah had turned into strongholds.
According to the NYT report, quoting two Israeli officials, the United States pressured Netanyahu to finalize the deal before Thanksgiving.
About 60,000 Israelis have left their homes in targeted northern communities in favor of government-funded housing elsewhere. Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023 in solidarity with Hamas, perpetrators of the Oct. 7 massacre.
Among the critics of the deal, which Netanyahu is convening his Cabinet to approve, is Eitan Davidi, mayor of the border-adjacent town of Margaliot.
“Israel’s government is knowingly giving away the north to Hezbollah,” he told Channel 12 on Tuesday.
David Azoulay, the mayor of Metula, took a more nuanced view. “The threat of cross-border raids and tunnels has been lifted almost completely, but we’re still at risk from anti-tank missiles, like the 450 that have hit Metula over the past year,” he told the network.
In a post on X, Avishai Ivri, a journalist and former campaigner for Netanyahu’s Likud Party, advocated “giving a chance” to the emerging deal.
“I find it hard to believe that Bibi simply abandoned the war and its goals and decided to fold,” wrote Ivri, a political hawk viewed as to the right of Netanyahu. “It doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t match his leadership during the war over the past six months […] and politically it is complete suicide.”
Ivri also recalled that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu’s coalition partners on the right who have threatened to topple the government if he concedes to demands by Hamas, have not spoken out publicly against the emerging deal.
“I would wait and give this move a chance,” Ivri wrote.