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The French Foreign Minister is set to visit Lebanon on Saturday as violence between Israel and Hezbollah along the border intensifies.
This is Stephane Sejourne's second visit in the region since February, as part of a western diplomatic push to de-escalate tension on the frontier.
It comes a week after French President Emmanuel Macron's meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun in Paris.
“There is renewed momentum for diplomacy on the Lebanese front as the focus has now shifted away from the Iran-Israel escalation,” a western diplomatic source told The National.
Iran's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil, in retaliation for a deadly attack on the Iran consulate in Damascus, had sparked fears of regional escalation of the Gaza war.
Though Israel's measured retaliation, to which Iran said it has no plans to respond, has soothed fears of a conflagration, tension continues to rise on the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied with Hamas, has escalated its attacks. This month alone saw the highest Israeli casualties reported in a single attack as well as Hezbollah's deepest strike into Israel.
“There is a surge in violence on the Israel- Lebanese front the past 10 days,” the diplomatic source said.
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Palestinians move with their belongings on a road lined with destroyed buildings, in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on April 22. AFP -
An infant saved from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al Sheikh, who was killed in an Israeli strike along with her husband Shokri and her daughter Malak, lies in an incubator at Al Emirati hospital in Rafah, on April 21. Reuters -
A man rides a bicycle, on April 2, past a damaged vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen non-profit, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli air strike. Reuters -
A woman at the damaged Al Shifa Hospital, on April 1, after Israeli forces withdrew from the medical complex following a two-week siege. Reuters -
The view from a Jordanian flight dropping vital aid by parachute into Gaza, in March. Matthew Kynaston / The National -
Nozha Awad flees Al Shifa hospital with her triplet children, after an Israeli raid siege began at the medical complex, in March. Reuters -
Palestinians gather to receive aid outside a UNRWA warehouse, in March. Reuters -
A family end their fast amid the rubble of their destroyed home, during Ramadan in Rafah, in March. Reuters -
Wafaa Tabasi with her twin malnourished daughters, at Al Awda health centre in Rafah, in March. Reuters -
Palestinians carry bags of flour taken from an aid lorry near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza City, in February. Reuters -
Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Hare, two Israeli hostages who, according to the Israeli military, were freed in a special forces operation in Rafah, reunite with loved ones at Sheba Medical Centre, in Ramat Gan, Israel, in February. Reuters -
Palestinian Muhammad Al Durra with his children in the ruins of a house in Rafah where they sheltered on January 11, 2024. EPA -
Family and friends at the funerals of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Getty Images -
Palestinians mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a mortuary in Khan Younis January 4, 2024. AP Photo -
Displaced Palestinians queue to bake bread at a camp in the Muwasi area of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on December 23, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, on December 20, 2023. AP Photo -
The ruins of Rafah on December 14, 2023. AFP -
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on December 8, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians flee Israeli bombing along the Salaheddine Road in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city on November 28, 2023. AFP -
A Red Cross vehicle takes Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in Rafah on November 25, 2023. AP -
The ruins of buildings in Gaza city on November 24, 2023, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect. AP Photo -
A woman and her cat return home to eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas forces on November 24, 2023. AFP -
Mourning the dead of Israeli bombardment outside the mortuary at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on November 14, 2023. AFP -
Civilians and rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building after Israeli bombing of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023. AFP -
November 7, 2023, a month to the day after Hamas attacked Israel, a victim of an Israeli bombardment in Rafah is moved from the rubble. AFP -
Searching the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023. AP Photo -
Mourning the Kotz family at their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, on October 17, 2023. AP Photo -
An Israeli firefighter composes himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. AP Photo -
Palestinians with the wreckage of an Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of the city of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces swept unopposed into Israel. AP Photo -
Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. AP Photo
Israel has set a deadline of September for tens of thousands of evacuees to return safely to their homes near the northern border, as it is currently impossible due to Hezbollah, a much stronger militia than Hamas, holding positions a few metres away on the other side of the border.
“Such a deadline means there's a risk of war in the summer if a diplomatic solution is not found.”
Israel has repeatedly threatened a full-scale war if Hezbollah does not move its forces away from the border.
Mr Sejourne is set to meet Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Mr Mikati and Mr Aoun.
French proposal
France in February presented to Lebanese authorities the first written proposal to end border hostilities. The US is also leading a separate initiative spearhead by its envoy Amos Hochstein, who mediated a maritime deal between the two countries.
France is a former colonial power that has maintained a strong influence over the small Mediterranean country.
The plan proposes the withdrawal of certain Hezbollah elements along the border to facilitate the safe return of displaced Israelis.
In exchange, Israel would cease air and artillery strikes within Lebanon, and, ultimately, halt its flights over Lebanese territory.
The Lebanese Armed Forces would be deployed to the area to ensure the creation and maintenance of a buffer zone.
Lebanon and Israel would then resume negotiations on delimiting the 13 disputed points along the border.
“The main lines remain unchanged, only details are being discussed,” the diplomatic source said.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that there will be no talks to end border hostilities without a ceasefire in Gaza. Diplomatic sources suggest that the French initiative in Lebanon is only intended to lay the groundwork for negotiations once a ceasefire is reached.
Peace talks are at a complete standstill as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to soon launch an offensive into Rafah, the southern Gazan city where more than one million displaced Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering.
Hezbollah opened a front on the Israel-Lebanon border to divert Israel's military capabilities away from its operations in Gaza on October 8. Since then, at least 382 people have been killed in Lebanon, including dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
