Israel has signaled progress toward a cease-fire with Hezbollah on Monday, though unresolved issues remain, while Lebanese officials expressed cautious optimism.
Israel's ambassador to the United States was quoted as saying a deal could transpire within days. CNN, citing a source, said Netanyahu had approved the emerging deal "in principle" but Israel still had reservations over some details.
Efforts to clinch a truce appeared to advance last week when U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein declared significant progress after talks in Beirut before holding meetings in Israel and then returning to Washington.
"We are moving in the direction towards a deal, but there are still some issues to address," Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said, without elaborating.
Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, told Israel's GLZ radio an agreement was close and "it could happen within days... We just need to close the last corners," according to a post on X by GLZ senior anchorman Efi Triger.
In Beirut, Deputy Parliament Speaker Elias Bou Saab said a decisive moment was approaching and he expressed cautious optimism. "The balance is slightly tilted towards there being (an agreement), but by a very small degree, because a person like Netanyahu cannot be trusted," he said.
A second senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Beirut had not received any new Israeli demands from U.S. mediators, who were describing the atmosphere as positive and saying "things are in progress."
The official told Reuters a cease-fire could be clinched this week.
The proposal under discussion to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah calls for an initial two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River.
The withdrawals would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, who have been largely sidelined in the war, to patrol the border area along with an existing U.N. peacekeeping force.
An international committee would be set up to monitor the implementation of the cease-fire agreement and of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which was passed in 2006 to end a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah but never fully implemented. Hezbollah never ended its presence in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon said Israel regularly violated its airspace and occupied small patches of its territory.
It is not clear whether a new deal would be any more successfully implemented than the one in 2006.
The Israeli cabinet will convene on Tuesday to approve the cease-fire deal, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Monday.
Another Israeli official told Reuters the cabinet would convene to discuss a deal that could be cemented in the coming days.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah spiraled into full-scale war in September when Israel went on the offensive, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders and inflicting massive destruction in areas of Lebanon where the group holds sway.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a cease-fire based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the test for any agreement would be in the enforcement of two main points.
"The first is preventing Hezbollah from moving southward beyond the Litani (River), and the second, preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding its force and rearming in all of Lebanon," Saar said in broadcast remarks to the Israeli parliament.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Israel must press on with the war until "absolute victory." Addressing Netanyahu on X, he said "It is not too late to stop this agreement!"
But Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said Israel should reach an agreement in Lebanon. "If we say 'no' to Hezbollah being south of the Litani, we mean it," he told journalists.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said last week that the group had reviewed and given feedback on the U.S. cease-fire proposal, and any truce was now in Israel's hands.
