Israel 'rushing to secure ceasefire in Lebanon as a gift for new President Donald Trump'

Israel is rushing to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon as a ‘gift’ to American President-elect Donald Trump, according to reports.

Ron Dermer - Benjamin Netanyahu’s Minister of Strategic Affairs - met Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in Mar-a-Lago on Sunday to discuss a possible peace proposal.

Following this, he travelled to the White House to speak with the Biden administration - a clear sign of Netanyahu’s realigning priorities before Mr Trump is inaugurated in January.

Israeli officials who spoke to the Washington Post said they country Israel hopes to secure Trump a foreign policy win by agreeing on a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

One Israeli official anonymously told the Post that there is an ‘understanding that Israel would gift something to Trump ... that in January there will be an understanding about Lebanon’.

Mr Netanayhu’s office and a spokesperson for Donald Trump declined to comment about any impending ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile Dermer’s office told The Washington Post that a wide range of issues were discussed during his visit to the US.

The talks emerged as a senior Hamas official claimed the terror group is ready to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel ‘immediately’ but they have not had any ‘serious proposals’ from Israel in months.

Dr Basem Naim - appearing on Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim - also suggested that Hamas had no regrets about committing the October 7 terror attacks which killed 1,200 Israelis and caused the ensuing war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinans - describing the massacre last year as an ‘act of defence’.

Trump has long-said that once elected he wants to bring an end to wars in the Middle East and Europe but last month in a phone call the American President told Netanyahu to ‘do what you have to do’ to defeat Hezbollah and Hamas.

Last night Frank Lowenstein, a former special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Barack Obama who served during the transition to the first Trump administration, told the Washington Post: ‘Netanyahu has no loyalty to Biden and will be focused entirely on currying favour with Trump.

‘[And] Trump won’t hesitate to act like he’s already president when he sees an opportunity.’

As a ceasefire agreement draws nearer, Netanyahu published a video statement on Sunday stating that he had spoken to President elect Trump three times and that they both saw ‘major opportunities ahead for Israel, especially in advancing peace.’

According to Israeli and American sources a ceasefire plan would focus on forcing Hezbollah to retreat beyond the Litani River, a strategic region in southern Lebanon.

Since October 2023, following Hamas’s brutal terror attack in Israel, Lebanese terrorists have fired thousands of rockets and missiles on Israel killing 45 civilians, 31 soldiers and displacing more than 60,000 people from their homes.

Meanwhile in Lebanon more than 3,300 people have been killed following Israel’s ‘limited incursion’ into the country, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry - which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

A source familiar with Hezbollah said the terror group would be willing to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani as part of a temporary cease-fire agreement.

But they added that the group’s ‘condition for progress remains clear: Israel must be prohibited from conducting operations within Lebanese territory.’

It is believed that in any agreement the Lebanese military would take control of the border zone for an initial 60-day period, overseen by the United States and Britain.