Reuters: Lebanon's Hezbollah will halt fire if Hamas OKs Gaza truce

Lebanon's Hezbollah will halt fire on Israel if its Palestinian ally Hamas agrees to a proposal for a truce with Israel in Gaza - unless Israeli forces keep shelling Lebanon, two sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking told Reuters on Tuesday.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since October 8, a day after a bloody Hamas assault in southern Israel that triggered a fierce Israeli land, air and sea offensive on the Gaza Strip.

A temporary truce between Hamas and Israel to allow for hostage and prisoner releases led to a week of calm across the Lebanese-Israeli border in late November.

Hamas is now weighing a new proposal, agreed by Israel at talks with mediators in Paris last week, for a deal that would suspend fighting for 40 days, which would be the first extended pause of the five-month-old war.

"The moment Hamas announces its approval of the truce, and the moment the truce is declared, Hezbollah will adhere to the truce and will stop operations in the south immediately, as happened the previous time," one of the two sources close to the heavily armed, Shiite Muslim group said.

But if Israel continued shelling Lebanon, Hezbollah would not hesitate to carry on fighting, both sources said.

The Hezbollah media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said earlier this month the group's attacks on Israel would only end when Israel's "aggression" against Gaza ends.

Hezbollah is one of several Iran-aligned groups around the Middle East that have entered the fray since the Gaza war began, waging campaigns they say aim to support Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza.



Reuters