Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. envoys on Thursday that Israel’s ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north were key elements of any ceasefire deal with Lebanon.
He was speaking shortly after a Hezbollah attack on northern Israel’s town of Metula killed five people, including an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers, while two more civilians were killed from shrapnel near the town of Kiryat Ata, Israeli authorities said.
Meanwhile, officials in Beirut said a series of Israeli strikes had killed six health workers in southern Lebanon.
“The main issue is not the paperwork of this or that agreement, but Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office cited him as telling the two U.S. envoys.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said that there has been …