Lebanon ceasefire 'within grasp'; aid loot worsens Gaza food crisis

BEIRUT: A United States envoy said an agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah war is "within our grasp" after talks in Lebanon on Tuesday. There was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsened an already severe food crisis.

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration's pointman on Israel and Lebanon, arrived as Hezbollah's allies in the Lebanese government said it had responded positively to the proposal, which would entail both the militants and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from a UN buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

The buffer zone would be policed by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism, potentially including the ability to operate against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.


Hochstein said he held "very constructive talks" with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group's behalf.

"Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps," he told reporters after the two-hour meeting. "I'm here in Beirut to facilitate that decision-making, but it's ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. ... It is now within our grasp."

In Gaza, meanwhile, the theft of nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and other humanitarian aid over the weekend sent prices soaring and caused shortages in central Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 million people have fled and where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

An even more severe hunger crisis is underway in the north, where Israel has been waging a weekslong offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Experts say a famine might already have set in there.

Food Prices Soar in Gaza after Loot
On Monday, a crowd of people waited outside a shuttered bakery in the central city of Deir al-Balah. A woman who had been displaced from Gaza City, identifying herself as Umm Shadi, said the price of flour had climbed to 400 shekels (over $100) a bag, if it can even be found.

Nora Muhanna, another displaced woman, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five hours for a bag of bread for her children. "From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money," she said.

The United Nations said armed men stole food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest single incident of its kind since the start of the war. It did not say who was behind the theft. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the convoy of 109 trucks was instructed by the Israeli military to take an "alternative, unfamiliar route" after the aid was brought in through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the trucks were stolen near the crossing itself.

Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, allegations denied by the militant group. Al-Aqsa TV, a media outlet operated by the militants, said Hamas-run security forces in Gaza had launched an operation against looters, killing 20 of them. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based abroad, said the looters were young men from Bedouin tribes in the area, emphasizing that they do not necessarily represent the tribes. He said they operate east of Rafah near Israeli military positions.

The Hamas-run government had a police force of tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war, but they have vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israeli strikes.