TEHRAN- Nearly two months after launching a massive bombing campaign on Lebanon, Israel has not succeeded in fulfilling its objectives.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. 

Tens of thousands of people remain displaced in northern Israel and southern Lebanon amid the exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel launched massive airstrikes in Lebanon on September 23 this year which was later followed by a ground invasion of the country’s south.

Israel said the offensive was aimed at removing Hezbollah from the border area and allowing evacuated Israelis to return to northern Israel. 

Israel has killed about 3,500 people in Lebanon since October last year. But it has failed to deter Hezbollah from firing missiles and drones into Israel and return displaced Israelis to the north. 

Hezbollah said earlier this month that its fighters have killed more than 100 Israeli officers and soldiers and injured over 1,000 others on the Lebanese border. The Israeli army has also suffered heavy casualties on the battlefield in the wake of the regime’s ground offensive which began on October 1.

A week ago, Hezbollah revealed that its fighters have killed over 100 Israeli officers and soldiers while injuring over 1,000 others on the Lebanese border. 

Hezbollah media chief Mohammad Afif, who was assassinated in an Israeli strike in central Beirut on Sunday, had already highlighted the failure of Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon. 

“After 45 days of bloody fighting, the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village,” Afif said at a press conference in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood on November 11. 

He had also dismissed Israel’s claims about the depletion of Hezbollah’s missile stockpiles.

“Our missile stockpiles are complete in the same way that they were on the first day [of the struggle against the Israeli regime],” Afif pointed out as he referred to Hezbollah’s continued firing of projectiles towards Tel Aviv and Haifa. 

In light of Israel's military challenges against Hezbollah fighters, the United States proposed a ceasefire to help the regime navigate the complexities of the conflict in Lebanon.

According to Israeli media, the ceasefire agreement would include the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the establishment of an international oversight committee and the deployment of some 10,000 Lebanese army troops along the border with Israel.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, relayed the proposal to the Lebanese government last week. 

According to Reuters, US envoy Amos Hochstein will arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to hold talks on the ceasefire deal. 

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed there must be a guarantee that once a truce is reached “the Israeli attacks in Lebanon will stop on land, at sea, and in the air.” He has said that without these guarantees, there would be little benefit from a ceasefire.

The US ceasefire plan for Lebanon is reminiscent of the same tactic that Washington has employed in the course of the Gaza war. 

Israel launched the war on Gaza after Hamas conducted Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise military attack in southern Israel, which dealt a severe blow to the regime.

In the wake of Israel’s failure to make good on its objectives, which mainly include the elimination of Hamas, President Joe Biden unveiled a ceasefire plan for Gaza on May 31. 

On June 10, the United Nations Security Council approved a US resolution backing its ceasefire plan which called for ending the Gaza war.

Hamas welcomed the plan but Netanyahu and his cabinet derailed the talks and hampered efforts aimed at establishing a lasting ceasefire in Gaza. 

In fact, the US-proposed ceasefire for Gaza was meant to focus attention away from Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 44,000 Palestinians. 

Washington’s truce deal for Lebanon is also aimed at diverting attention from Israel’s brutal strikes on Lebanon. 

The ceasefire initiatives proposed by the United States appear to be mere political strategies designed to extricate Israel from the quagmire of the wars it has waged on Lebanon and Gaza.