Disengagement from Gaza: Did Hezbollah accept in private what it publicly rejected?

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Reuters, citing a Lebanese government source, reported that Hezbollah is willing to discuss a ceasefire with Israel without insisting on a truce in Gaza.

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In his last appearance, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, maintained that halting reciprocal strikes with Israel was contingent on signing a truce in Gaza.

While the official stance of the Lebanese party still links the two fronts, growing signs suggest an openness to a ceasefire in Lebanon.

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Hezbollah has suffered a series of heavy blows, starting with the assassination of its second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, the party’s chief of staff, followed by the destruction of communication devices in an Israeli interception operation, the killing of the leaders of the Radwan Force, its elite unit, and later its secretary-general.

Other senior party leaders were later killed, and it remains unclear if Nasrallah‘s successor also met his fate in a similar Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb.

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Disengagement from Gaza

A Lebanese government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Hezbollah changed its stance due to a combination of pressures, including the mass exodus of individuals from key electoral districts where the party’s supporters live in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburb.

The official added that the decision was also driven by Israel’s intensification of its ground campaign and opposition from some Lebanese political factions to Hezbollah’s stance.

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In recent days, major lawmakers from other sects in Lebanon’s political landscape have called for a resolution to end the fighting without tying Lebanon’s future to the Gaza war. Lebanon was already struggling with an economic crisis before this latest round of conflict.

Internal pressure

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said last Monday, “We will not tie our fate to Gaza’s.”

Christian politician Sleiman Frangieh, a close ally of Hezbollah, told reporters yesterday that the “priority” was to stop the Israeli offensive. He added, “We must come out united in Lebanon, and the most important thing is for Lebanon to emerge victorious.”

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Before these comments, there were already signs from other leaders that Hezbollah might be changing its stance.

Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qomati told Iraq’s state television on Sunday that the group would be willing to begin exploring political solutions once the aggression against Lebanon ends, without mentioning Gaza.

A late move

Diplomats observing this shift believe that Hezbollah may have delayed too long in generating diplomatic momentum.

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One diplomat involved in Lebanese affairs stated that the “governing logic” now adopted by Israel is military, not diplomatic.

A senior Western diplomat also noted that there were no imminent signs of a ceasefire, indicating that Lebanese officials’ current stance had “evolved” from their previous insistence on halting the fighting in Gaza when bombs first began to fall on Beirut.

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