JERUSALEM/BEIRUT/GAZA: Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal with Lebanon and would “respond forcefully to any violation” by Hezbollah. But the prospect of a ceasefire agreement between the Zionist entity and Hezbollah without a similar deal with Hamas in Gaza has left Palestinians feeling abandoned and fearful that the Zionist entity will focus squarely on its onslaught in the enclave.

In a television address, Netanyahu said he would put the ceasefire accord to his full cabinet later in the evening. Zionist TV reported that the more restricted security cabinet had earlier approved the deal. “We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to any violation. Together, we will continue until victory,” he claimed. “In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action.

Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively.” He added that there were three reasons to pursue a ceasefire – to focus on Iran, replenish depleted arms supplies

and give the army a rest, and finally to isolate Hamas. He said Hezbollah, which is allied to Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict.

“We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border,” he said. “We targeted strategic objectives across Lebanon, shaking Beirut to its core.”

Despite the possibility of an imminent diplomatic breakthrough, hostilities raged as the Zionist entity sharply ramped up its campaign of air strikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 23 killed. A Hezbollah parliament member in Lebanon, Hassan Fadlallah, said the country faced “dangerous, sensitive hours” during the wait for a possible ceasefire announcement.

The ceasefire could come into effect on Wednesday morning, triggering a 60-day truce, a Western diplomat said. The agreement requires Zionist troops to withdraw from south Lebanon and Lebanon’s army to deploy in the region, officials say. Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the border south of the Litani River.

Zionist warplanes launched repeated strikes across Beirut throughout Tuesday, mostly in the southern suburbs that are a stronghold for Iran-backed Hezbollah. A single cluster of strikes in Beirut that the Zionist military said included attacks on 20 targets in just 120 seconds killed at least seven people and injured 37, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The Zionist entity also struck the central Beirut area, a significant escalation of its campaign in the capital that sparked panic among residents with some fleeing north. A video on social media shows a Zionist airstrike hitting a building near Kuwait’s embassy on Tuesday. Strikes also targeted Tyre, in the south, and Baalbek, in the east. Zionist military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a “widespread attack” on Hezbollah targets across the city.

Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into the Zionist entity and previously said it would respond to attacks on central Beirut by firing rockets at Tel Aviv. Sirens sounded in the Zionist entity and the Zionist military said five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon. Hezbollah launched some 250 rockets on Sunday in one of its heaviest barrages yet. The northern Zionist city of Nahariya came under more rocket fire overnight.

While diplomacy focuses on Lebanon, Palestinians feel let down by the world after 14 months of conflict which has devastated the Gaza Strip and killed more than 44,000 people. “It showed Gaza is an orphan, with no support and no mercy from the unjust world,” said Abdel-Ghani, a father of five who only gave a first name. “I am angry against the world that has failed to bring one solution to the two regions,” Abdel-Ghani. “Maybe, there will be another deal for Gaza, maybe.”

Hezbollah had insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition. “We had high hopes that Hezbollah would remain steadfast until the end but it seems they couldn’t,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman, who like most Gazans has been displaced from his home. “We are afraid the (Zionist) army will now have a free hand in Gaza.”

The White House said US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk would be in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss using a potential Lebanon ceasefire as a catalyst for a deal to end hostilities in Gaza. While a Lebanon deal could leave some Hezbollah commanders in place after the Zionist entity killed the group’s veteran leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, the Zionist entity has vowed to eliminate Hamas completely.

“We hoped the expansion of the war meant one solution for all, but we were left alone in the face of the monstrous (Zionist) occupation,” said Zakeya Rezik, 56, a mother of six. “Enough is enough, we are exhausted. How many more had to die before they stopped the war? Gaza war must stop, the people are being wiped out, starved, and bombed every day.”

The Zionist campaign has killed 44,249 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, mostly women and children. Gaza’s civil defense agency said Tuesday 22 people were killed in Zionist air strikes and shelling of the Palestinian territory, including 11 killed by a strike on a school-turned-shelter for displaced civilians. “At least 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 40 injured in a (Zionist) air strike that targeted Al-Hurriya School, which houses thousands of displaced people. Hamas condemned the strike as a “new crime”.

Earlier on Tuesday, the agency said 11 people were killed in overnight Zionist air strikes and shelling. In the northern city of Jabalia, seven people were killed and several wounded in an air strike on a residential building, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Another person was killed in a strike on a house in nearby Beit Lahia, which along with Jabalia has been the focus of a major Zionist military operation since Oct 6. Two people were killed in shelling of Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Bassal said. In the southern city of Rafah, an air strike killed one person and wounded several, he added. – Agencies