On Israel's 78th Independence Day, President Isaac Herzog extended an olive branch to Lebanon, as both sides prepare to meet in Washington on Thursday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog with UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, on Wednesday in Jerusalem © X
On the evening of Israel's 78th Independence Day, President Isaac Herzog chose hope over hostility.
"My dream is to get into a car and drive straight to Beirut, visit that beautiful city, and befriend the good people of Lebanon," Herzog wrote on X, sharing the message he had delivered to ambassadors, diplomats, military attachés and faith leaders gathered at the President's Residence to mark the occasion.
The timing was deliberate. Israeli and Lebanese delegations are due to meet in Washington on Thursday for direct talks, a rare and fragile diplomatic opening in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives since March.
Herzog's words will not silence the guns on their own. But on a night of national celebration, Israel's head of state chose to look across the border not with suspicion, but with longing — a reminder that behind the geopolitics and the ceasefire negotiations, there are two peoples who have never truly been given the chance to be neighbours.
Thursday's talks in Washington will show whether that dream has any ground to stand on.
An Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other "hostile" vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a lawmaker.
Israel said two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday while Lebanese authorities said Israeli retaliatory attacks killed at least one person, a flare-up in violence that coincided with the latest round of talks between the two countries.
The Israeli military said it had begun targeted strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a "Hezbollah violation", a day after the latest round of U.S.-facilitated talks between Israel and Lebanon took place in Rome.
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