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On Tuesday, the fifth round of direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel kicked off in the U.S. capital, marking a new chapter in efforts to end ongoing hostilities even as a parallel diplomatic track between the United States and Iran threatens to complicate and overshadow the bilateral process. This three-day round of talks follows four earlier negotiating cycles that failed to deliver a lasting ceasefire or close the deep ideological and territorial divides separating the two neighboring states.

As talks get underway, Lebanese negotiators are arriving in Washington with a clear set of core priorities: pushing for a binding timetable for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon, securing the safe return of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Lebanese civilians, negotiating the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel, and laying the groundwork for large-scale post-conflict reconstruction. For its part, Israel has repeatedly linked any territorial withdrawal to the full disarmament of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and insists that Israeli forces maintain control over a wide security buffer zone inside southern Lebanon until Israeli officials are satisfied that the Lebanese army can fully prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing a military presence in the area.

Unlike the four prior rounds held earlier this year, this latest negotiating session unfolds against a drastically shifted regional diplomatic landscape. A recent memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran has folded the Lebanese-Israeli conflict into a broader regional ceasefire framework, and follow-up discussions held near Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne produced a blueprint for a new multilateral mechanism designed to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. This development means the bilateral Washington talks are no longer the sole diplomatic forum addressing the Lebanon conflict, creating new questions about who ultimately holds decision-making power over Lebanon’s negotiating path – a particularly sensitive issue for the Lebanese presidency, which has framed the direct bilateral talks as a critical step to restore state control over issues of war, peace and national sovereignty.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has repeatedly stressed that no foreign power has the authority to negotiate on Lebanon’s behalf. “We welcome any assistance to end the war, but we are a sovereign country and no one negotiates on our behalf,” Aoun stated ahead of the fifth round of talks. Lebanese officials have described the decision to open direct negotiations with Israel as a historic step that allows the Lebanese state to reclaim full responsibility for the country’s foreign and security policy, in line with Article 52 of the Lebanese constitution, which grants the president authority to negotiate international agreements in coordination with the prime minister, with final approval required from the cabinet and, depending on the terms of any deal, parliament. Still, well-placed sources confirm that the launch of direct talks came in large part from intense U.S. diplomatic pressure on Beirut, and that talks have proceeded even as Israel has continued its airstrikes and ground operations across southern Lebanon.

After four rounds of talks since April failed to secure a durable end to fighting, the longest pause in Israeli airstrikes came not from an agreement between Lebanon and Israel, but after the U.S.-Iran memorandum was signed – a reality that has strengthened Hezbollah’s argument that Iran’s diplomatic track with Washington is far more effective at securing an Israeli ceasefire than the Lebanese government’s bilateral negotiations.

The fourth round of Washington talks, held June 2 and 3, concluded with a joint statement from the U.S., Lebanon and Israel that outlined a framework requiring a full halt to Hezbollah attacks and the withdrawal of Hezbollah operatives from the area south of the Litani River as preconditions for a ceasefire. The statement also announced plans to establish “pilot zones” where the Lebanese Armed Forces would exercise full exclusive control, with all non-state armed groups excluded from the areas. The framework also emphasized that the future of Lebanese-Israeli relations must be determined by the two national governments, and rejected any attempts by external actors to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.

This joint statement drew sharp criticism from Hezbollah, which argued it imposed one-sided obligations on the group while offering no binding Israeli commitment to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory. Hezbollah officials have labeled the direct bilateral talks a grave mistake that grants Israel long-sought political gains without requiring it to end its occupation or halt military operations. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who led Lebanon’s indirect negotiating channels with Israel in prior talks, has also argued that Beirut should rely on the existing ceasefire monitoring mechanism established after the 2024 hostilities agreement, and has publicly rejected limited pilot zones, calling instead for a full comprehensive ceasefire, full Israeli withdrawal, and parallel implementation of commitments by both sides.

A senior source close to the Lebanese delegation revealed that the pilot zone proposal nearly caused the fourth round of talks to collapse entirely. Initially, Israel rejected the proposal, prompting Lebanese negotiators to threaten to walk away from the session. U.S. officials stepped in to broker a compromise, persuading Israel to accept the principle of pilot zones, but the two sides remain deeply divided over where the zones will be located and what specific obligations will apply to each party.

Lebanese negotiators proposed the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil as the first pilot zone, a city that falls within what Israel calls the “Yellow Line” – a self-declared military boundary Israel has marked inside Lebanese territory to demarcate areas under its operational control. By nominating Bint Jbeil, Beirut aimed to push back against the risk that Israel’s current controlled area would gradually become a permanent buffer zone. Under Lebanon’s proposal, Israel would withdraw from Bint Jbeil, the Lebanese army would deploy to the city, Hezbollah would dismantle its military infrastructure, and displaced residents would return to their homes. But Israel rejected Bint Jbeil as the initial test site. “The Israelis appeared as though they had been dragged into the negotiating room by the Americans. You could see it on their faces. They did not want to be there,” the source close to the negotiations noted.

Instead of accepting Lebanon’s proposal, Israel has demanded that it retain full control over the entire Yellow Line, while retaining the right to monitor Lebanese army operations targeting Hezbollah both south and north of the Litani River. Israel has stated that it will only consider further territorial withdrawals after it assesses the Lebanese army’s performance and confirms that the army has fully dismantled Hezbollah’s military positions. For Lebanon, this framework risks cementing Israel’s current positions as a semi-permanent security zone, and makes withdrawal conditional on an open-ended, unregulated Israeli assessment of the Lebanese army’s actions.

In this fifth round of talks, the Lebanese delegation plans to revisit the pilot zone proposal and push for a broader geographic scope, moving beyond the small individual villages and narrow sectors discussed in prior rounds. A presidential source close to the talks says a new broader framework covering entire districts has been proposed, which would include multiple towns and villages on both sides of the Litani River, rather than testing the arrangement in isolated localities. The source added that this approach has even been discussed by Berri, despite his public rejection of limited pilot zones. Under this broader framework, Israeli withdrawal, Lebanese army deployment, civilian return, and the removal of Hezbollah military infrastructure would be implemented across a much larger contiguous area. Even with this new proposal, core fundamental differences between the two sides remain unchanged: Lebanon demands that withdrawal begin the process, while Israel demands concrete proof of Hezbollah’s disarmament before it gives up control of occupied territory.

The biggest uncertainty hanging over the Washington talks, however, stems from the new parallel diplomatic mechanism emerging from U.S.-Iran talks in Switzerland. U.S. Vice President JD Vance confirmed that the Swiss talks produced a framework for a body designed to reduce tensions in Lebanon and prevent renewed escalation. Details of the proposed body, which has been called both a deconfliction cell and a tension-reduction committee, have not been released to the public. A source close to the Lebanese presidential palace told Middle East Eye that Lebanese officials have not yet received a full explanation of the body’s membership, authority, or relationship to the existing Washington negotiations.

Current indications suggest the mechanism will include Lebanon, Iran, and the U.S., with Pakistan and Qatar potentially joining as mediators. The working model appears to have the U.S. communicating directly with Israel, Iran communicating directly with Hezbollah, and the Lebanese state participating as a formal direct party. Under this arrangement, neither Israel nor Hezbollah would have formal representation, but both would have indirect access through their main international backers.

Israel has already raised concerns that the mechanism grants formal recognition to Iran’s role in Lebanese affairs, while potentially restricting Israel’s freedom of military action. For Lebanese officials, the key concern is that Iran could use the process to speak for Hezbollah and negotiate matters involving Lebanese territory independent of the internationally recognized Beirut government. Still, the Lebanese presidency has indicated it is willing to engage with the new mechanism as long as the U.S. leads the process and the Lebanese state retains formal representation.

According to the presidential source, U.S. recognition of the Pakistan-backed diplomatic initiative does not mean the Washington and Swiss tracks have to be mutually exclusive. The two processes could eventually converge: the direct bilateral talks would resolve core Lebanese-Israeli territorial and political disputes, while the Swiss mechanism would work to enforce calm between Israel and Hezbollah through guarantees from the U.S. and Iran. But no framework has yet been established to clarify where one process’s authority ends and the other’s begins. “The Washington and Swiss tracks do not have to remain separate,” the source said. “The question is how they will intersect. At this stage, that is still not clear.”

On the night of April 30, Israeli military forces raided the West Bank home of Musab Zaloum, a Palestinian father of two, as he and his family slept peacefully. Zaloum was separated from his wife Manar Karaja and their young children within minutes of the soldiers’ arrival, handcuffed and forced outside before he had any understanding of the operation’s target. It was only after he was placed in an armored military vehicle that a soldier informed him: 28-year-old Karaja, who was just two days prior confirmed to be pregnant with the couple’s third child, was under arrest.

Zaloum, still cuffed, was soon allowed to return to the house, where he found his 5-year-old son Ayman and 4-year-old daughter Layla awake and screaming in terror. Woken by the commotion after the soldiers left, the children immediately begged to know where their mother was. To calm them in that terrifying moment, Zaloum told them intruders had broken into the home, and that their mother would return by morning. That promise was broken, and he soon had to tell the children the truth: the Israeli army had taken their mother.

Karaja is one of three pregnant Palestinian women currently held in Israel’s Damon Prison, all of whom are being subjected to brutal, degrading conditions that put both their lives and the lives of their unborn children at severe risk, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. These three women are part of a larger population of 93 Palestinian female detainees held in Israeli prisons, a group that has seen conditions deteriorate dramatically since October 2023. Since that date, no family members nor International Committee of the Red Cross representatives have been granted access to visit the female prisoners.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club released a statement accusing the Israeli Prison Service of ramping up punitive measures against female detainees in recent months. “Some pregnant prisoners have been subjected to harsh interrogations and detention conditions in cells that lack even the most basic sanitary standards,” the organization said. “This has exacerbated their physical and psychological suffering, leading to weight loss, emaciation and extreme exhaustion.” The group added that even pregnant detainees have been forced to undergo invasive, humiliating strip searches.

For Zaloum, life since Karaja’s arrest has been consumed by worry. The couple had only just learned of their pregnancy days before the raid, and had already begun picking out names for their coming child, a brief burst of joy cut short by the midnight raid. Today, he cares for their two young children alone, and his biggest fear is the lack of proper food and medical care for his wife in detention. He describes the prison conditions as “deplorable”, noting that even the small rations provided to regular prisoners are far from enough to meet the dietary needs of a pregnant woman.

Through lawyers that visit Karaja every few weeks (the only contact her family is allowed), Zaloum has learned that overcrowding at Damon Prison has forced Karaja to sleep directly on the cold concrete floor since her arrest, and she suffers from constant body pain as a result. Israel is holding Karaja on suspicion of incitement, a loosely defined charge that is frequently used to detain Palestinian women, often based on social media posts, and she remains in detention awaiting trial.

Karaja is far from alone in her suffering. Thirty-five-year-old Dana Joudeh, a five-month pregnant woman from Nablus, was arrested on April 18. Just months before her arrest, Joudeh underwent gastric bypass surgery, and she had only just learned of her pregnancy when Israeli forces raided her home and detained her. She was first held at the notorious Hasharon detention center, where reports routinely document humiliating treatment, invasive strip searches, and the denial of basic necessities including mattresses and adequate food.

Joudeh’s family told Middle East Eye that she has repeatedly suffered fainting spells and dehydration in detention, but prison officials have refused to provide the specialized medical care she needs given her pregnancy and recent surgery. “She told her lawyer that the women sleep on the floor in overcrowded, cold cells,” Joudeh’s mother said. “Some pregnant prisoners try to support others by sharing portions of bread and food, despite the already meagre rations and poor-quality meals.” The family lives in constant fear, with repeated requests for medical checkups for Joudeh ignored by prison authorities.

In Qalqilya, 37-year-old Amina al-Taweel, a mother of four who is four months pregnant, has been held on incitement charges since her March 18 arrest. Her husband Ali Shawahneh, who himself has spent 19 years total in Israeli prisons, says her arrest came as a devastating shock. “On the day of her arrest, I told the officer, ‘Take me instead of her,’” he recalled. “He replied, ‘This time, you’re not the one we’re after – it’s your wife.’ They handcuffed her and took her away while I stood there in shock, and the children cried.” Now caring for their four children alone, Shawahneh says he cannot meet the children’s emotional needs as they grieve for their mother. Al-Taweel, who experiences severe complications in early pregnancy that require ongoing care, has no access to that support in prison. “During my last detention, I lost more than 60 kilograms because of the poor quality and scarcity of food. How is a pregnant woman supposed to endure that?” Shawahneh asked.

Palestinian human rights defenders say Israel’s treatment of these pregnant detainees crosses every line of international law. Helmi al-Araj, director of the Hurryyat Centre for Defence of Liberties and Civil Rights, said that Israel’s policy of abuse toward prisoners has existed long before October 2023, but has become far more severe in recent months. “Prisoners face collective punishment, abuse, torture, starvation, isolation, and denial of family visits,” al-Araj told Middle East Eye. “All of this negatively impacts the psychological state of female prisoners who are mothers and pregnant women. This Israeli policy existed even before 7 October, but it has become a deeply entrenched policy based on grave violations of the rights of prisoners.”

Official Palestinian detainee advocacy groups confirm that the broader population of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody faces systemic abuse. According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, more than 9,300 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 93 women and more than 350 children. More than 765 women and girls have been arrested by Israeli forces since the start of the military campaign in Gaza in October 2023. Nearly half of all Palestinian detainees are held without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders.