“Amos Hochstein is US President Biden’s special adviser on the Middle East. He’s arriving [to Israel today], the White House says, to avoid further escalation along the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon,” Bernard Smith reports for Al Jazeera.

“He arrives because of a real increase in the exchange of fire across the border. It’s been quieter in the last 48 hours, but before that, there’d been a step-up.

“In Israel, this has been a very live political issue since October. There have been some 60,000 people — from 28 towns and villages — evacuated from the border area. The Israelis who live there want to go home. The government wants them to go home. They want to be there ideally before the start of the school year on September 1,” the reporter says.

“Israel says it’s ready to negotiate something, as is Hezbollah.

“But Hezbollah says it’s only going to sit down and talk when there is a ceasefire in Gaza, and as we’ve seen, the momentum for that has really dissipated,” Smith adds.