Negotiations are continuing at the United Nations in New York on a redrafted resolution to end the fighting in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli official was reported as saying this evening that the revised resolution would stop short of requiring peacekeepers to disarm Hezbollah but will call for an embargo to prevent the group from bringing in arms from Iran and Syria.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the resolution would also call for creation of an emboldened UNIFIL, the UN force currently in Lebanon and long derided by Israel as ineffective.
The French Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said that things were moving in the diplomatic efforts and a breakthrough could come soon.
'We expect, from one moment to the next, an accord in New York,' Mr Blazy said.
The conflict has created an acute humanitarian crisis, especially for an estimated 10,000 people trapped in south Lebanon, where aid agencies said hospitals were running out of food, fuel and other supplies.
The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, has said a ceasefire was of critical importance.
'It's a disgrace really, because the parties to the conflict, the Hezbollah and the Israelis, could give us access in a heartbeat, and then we could help 120,000 people in southern Lebanon,' he told a news conference in Geneva.
The UN World Food Programme also urged both sides to stop fighting, saying relief efforts were now facing paralysis.
'Above all, we require a cessation of hostilities by both sides to allow humanitarian aid through,' Zlatan Milisic, WFP emergency coordinator in Lebanon, said.
