JERUSALEM >> Israeli officials demanded Wednesday the freedom to strike Lebanon’s Hezbollah as part of any cease-fire deal, raising a potential complication as a top U.S. envoy was in the region attempting to clinch an agreement.

The development came as an airstrike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syrian state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said Israel sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah under an emerging proposal, which would push the group’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the cease-fire deal and on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said the Lebanese fighter group supports the ongoing negotiations but has “some reservations” and rejects a provision for “freedom of movement” for Israeli troops in Lebanon.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Israeli Foreign Minister Saar told diplomats in Jerusalem.

Katz said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for Israel’s military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”

Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s point man on Israel and Lebanon, has been working to push the sides toward agreement and meeting this week with officials in Lebanon. He said Wednesday he would travel to Israel to “try to bring this to a close if we can.”

Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas after its attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been responding with strikes in Lebanon, and dramatically escalated its bombardment in late September by launching a ground invasion just inside the border.

In the more than a year of exchanges, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, most in the past month, the Health Ministry reported, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It’s unknown how many of the dead were Hezbollah fighters. On Wednesday, 11 more were killed across Lebanon, according to the ministry and Lebanese state media.

In Israel, more than 70 people have been killed by Hezbollah fire, and tens of thousands have fled their homes. Israeli police said a Hezbollah rocket fell outside an empty kindergarten Wednesday in the northern city of Acre, causing damage but no injuries.

Hochstein’s proposal is based on U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. It stipulates that only the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers should operate in southern Lebanon.

Still, Hezbollah never fully ended its presence in the south. Lebanon accuses Israel of also violating the resolution by maintaining hold of a small, disputed border area and conducting frequent military overflights.

Israel says that Hezbollah has since built up a military infrastructure in villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

The current proposal would include an implementation plan and a monitoring system to ensure each side follows its obligations to fully withdraw from the south. That could involve the United States and France, but details are still unclear.