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 mil­i­tant 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 mil­i­tant 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.”