Israel ramps up attacks on Lebanon as officials study US ceasefire plan

Israeli air strikes flattened five buildings in the Lebanese capital Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military has carried out air raids in the suburbs of Beirut for the fourth consecutive day as Lebanese officials studied a US plan for a ceasefire.

Israeli air strikes flattened five buildings in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs on Friday. One of them was located near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions, Tayouneh.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other infrastructure used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli military had issued two forced evacuation orders before the attacks.

“[Residents] are forced to leave their homes only to watch the strikes come in and wonder whether or not they have a home to return to. There are no casualties because many people left the area and because of these evacuation orders,” she said.

“Human rights groups have criticised these forced evacuation orders, saying most of the time they don’t give people enough time to leave,” Khodr added.

Meanwhile, Iran-aligned Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a group of Israeli soldiers in Misgav Am and the Yiftah barracks in northern Israel.

The Lebanese armed group said in a statement on Telegram it also attacked another group of Israeli soldiers with rockets on the eastern outskirts of the Lebanese town of Markaba.

Hezbollah also said it attacked Israeli soldiers in northern Israel’s Sasa and Dishon.

Israel’s military escalated its attacks on Lebanon in late September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in parallel with the Gaza war. It says it aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis, forced to evacuate from northern Israel under Hezbollah fire.

Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have forced more than one million Lebanese to flee their homes, igniting a humanitarian crisis.

It has dealt Hezbollah serious blows, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders. Hezbollah has kept up rocket attacks into Israel and its fighters have been battling Israeli troops in the south.

Ceasefire talks

Diplomacy attempting to reach a ceasefire has shown tentative signs of progress this week.

The Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that the US ambassador to Lebanon had presented a draft ceasefire proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, citing two senior political sources. Berri is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate and met the senior Iranian official Ali Larijani on Friday. The AFP news agency reported that senior Lebanese officials are reviewing the US proposal.

A senior Iranian official said on Friday that Iran would back any decision made by Lebanon in truce talks, signalling Tehran wants to see an end to the conflict.

Asked at a news conference whether he had come to Beirut to undermine the US truce plan, Larijani said, “We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems.”

“We support in all circumstances the Lebanese government. Those who are disrupting are Netanyahu and his people,” Larijani added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

World powers have said a Lebanon ceasefire must be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Its terms require Hezbollah to move weapons and fighters north of the Litani River, which runs some 20km (30 miles) north of the border.

Israel has demanded the freedom to attack, should Hezbollah violate any agreement – a demand that Lebanon has rejected.

In a meeting with Larijani, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged support for Lebanon’s position on implementing 1701 and called this a priority, along with halting the “Israeli aggression”, a statement from his office said.

Larijani stressed “that Iran supports any decision taken by the government, especially resolution 1701”, the statement said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.

At least 3,386 people have been killed and 14,417 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies