Lebanon | New strikes on the suburbs of Beirut, pressure increases for a ceasefire

(Beirut) The Israeli army carried out new strikes on Monday against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where its troops are engaged in intense fighting with the pro-Iranian movement in the south, at a time when the international community is intensifying its pressure on the belligerents for a ceasefire.

Intensely shelled on Sunday by Israeli aircraft, the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted by three new strikes on Monday morning, after an Israeli evacuation order, according to the official Lebanese agency ANI.

The Israeli army claimed to have struck “several Hezbollah command centers”.

These raids come following a weekend marked by an intensification of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, at open war since the end of September after a year of cross-border fire exchanges which displaced tens of thousands of people from both sides of the border.

On Sunday, the day after an Israeli strike that left at least 29 dead in central Beirut, Hezbollah claimed 50 attacks against Israel, targeting in particular the Tel Aviv region (center), a record since it opened a front against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

The Israeli military said its deadly Saturday strike targeted a Hezbollah command center and reported around 250 projectiles fired from Lebanon on Sunday.

This series of Hezbollah attacks, one of the most violent against the country since the end of September, left 24 injured, including 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“Window of Opportunity”

Visiting Beirut on Sunday, the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, called for an “immediate ceasefire”.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, reported a “window of opportunity” for a truce, calling on Israel and the Lebanese to seize it.

According to the American news site Axios, the two parties are moving towards an agreement on the basis of an American project providing for a 60-day truce during which Hezbollah and the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon, to leave there Lebanese army deployed there.

The plan, brought to both parties last week by American envoy Amos Hochstein, includes the establishment of an international committee to monitor its implementation, according to Axios.

The site reports American assurances to support Israeli military action in the event of hostile actions by Hezbollah.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security and far-right ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned on Monday against a ceasefire, seeing it as “a big mistake”.

Originally from northern Israel, Dorit Sison, 51, also fears that a settlement will be made in favor of Hezbollah, like, she says, in 2006, at the end of the last war between Israel and Hezbollah. The movement was then able to “rearm itself” and now “they have tunnels, rockets, all possible ammunition, they have everything,” she said.

The mediators are relying on 2006 UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers be deployed on Lebanon’s southern border.

Israel says it wants to put Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, allies of Iran, its enemy, out of harm’s way. He vowed to destroy Hamas after the unprecedented attack of this Islamist movement on its soil on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and seeks to stop Hezbollah’s rocket fire on its territory, which displaced some 60,000 northern residents.

“Fierce” fighting in the south

According to ANI, the Israeli army also carried out other air raids on Monday in various sectors of southern Lebanon, where “fierce” fighting pits it against Hezbollah.

Twelve people were killed Monday, and eight injured, in Israeli strikes in two areas of the Tire district in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry announced.

In separate statements, the ministry reported “six dead” and noted “human remains” requiring identification, as well as four injured in a strike on a road near the city of Tyre. Another raid in the town of Maaraka left “six dead and four injured”, including one in intensive care.

Israeli troops dynamited houses in the town of Khiam, close to the border between the two countries, where they advanced “under the cover of raids, artillery fire and phosphorus shots”, indicated ANI .

She reported Israeli bombing of Beaufort Castle, a ruined Crusader fortress used as a base by the Israeli army during its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, completed in 2000.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education announced the suspension of face-to-face classes in Beirut and its surrounding areas on Monday.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 3,754 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most since last September, including 84 on Saturday.

On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians were killed in 13 months.

In the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, 11 Palestinians died in Israeli strikes on Sunday, according to local Civil Defense.

The war in Gaza has killed at least 44,235 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or died in captivity. That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.