The American envoy says he is working “tirelessly” for a ceasefire in Lebanon
The US president’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said on Friday that Washington was working “relentlessly” for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, who have been at war for three weeks. “We want the whole conflict to end”he told Lebanese television channel LBCI from Washington. “We are working tirelessly on this subject”.
These comments came as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) assessed that the Israeli army’s fire posed a “very high risk” for his soldiers, caught under the crossfire in recent days.
Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8, 2023, exchanging fire for nearly a year on the Lebanese-Israeli border as part of a latent conflict, in ” support “ to its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza. The conflict took a completely different turn when Israel launched a bombing campaign on September 23, entering into open war against the pro-Iranian movement.
This escalation of the conflict has left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon and displaced more than a million people. Reviewing recent developments, Hochstein said reports of Israeli strikes targeting peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were “unacceptable”. “Unfortunately, we witnessed an attack that hit UNIFIL positions. This is unacceptable”he declared. He also sent condolences to the families of two soldiers who the Lebanese army said were killed in an Israeli strike in the south of the country on Friday.
Israeli strikes mainly targeted the south-east of the country, but also the southern suburbs of Beirut, strongholds of Hezbollah. But the Israeli army has targeted the heart of Beirut three times recently, including strikes Thursday evening in a densely populated residential area, alarming residents of the capital.
The US envoy said Israeli strikes on the central neighborhoods of Basta and Noueiri on Thursday evening, which killed 22 people, were “totally unacceptable”. “We are trying to stop these bombings. We do not like this bombing campaign in a densely populated city like Beirut”declared M. Hochstein.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday called on the UN to adopt a resolution for a “immediate ceasefire”.
