Lhe Lebanese Prime Minister accused Israel of refusing any ceasefire with Hezbollah this Friday, November 1. Criticism comes after a new series of airstrikes carried out on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which caused strong explosions and transformed entire buildings into piles of rubble and smoking ashes.
The fact that Israel “has once again targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut” and carried out “destructive raids, are all indicators which confirm its refusal of all efforts deployed to obtain a ceasefire”, he said. declared Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
A peace plan negotiated at the same time
These bombings occurred a few hours after a visit to Jerusalem by two American emissaries who tried to negotiate an outcome to the war pitting Israel against Hezbollah since September as well as that against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, launched there over a year ago.ALSO READ Lebanon: Beirut again targeted by Israeli bombings
According to Israeli media citing government sources, the envoys carried a plan providing for a withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border areas of southern Lebanon, as well as the withdrawal of the Israeli army from this region, control of which would return to the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers. But Israeli officials said soldiers would not withdraw from southern Lebanon until an agreement that would meet Israel's security requirements.
For his part, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, reaffirmed this Friday that the Blue Helmets remained in place in Lebanon, stressing that “abandoning” their positions would entail the risk that they are “occupied by one party or another”.
At least 52 dead in eastern Lebanon
This Friday, the Israeli army claimed to have struck targets of the pro-Iranian movement in the Beirut and Nabatiyeh sectors, in the south. Other bombings targeted the Baalbeck region (east), killing at least 52 people according to the latest report from the Lebanese authorities, and the city of Tire (south). The Lebanese National Information Agency (Ani) also reported strikes on the Bint Jbeil (south) and Aley regions, east of Beirut.ALSO READ Netanyahu, military strategist but not political
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After repeated strikes on Baalbeck and Tyre, two cities classified as world heritage sites by UNESCO, a UN official said she feared that the war would affect the country's ancient sites. “Lebanon’s cultural heritage must not be another victim” of the conflict, warned the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
