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wingo Lebanon accuses Israel of rejecting truce after Beirut strikes
An excavator clears rubble and debris at the site of an overnight Israeli air strike on town of Sarafand, between Sidon and Tyre in southern Lebanon, on October 30, 2024. Israel expanded operations in Lebanon nearly a year after Hezbollah began exchanging fire in support of its ally, Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon’s prime minister accused Israel on Friday of rejecting a ceasefire after the Israeli military bombed Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold for the first time this week.
In Gaza, where Israel has been engaged in a major offensive in the north for nearly a month, a Hamas official said the Palestinian militant group had rejected a proposal for a short-term truce.
Article continues after this advertisementUnited Nations chiefs called the situation in northern Gaza “apocalyptic” and warned the entire population there was at risk of death.
FEATURED STORIES GLOBALNATION US nuclear bomber joins air drill with South Korea, Japan GLOBALNATION 13 Chinese nationals nabbed for illegal mining GLOBALNATION Northern Gaza's hospitals come under attack againIsrael has been fighting a two-front war since late September, against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7 last year.
At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs before dawn after Israel issued evacuation warnings.
Article continues after this advertisement“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were levelled,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Article continues after this advertisementLebanon’s health ministry later said 52 people were killed and 72 wounded in Israeli strikes on Friday in the country’s eastern Baalbek-Hermel region, attacks for which the Israeli army had not issued evacuation warnings.
Article continues after this advertisementThe NNA also reported strikes on Bint Jbeil, Tyre and Nabatieh in the south.
The Israeli military said it was continuing operations against both Hezbollah and Hamas.
Article continues after this advertisement Beirut suburbs hitThe strikes on Lebanon came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war against Hezbollah, ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli attacks.
He said the renewed bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs and strikes on other areas “confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire.”
In Baalbek, smoke rose from the remains of a house in the city’s Douris neighbourhood after Israeli warplanes carried out strikes there on Thursday and Friday.
“The place that was bombed is a residential area. Our neighbour is a woman with a disability. She was injured while at home,” said Jaafar Durra, pointing to a flattened building.
Baalbek boasts Roman temples that Unesco has designated as World Heritage site and the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned the war has put the country’s cultural heritage site in “deep peril.”
Thais killedOn Thursday, Netanyahu told US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any ceasefire deal with Hezbollah must guarantee Israel’s long-term security. Both have since left for Washington, a source familiar with the matter said.
A US-brokered plan reportedly under consideration would see Hezbollah pull back 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, north of the Litani River, with Israeli forces withdrawing and the Lebanese army patrolling the border alongside UN peacekeepers.
Thailand’s foreign minister said four farm workers killed by rocket fire on northern Israel on Thursday were Thais. They were among a total of seven people who were killed by two separate barrages, a local official and medics said.
Since fighting in Lebanon escalated on September 23, after nearly a year of tit-for-tat exchanges which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,911 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.
Israel’s military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since it began ground operations on September 30.
The World Health Organization expressed deep concern about Israeli attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, stressing they are “not a target.”
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups around the Middle East and has seen Israel and Iran attack each other.
Late Friday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted seven drones launched the previous night from “several fronts” without specifying where they came from.
On October 26, Israel bombed military targets in Iran, killing four servicemen, in retaliation for the Islamic republic’s barrage of around 200 missiles against Israel on October 1.
Analysts say Israel inflicted severe damage on Iranian air defences and missile capacities and could yet launch more wide-scale action against Iran.
‘Under siege’In north Gaza, the Israeli military said it “eliminated” dozens of militants in Jabalia.
AFPTV images from the adjacent district of Beit Lahia showed men using blankets to carry apparently dead bodies through streets piled with garbage after an Israeli strike.
Gaza’s health ministry earlier reported at least nine dead in strikes on Jabalia and the central Gaza area of Nuseirat.
“The situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic,” said a joint statement by the heads of UN agencies.
“The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue.”
Separately, the WHO said a second round of child polio vaccinations would begin in north Gaza on Saturday, after Israeli bombing halted the drive.
US, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators have tried for months to broker a truce and hostages for prisoners exchange for Gaza.
A member of Hamas’s political bureau told AFP that the group has received a proposal from Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce and rejected it for not including a lasting ceasefire.
The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about de-escalation measures for Gaza and Lebanon with Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.
They discussed steps for ending the war and bringing home Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as well as “the dire status of humanitarian conditions” in the territory, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
They also discussed efforts for “a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that allows both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return safely to their homes,” he added.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
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Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 43wingo,259 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
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