TAL AVIV: Israel’s security cabinet on Tuesday discussed a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as a hail of air strikes encircled south of Beirut.
The United States, European Union, United Nations and G7, among others, have pressed a halt to the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale conflict in late September.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “a belt of fire has encircled Beirut’s southern suburbs” as raids targeted Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath.
The NNA reported that another strike in the central “Nweiri area in Beirut destroyed a four-storey building housing displaced people”. It killed three people and injured 26, the health ministry said.
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Israel’s military claimed it attacked 20 Hezbollah targets in the Beirut area. It also said it had hit 30 targets in south Lebanon since Tuesday morning.
US news outlet Axios reported that the draft agreement included a 60-day transition period. During that time, Israeli forces would withdraw, the Lebanese army would redeploy near the border and Hezbollah would move its heavy weapons north of the Litani River, Axios said.
A US-led committee would oversee implementation, with provisions allowing Israel to act against imminent threats if Lebanese forces failed to intervene.
Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Hamas after the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel started on October 7, 2023, in Gaza.
Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,799 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in the past several weeks.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir warned on X that a Lebanon ceasefire would be a “historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah”.
So far efforts by mediators to secure a truce in the Gaza war have failed. Qatar early this month said it was suspending its mediation role until the warring sides showed “seriousness”.
In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Tuesday that 11 people were killed in nighttime Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory.
With the violence showing no signs of stopping, Gazans were left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the war in Gaza now in its 417th day killed at least 44,249 Palestinians and wounded over 104,638.
