Israel launches new airstrikes on Lebanon as leaders move closer to a ceasefire with Hezbollah

On By Pranco

Sally Abou Aljoud, Joe Federman and Sam Metz
| Associated press

Beirut – The Israeli army launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, setting off explosions across the country and killing at least 31 people, as Israeli leaders appeared to near a negotiated ceasefire with the militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli attacks hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut and in the port city of Tyre. Military officials said they were targeting areas known as Hezbollah strongholds. They issued evacuation orders for Beirut’s southern suburbs, and strikes took place across the city, including meters from a Lebanese police base and the city’s largest public park.

The barrage came as officials indicated they were close to agreeing on a ceasefire, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet preparing to discuss an offer on the table.

At least 31 people are killed in airstrikes

Huge explosions lit up Lebanon’s sky with flashes of orange and sent towering plumes of smoke into the sky as Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday. The blasts damaged buildings and left broken glass and debris scattered on nearby streets. There were no casualties after many residents fled the targeted locations.

Some of the attacks took place near central Beirut and near Christian neighborhoods and other targets where Israel had issued evacuation warnings, including in Tire and Nabatiyeh province. Israeli airstrikes also hit the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel region without warning.

Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday that 26 people had died in southern Lebanon, four in the eastern province of Baalbek-Hermel and one in Choueifat, a neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs for which no evacuation warnings had been issued on Monday.

The deaths brought the total number of deaths in Lebanon to 3,768 during the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah and almost two months since Israel launched its ground invasion. Many of those killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah have been civilians, and health officials said some of the bodies recovered were so badly damaged that DNA testing would be needed to confirm their identities.

Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. The Lebanese Health Ministry says the war has displaced 1.2 million people.

Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon in early October, encountering heavy resistance in a narrow strip of land along the border. The army had previously exchanged strikes across the border with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that began firing rockets into Israel the day after the war in Gaza began last year.

Lebanese politicians have condemned the ongoing airstrikes, saying they are hampering US-led ceasefire negotiations. The country’s deputy speaker of parliament accused Israel of stepping up its bombing campaign to pressure Lebanon to make concessions in indirect ceasefire negotiations with Hezbollah.

Elias Bousaab, an ally of the militant group, said on Monday that pressure has increased because “we are close to the hour that is decisive for reaching a ceasefire.”

Hopes for a ceasefire are growing

Israeli officials expressed similar optimism on Monday about the prospects for a ceasefire. Mike Herzog, the country’s ambassador to Washington, told Israeli army radio earlier in the day that several points still needed to be finalized. While any deal would require government approval, Herzog said Israel and Hezbollah were “close to a deal.”

“It could happen within days,” he said.

Israeli officials have said the sides are close to an agreement that would include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and a withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters from the Israeli border. But a number of bottlenecks still remain.

Two Israeli officials told The Associated Press that Netanyahu’s security cabinet had scheduled a meeting on Tuesday, but said it remained unclear whether the cabinet would vote to approve the deal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, told reporters on Monday that he expected a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah to have a phase and be discussed by leaders on Monday or Tuesday. Still, he warned, “It won’t happen overnight.”

After earlier hopes for a ceasefire were dashed, U.S. officials warned that negotiations were not yet concluded and noted that last-minute issues could arise that could delay or destroy an agreement.

“Nothing gets done until everything is done,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

The proposal under discussion to end the fighting calls for an initial two-month ceasefire, during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would reduce its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River would end.

The withdrawal would be accompanied by an influx of thousands more Lebanese army troops, largely sidelined during the war, to patrol the border area alongside an existing UN peacekeeping force.

Western diplomats and Israeli officials said Israel is demanding the right to strike in Lebanon if it believes Hezbollah is violating the terms. The Lebanese government has said such an arrangement would allow violations of the country’s sovereignty.

A ceasefire could mark a step toward ending the regional war that erupted after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and counting. 250 were kidnapped.

The lack of a ceasefire has become a political liability for Israeli leaders including Netanyahu, especially as 60,000 Israelis remain from their homes in the country’s north after more than a year of cross-border violence.

Hezbollah rockets have reached Israel as far as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than fifty Israeli soldiers were killed during the ground offensive in Lebanon. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran’s strongest armed ally, is expected to significantly calm regional tensions that have led to fears of a direct, all-out war between Israel and Iran. It is not clear what impact the ceasefire will have on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah had long insisted it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza is over, but dropped that condition.

A top Hamas official in Lebanon said the Palestinian militant group would support a ceasefire between its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Israel, despite earlier promises by Hezbollah to stop fighting in Lebanon only if the war in Gaza ends.

“Any announcement of a ceasefire is welcome. Hezbollah has supported our people and made significant sacrifices,” Osama Hamdan of Hamas’s political wing told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Mayadeen, which is seen as politically linked to Hezbollah.

Although the ceasefire proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu puts it to a vote in his security cabinet, one hardline member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it. He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”

If ceasefire talks fail, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said, “it will mean more destruction and more and more hostility and more dehumanization, more hatred and more bitterness.”

Speaking at a G7 meeting in Fiuggi, Italy, the last summit of its kind before US President Joe Biden leaves office, Safadi said such a failure “will condemn the future of the region to more conflict, more killings and more destruction .”

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Federman reported from Jerusalem and Metz from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Nicole Winfield in Fiuggi, Italy, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.