BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Hizbollah bastions in Beirut and south Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Lebanese officials said they were studying a US truce proposal.
Since September 23, Israel has escalated its bombing of targets in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops after almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hizbollah militants over the Gaza war.
AFPTV footage showed fresh strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday, following calls from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported four strikes during the day and further “heavy strikes” in the early evening.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hizbollah “command centre” in south Beirut.
NNA also reported a strike on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighbourhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins.
In eastern Lebanon, funerals were held for 14 civil defence staff killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday.
“They weren’t involved with any [armed] party… they were just waiting to answer calls for help,” said Ali Al Zein, a relative of one of the dead.
Hizbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, targeting military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.
The Israeli military said “approximately 65 projectiles” had crossed the border.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,452 people have been killed since October last year, when Hizbollah and Israel began trading fire.
‘Massive explosion’
In Gaza, the Israeli military said its forces continued “operational activity” in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the targets of an intense offensive since early October.
A UN-backed assessment at the weekend warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, and UN figures showed the Israeli operation had forced at least 100,000 people to flee.
Israel has pushed back against a Human Rights Watch report this week that said its displacement of Gazans amounts to a “crime against humanity”, as well as findings from a UN Special Committee that pointed to warfare practices that “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as “completely false”, while the United States — Israel’s main military backer — said accusations of genocide “are certainly unfounded”.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 35 people were killed in the territory in the previous 24 hours, taking the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war to 43,799.
The majority of the dead were civilians, according to ministry figures which the United Nations considers reliable.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The civil defence agency reported 23 people killed in strikes across Gaza on Saturday.
In Rafah, Jamil Al Masry said a house was hit, causing “a massive explosion”.
“We went to the house, only to find it in ruins, with fire raging and smoke and dust everywhere,” he told AFP.
As diplomacy aimed at ending the Gaza war has stalled, a top government official in Beirut said on Friday that US ambassador Lisa Johnson had presented a 13-point proposal to halt the Israel-Hizbollah conflict.
It includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon will deploy troops to the border. The official added that Israel has yet to respond to the plan.
A second Lebanese official, similarly requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said he was “optimistic” about the talks.
Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Lebanese officials in Beirut on Friday, saying Tehran was “looking for solutions”.
