Strikes intensify in Beirut as truce proposals expected
· RTE.ieIsraeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs for a second consecutive day, as Lebanon waited to hear Washington's latest ceasefire proposals after a US official expressed hope a truce could be reached.
More than seven weeks since Israel went on the offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah, midmorning airstrikes levelled half a dozen buildings in the Beirut suburb known as Dahiyeh and killed eight people in Dawhit Aramoun, a village south of the capital.
The dead included three women and three children, Lebanon's health ministry said.
"They used to hit Dahiyeh at night, now they are doing it in daytime. Things are intensifying day after day," said Hassan Moussa, 40, speaking in Beirut, adding that Israeli airstrikes had also widened to areas such as Aramoun.
Israel launched a major air and ground offensive against the heavily armed Hezbollah in late September after nearly a year of cross-border conflict fought in parallel with the Gaza war.
The Israeli military said its air force had destroyed nine Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and command centres in strikes in the Beirut area, and that Hezbollah fired 40 projectiles into Israel.
It said later that a heavy barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon at Israel, where sirens sounded in the central areas. There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties.
Meanwhile Hezbollah said that it had fired missiles targeting a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv in central Israel.
In a statement, Hezbollah said that it had fired a salvo of rockets at Glilot military base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel's main commercial hub.
White House envoy Amos Hochstein, the US official who has led several fruitless attempts to broker a ceasefire over the last year, told Axios that he thought "there is a shot" at a truce in Lebanon soon.
"I am hopeful we can get it."
His comments point to a last-ditch bid by the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden to secure a Lebanon ceasefire as diplomacy to end the Gaza war appears adrift, with mediator Qatar having suspended its role.
The US and other world powers say a ceasefire in Lebanon must be based on UN Security Council resolution 1701 which ended a war between the sides in 2006.
The resolution demands that the areas of south Lebanon near the Israeli border be free of any weapons other than those of the Lebanese state.
Israel long complained it was never implemented, pointing to Hezbollah weapons and fighters at the border.
Lebanon in turn accused Israel of violating the resolution, with Israeli warplanes regularly violating its airspace.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah and endorsed by it to negotiate, was quoted as saying that Lebanon was awaiting concrete ceasefire proposals and had not been informed officially of any new ideas.
"What is on the table is only Resolution 1701 and its provisions, which must be implemented and adhered to by both sides, not by the Lebanese side alone," Mr Berri, who helped negotiate the 2006 truce, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
Israel wants the right to intervene itself to enforce any ceasefire if it deems it necessary, noting the presence of UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon had not stopped Hezbollah from building forces in the area.
There were no immediate reports of casualties during Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, which residents have been largely evacuated.
The Israeli military earlier issued a statement on social media saying it would act soon against targets in the area, warning residents they were located near Hezbollah facilities.
Yesterday's Israeli airstrikes, also carried out mid morning, flattened around a dozen buildings in Dahiyeh.
Hezbollah said it used drones to attack Tel Aviv's Hakirya military base for the first time. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Hezbollah's statement and no sirens were reported by the military in Tel Aviv.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said there had been "a certain progress" in ceasefire talks over Lebanon, though the main challenge would be enforcement.
Israel's new Defence Minister Israel Katz said there would be no ceasefire or arrangement in Lebanon that did not include Israel's right to enforce and act on its own against Hezbollah.
Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,365 people in Lebanon, the majority in the last seven weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the last year, according to Israel.
A Hezbollah attack yesterday killed two people in the city of Nahariya in northern Israel. Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for a drone attack that it said was aimed at a military base east of Nahariya.
Gaza a 'wasteland of rubble'
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Israel to implement "real and extended pauses" in fighting in Gaza to allow for the delivery of aid to its war-ravaged population.
"We need to see real and extended pauses in large areas of Gaza, pauses in any fighting, any combat, so that the assistance can effectively get to people who need it," Mr Blinken told reporters during a visit to Brussels, adding that Israel was taking steps to address the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory.
The US stressed at the UN yesterday that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.
The remarks by US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield came just hours after the US said its ally Israel was doing enough to address the humanitarian crisis in Israel to avoid facing potential restrictions on US military aid.
"Still, Israel must ensure its actions are fully implemented - and its improvements sustained over time," Ms Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council.
It was also urgently important that Israel pause implementation of a law banning the operation of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, she added.
The council met over a report by global hunger experts that said there was a "strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas" of northern Gaza as Israel pursues a military offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the area.
"Most of Gaza is now a wasteland of rubble," acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya told the council.
"As I brief you, Israeli authorities are blocking humanitarian assistance from entering North Gaza, where fighting continues, and around 75,000 people remain with dwindling water and food supplies," she said.
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon rejected the famine warning by the global hunger experts as "simply false" and outlined efforts by Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
"I urge each of you to consider the facts. Look closely at Israel's actions on the ground.
"Consider the risks our soldiers take to uphold these humanitarian commitments, often in the face of active threats," Mr Danon told the council.
Slovenia's UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar said the Security Council needed to take action.
"More than a year into the war, we cannot accept assurances implying that everything possible is being done for protection of civilian population in Gaza.
"This is simply not true," he told the council.
The UN Security Council is currently discussing a draft resolution that "demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties" in Gaza.
It also "demands the facilitation of full, rapid, safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale to and throughout the Gaza Strip and its delivery to all Palestinian civilians who need it."
The text was drafted by the elected ten members of the council, who began negotiating with the permanent five veto-wielding members - Russia, China, the US, Britain and France - at the beginning of November.
Russia and China backed the draft text yesterday and called for it to be put to a vote as soon as possible.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes to pass.