The Israeli military bombarded Hezbollah militant targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday. The strike came hours ahead of a scheduled meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Cabinet ministers on whether to accept a cease-fire deal to halt more than a year of fighting.
The Israeli attacks targeted 20 buildings that the military said were Hezbollah strongholds, warning noncombatant residents living there to flee to safety and maintain a distance of at least 500 meters.
It was the largest number of buildings the Israel Defense Forces had warned about in a single day of an impending attack.
The airstrikes sent billowing clouds of dark smoke into the sky over the Lebanese capital. At least 10 of the strikes were simultaneous, in what the Israeli air force described as “a widespread attack.”
The attacks appeared to be a last attempt by Israel to gain the upper hand in its war with Hezbollah, since Netanyahu has signaled he is open to a cease-fire to end the Jewish state’s 13-month conflict with Hezbollah. The militants began attacking Israel in October 2023 in support of Hamas militants fighting a war with Israel in Gaza.
The Cabinet-level talks were set to take place at the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv. The cease-fire deal, brokered by U.S. and French diplomats, would halt the fighting and start a 60-day period in which Israel and Hezbollah would both withdraw from southern Lebanon.
Israeli forces would move south of the Lebanon-Israel border, while Hezbollah would retreat north of the Litani River. The plan calls for the Lebanese army, which is not involved in the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting, to patrol the region between the two warring sides.
Netanyahu is reportedly in favor of the deal, but it is not clear whether some of his far-right colleagues in the Israeli parliament will go along with the proposal. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem suggested last week that the militants would agree to a truce if Israel stopped attacks on Lebanon and that Lebanon retained its sovereignty.
But difficulties remain in reaching a cease-fire, such as how Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the border area will be monitored and whether Israel will have freedom to strike the militants if it decides it must to maintain its security.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Israel to agree to the cease-fire, saying there are “no more excuses.”
Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy, Borrell said a cease-fire is “absolutely necessary” for civilians displaced by several months of intensified fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border. The G7 comprises the world’s leading industrialized countries.
Borrell expressed hope that Netanyahu’s government would approve a cease-fire on Tuesday without seeking to add additional stipulations that could delay or derail an agreement.
“No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people. And let’s start thinking on peace,” Borrell said.
U.S. officials expressed hope Monday that a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was close.
Speaking to reporters during a press call, national security spokesman John Kirby described recent talks in Beirut led by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein as “constructive,” adding, “We believe that the trajectory of this is going in a very positive direction.”
In New York on Monday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said negotiations toward a cease-fire are “moving forward” but have not been “finalized.”
He added that Israel would retain the ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement.
“We will make sure that we will have the ability to neutralize any threat that will not be dealt [with] in southern Lebanon. I hope that the Lebanese army will take care of that in the future, but if they will fail, again, we will be there,” Danon said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s deputy speaker, Elias Bou Saab, said there are no major obstacles to implementing a cease-fire deal.
A five-nation committee, chaired by the United States and including France, will oversee the cease-fire process, according to Bou Saab.
The fighting in Lebanon has caused a humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands.
On Monday, the United Nations World Food Program announced that it has provided emergency aid to more than a half million people in Lebanon since the conflict began. The WFP said it plans to reach 1 million people and is continuing to work to deliver critical assistance to affected communities.
In the October 2023 attack on Israel that ignited the Middle East warfare, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 101 hostages, including 35 the military says are dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 44,235 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terror groups by the United States, the United Kingdom and other Western countries.
VOA State Department bureau chief Nike Ching and United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
