Israel intensifies attacks on Lebanon but claims ceasefire deal ‘close’
Israel’s military launched air attacks across Lebanon on Monday, unleashing explosions throughout the country and killing at least a dozen people, even as officials claimed they were nearing an agreement on a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli attacks hit commercial and residential buildings in Beirut on Monday as well as in the port city of Tyre, where 12 people were killed – adding to the more than 3,700 people in Lebanon who have been killed by Israeli attacks in this two-month war.
Israeli officials said they targeted areas known as Hezbollah strongholds. They issued evacuation orders for Beirut’s southern suburbs, and attacks landed across the city, including metres from a Lebanese police base and the city’s largest public park.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Beirut on Monday, said Israeli attacks across Lebanon in recent days were “more powerful, more destructive, more frequent and happening more often without warning – leaving people no time to get out of the way of Israeli missiles and drones”.
The barrages came as the Israeli ambassador to the United States said a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah could be reached “within days”.
Israeli officials said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set to convene on Tuesday to discuss a proposed ceasefire.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said Israel would maintain an ability to strike southern Lebanon under any agreement. Lebanon has previously objected to wording that would grant Israel such a right.
The US has pushed for a deal to end over a year of hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which erupted in parallel with Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and has drastically escalated over the last two months.
In Beirut, Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, told the Reuters news agency there were “no serious obstacles” left to start implementing a US-proposed ceasefire with Israel, “unless Netanyahu changes his mind”.
