• Military orders residents of Haret Hreik to evacuate
• Strikes kill two rescuers in south Lebanon
• Hezbollah says rockets target Israeli military sites

BEIRUT: Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah bastions in Beirut and south Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Lebanese government officials said they were studying a US truce proposal.

Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several air raids on the city’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

AFPTV video showed three plumes of smoke rising over buildings in the area on Saturday morning, and another around midday.

Shortly before the morning attack, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X a call for residents of the Haret Hreik suburb to evacuate.

“You are close to facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Israeli military will be acting with force in the near future,” the post said in Arabic, identifying specific buildings and telling residents to move at least 500 metres away.

A similar warning was also issued before the midday strike.

An Israeli strike on neighbouring Syria earlier this week killed two leaders from Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, a source told AFP.

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 with Hezbollah fighters.

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 said Israel carried out three air raids in the morning, later reporting another attack in the neighbourhood of Chiyah. It also reported a strike on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighbourhood near Unesco-listed ancient ruins.

Elsewhere in south Lebanon, the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.

Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, targeting military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.

Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.

Iranian support

In a rare claim of responsibility for a strike on Syria, Israel said it targeted the Islamic Jihad group on Thursday. A source from the group told AFP on Saturday that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.

Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli prisoners taken during the October 7 attack on southern Israel. Earlier this week, the group released two video clips of Sasha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli prisoner.

As diplomacy aimed at ending the Gaza conflict 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-Hezbollah hostilities.

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, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said he was “optimistic” about the talks.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met Lebanese officials in Beirut on Friday, saying Tehran was “looking for solutions”.

Ali Larijani said Iran supported the Lebanese government and “the resistance” — Hezbollah — “under any circumstances”.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2024