Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Hezbollah-controlled areas in Beirut for a third consecutive day on Thursday, hitting locations in the capital's southern suburbs early in the morning after a night of heavy bombardments.
Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon November 14, 2024. Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani
Israeli forces launched airstrikes on Hezbollah-controlled areas in Beirut for a third consecutive day on Thursday, hitting locations in the capital's southern suburbs early in the morning after a night of heavy bombardments.
Plumes of smoke rose over Beirut as the strikes continued, while raids also reached southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil, where overnight airstrikes and artillery shelling inflicted heavy damage on buildings and residential complexes, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Five people were killed in airstrikes on the towns of Bazourieh and Jumayjimah, NNA reported.
Israel launched a major air and ground offensive against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in late September after nearly a year of cross-border conflict in parallel with the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities have not yet confirmed casualties from Thursday’s strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been largely evacuated. According to Lebanon's health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,365 people and wounded 14,344 across Lebanon since Oct. 7.
Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide to Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, on Wednesday said Lebanese negotiators reached a preliminary understanding with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein on a framework for a ceasefire.
In an interview with the broadcaster Aljzaeera on Wednesday evening, Khalil said that this proposal was conveyed to the Israeli side through Hochstein, though Lebanon had yet to receive any response or suggested amendments from Israel.
He said any potential deal must be firmly based on UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.
Khalil said Lebanon had no objection to U.S. or French participation in overseeing ceasefire compliance.
Reporting by Riham Alkousaa
The past few days have unfolded like a geopolitical drama of historic proportions in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militia long considered untouchable, appears to be teetering on the edge of a seismic shift.
Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months despite President Donald Trump telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
In a defiant speech on Friday evening, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, insisted that the group “will not allow anyone to disarm it,” rejecting growing internal calls for the Lebanese state to reclaim exclusive control over the country’s weapons.
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