Israeli strikes hit near Beirut as envoy says disarming Hezbollah could end war

Israel's military pounded the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs with air strikes on Tuesday and its troops pushed deeper into the country's south, as an Israeli envoy said the key to ending the war was disarming Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. 

Lebanon was pulled deep into the war in the Middle East last week, when Iran-backed  Hezbollah opened fire on Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader.

Israel has since launched air strikes across Lebanon's south, east and Beirut's suburbs, killing nearly 570 people, according to a report by the Lebanese government's disaster risk management unit on Tuesday.

Strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday afternoon sent thick columns of smoke over the city. Two hours before they began, an Israeli military spokesperson ordered residents to leave immediately, specifying three new districts that should be evacuated. 

A member of the municipal council for the area told Reuters families there were fleeing, adding to the more than 759,000 that Lebanese authorities say have been displaced by the war.

Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs Haneen Sayed said on Tuesday that the state was bracing itself for higher displacement figures than in 2024, when the last war between Israel and Hezbollah pushed more than a million people out of their homes.  

"So we expect that the needs, the numbers of displacement, will be higher than in 2024. Now on the other side in terms of resources, there's far less resources this year given the global situation, the regional war that's happening," she said.

DISARMING HEZBOLLAH COULD END WAR, ISRAELI ENVOY SAYS 

Sayed spoke to Reuters at Beirut's airport, where the European Union was delivering 45 tons of emergency supplies including medical kits and blankets. 

"Our traditional partners and friends in the Gulf are of course under stress themselves. So we're appealing to the international community to be with us at this moment to help stabilize the situation in terms of humanitarian needs," Sayed said. 

Israeli troops made advances on Tuesday in additional towns in southeastern Lebanon, including with armoured columns, Lebanese security sources told Reuters.  

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday had signaled his openness to enter direct negotiations with Israel to end the war. 

But Israel's ambassador to France Joshua Zarka said on Tuesday that words were not enough. 

"At this stage, I’m not aware of any decision to enter negotiations to end this war," Zarka said. "What would end it is the disarmament of Hezbollah — and that is a choice for the Lebanese government," he said. 

Zarka said Lebanon's government was "making very good statements, but to these comments they need to add actions."

Lebanon's government last year vowed to establish a state monopoly on arms and confiscated part of Hezbollah's arsenal in the country's south, without objections from the group.

But Hezbollah has refused to disarm in full, and Lebanese authorities were fearful that taking its arms by force could ignite a civil conflict.  

(Reporting by Emilie Madi and Laila Bassam in Beirut, John Irish in Paris; Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Sharon Singleton)