New attacks hit south Beirut after Israeli calls for evacuation

At least 10 strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early Friday after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of buildings in the Hezbollah stronghold.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon as the death toll rises on both sides of the border.

AFPTV footage showed explosions followed by plumes of smoke rising in the suburbs.

“The raids caused enormous destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled and fires broke out,” the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The strikes targeted the suburban areas of Ghobeiri and Al-Qafaat, the Sayed Hadi Highway, the area around the Al-Mujtaba complex and the old airport road, it added.

In recent weeks, the Israeli military has repeatedly bombed southern Beirut, as well as carrying out deadly strikes throughout the capital and across Lebanon.

– Ceasefire negotiations –

During talks on Thursday, Israeli leader Netanyahu told US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that any agreement with Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s long-term security.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also met separately with the Americans, saying in a statement that their discussions focused on “security measures relating to the northern arena and Lebanon, as well as efforts to secure the return of the 101 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”

Under the US-brokered plan, Hezbollah forces will retreat about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the border, north of the Litani River, according to Israeli media reports citing government sources.

Israeli troops will withdraw from Lebanon, and the Lebanese army will then take responsibility for the border along with UN peacekeepers.

Lebanon will be responsible for preventing Hezbollah from rearming with imported weapons, and Israel will retain its right under international law to act in self-defense.

Analysts say Israel’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah has put it in a strong position to reach an agreement.

– Growing death toll –

Also Thursday, Israeli medics and a local leader reported seven Israelis had died in cross-border fire from Lebanon, one of Israel’s highest one-day tolls in more than a year of cross-border exchanges.

Four Thais in the northern Israeli town of Metula were also killed Thursday by rocket fire from Lebanon, Thailand’s foreign minister said.

The Metula Regional Council said the strike killed one local farmer and four foreign farm workers.

The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,829 people since fighting in Lebanon escalated on Sept. 23 following cross-border exchanges that Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas, according to AFP’s health ministry.

The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) said on Thursday that the war has killed at least one child every day since October 4 and injured an average of 10 people every day.

The Israeli military says 37 soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since the ground operation began on September 30.

The NPA said the Israeli army carried out strikes on eastern Lebanon’s main city of Baalbek on Thursday, two hours after it ordered the evacuation. The operation reportedly killed six people and destroyed several houses and buildings.

The NPA said six more people were also killed in raids on the town of Makna, which was not included in the Israeli evacuation order.

– Negotiations in the Gaza Strip –

Hezbollah’s new leader Naim Kassem, who took the reins after Israel killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, does not explicitly link the ceasefire in Lebanon to a cessation of fighting in Gaza, the group’s previous position.

“If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we will say we accept, but on terms that we consider appropriate and appropriate,” he said in his first speech since taking power on Tuesday.

Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have long been trying to achieve a truce and exchange of hostages in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Mediators seeking a ceasefire are expected to offer a truce of “less than a month” to the Palestinian group Hamas, a source familiar with the talks told AFP.

The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to the territory, the source added.

But on Thursday, senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu confirmed that the group rejected a short-term pause.

“Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” Nuno said.

Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year sparked the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an Israeli official tally published by Agence France-Presse.

Israel’s retaliatory bombing and ground war in the Gaza Strip have killed 43,204 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry data considered reliable by the United Nations.