Israel has rejected proposals for a ceasefire with Hezbollah, defying calls from allies including the United States for a halt in fighting.
Israeli warplanes bombarded Lebanon, including a strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut that shook the capital. On its own side of the border, the Israeli army staged an exercise simulating a ground invasion.
The relentless pressure on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, including intense airstrikes and assassinations of some of its senior commanders, raised concern of a wider war spreading across the region.
The military, which has vowed to secure Israel’s northern border and return thousands of Israeli citizens to communities there, said the exercise of its 7th brigade took place a few kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Shortly afterwards the military said it was carrying out precise strikes in Beirut. The sound of a blast was heard and smoke seen rising in the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. The attack targeted a senior Hezbollah leader whose fate was not immediately known, a security source told Reuters.
The strike hit near a part of the southern suburbs where several of the Lebanese armed group’s facilities are located but where many civilians also live and work. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV broadcast images of a damaged upper floor of a building.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
The comments dashed hopes for a swift settlement, after Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati had expressed hope that a ceasefire could be reached soon.
Asked about Israel’s rejection of a US-backed Lebanon ceasefire proposal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told MSNBC: “The world is speaking clearly for virtually all of the key countries in Europe and in the region on the need for the ceasefire.”
He added that he would be meeting with Israeli officials in New York later this afternoon.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes seeking safety in the face of the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Lebanon since a major war in 2006. World leaders have voiced concern that the conflict – running in parallel to Israel’s war in Gaza – was escalating rapidly.
Hezbollah has faced off against the Israeli military since the Shi’ite Muslim movement was created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to counter an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It has since evolved into Tehran’s most powerful Middle East proxy.
The United States, France and several other allies called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border. They also expressed support for a ceasefire in Gaza following intense discussions at the United Nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, heading to New York to address the UN, said he had not yet given his response to the truce proposal but had instructed the army to fight on.
Hardliners in his government said Israel should reject any truce and keep hitting Hezbollah until it surrenders.
More than 600 people have been killed since Monday in Israel’s strikes on Lebanon, which follow nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah in parallel with the Gaza war.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles at targets in Israel including, for the first time, its commercial hub Tel Aviv, although Israel’s aerial defence system has ensured that the damage has been limited.
Asked if a ceasefire could be secured soon, Lebanese leader Mikati told Reuters: “Hopefully, yes.” His caretaker administration includes ministers chosen by Hezbollah, widely seen as Lebanon’s most powerful political force.
Yesterday, Israel’s army chief made the most explicit public comment yet on the possibility of a ground assault on Lebanon, telling troops near the border to be prepared to cross.
Israeli fighter jets have hit infrastructure on the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s military said.
The Lebanese health ministry has said that at least 26 people had been killed across Lebanon in Israeli strikes overnight and throughout the day, most of them Syrians who were killed in the town of Younine in the Bekaa Valley.
Lebanon is home to around 1.5 million Syrians who fled civil war there.
Hezbollah said in a statement it had bombarded the town of Kiryat Shmona an area in northern Israel with Falak 2 rockets.
Thousands of Lebanese have sought shelter in schools in Beirut. In one of them, women could be seen leaning out of classroom windows, smoking cigarettes or airing out foam mattresses they had slept on this week.
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“I just want to know if there will be a little electricity at night so I can go buy a fan,” one woman said.
Aid organisations were distributing clothes and food, and checking on any medications needed by elderly people who had fled too quickly to bring their prescriptions with them.
The Israeli military said it had attacked dozens of Hezbollah targets including fighters, military buildings and weapons depots, in several areas this morning.
Around 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards the western Galilee area, some of which were intercepted with the rest falling on open ground, said the Israeli military.
The relentless fighting has led some neighbouring countries to worry about the safety of their citizens in Lebanon. Turkey is making preparations for the possible evacuation of its citizens and foreign nationals from Lebanon, a Turkish defence ministry source said.
Israel has made a priority of securing its northern border and allowing the return there of some 70,000 residents displaced by near-daily exchanges of fire, which Hezbollah initiated a year ago in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel’s airstrikes have sharply intensified since Monday, when more than 550 people were killed in Lebanon’s deadliest day since the end of a 1975-1990 civil war.
The bombing follows attacks last week when pagers and walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon, killing scores of people and wounding thousands including Hezbollah members.
