Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets into Israel after strikes on Beirut
Heavy
attack launched in wake of deadly strikes on Beirut, and comes as talks
for a ceasefire and hostage release deal have stalled
Associated Press
Mon 25 Nov 2024
Hezbollah
has fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, wounding seven people in one of
the militant group’s heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly
Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with ceasefire efforts to halt the all-out war.
Some of the rockets fired on Sunday reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.
Meanwhile,
an Israeli strike on an army centre killed a Lebanese soldier and
wounded 18 others in the south-west between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon’s
military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying the strike
occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military’s operations were directed solely against the militants.
Israeli
strikes have killed more than 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the
war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has
largely kept to the sidelines.
Lebanon’s
caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as
an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody
message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ 7 October attack
out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there last year. Hezbollah has
portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and
Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.
Israel
launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the
low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched
airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top
leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired on Sunday, with some intercepted.
Israel’s
Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including
a 60-year-old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern
Israel.
Throughout the war, Israeli attacks
have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the health
ministry, while fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a
quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the
Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed
by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s
ground invasion in early October. About 60,000 Israelis have been
displaced from the country’s north.
The
European Union’s top diplomat called on Sunday for more pressure on
Israel and Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire deal, saying one was “pending
with a final agreement from the Israeli government.”
Josep
Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese parliament speaker
Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.
Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate 200m euros ($208m) to assist
the Lebanese military.
But Borrell later said
that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in
reaching an agreement for a ceasefire” and that it seemed Israel was
seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France
as a member of the international committee that would oversee the
ceasefire’s implementation.
The emerging
agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants
and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in
accordance with the UN security council resolution that ended the
month-long 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of
UN peacekeepers.
With
talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed
hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war’s only
hostage-release deal.
“It’s hard to hold on to
hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin,”
said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her
husband and two young sons.
About 100 hostages
are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the
rest of the 250 who were abducted in the 7 October Hamas attack were
released in last year’s ceasefire.