Israel strikes Beirut for first time since April 16 ceasefire
Israel has carried out its first strike on Beirut since reaching a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, hitting the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital in what it said was an attack on a commander from the group's...
Israel has carried out its first strike on Beirut since reaching a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, hitting the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital in what it said was an attack on a commander from the group’s elite Radwan force.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation in a joint statement.
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Israeli media said the commander was killed, though there was no immediate confirmation from either the Israeli military or Hezbollah.
Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, a source close to Hezbollah said “Malek Ballout, the operations commander in the Radwan force” had been killed.
The strike lands at a sensitive moment. Even as Iran and the US say they are moving closer to an agreement to stop their conflict, the attack risks destabilising the truce that had brought Israeli strikes on Beirut to a halt. Israeli troops have stayed in areas south of the Litani River, while attacks have continued elsewhere in southern Lebanon.
There was still no immediate confirmation from the Israeli military or Hezbollah on whether the commander had been killed
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has retaliated by firing rockets and sending armed drones toward Israeli soldiers.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel urged residents to leave several villages north of the Litani River, a move that could signal a widening of its zone of operations.
Contacts between Israel and Lebanon have continued, but they have taken place largely at ambassador level.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said it was too soon to discuss any high-level meeting between Lebanon and Israel.
According to comments carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency, Mr Salam said any new negotiations in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli envoys would have to rest first on reinforcing the ceasefire.
Last month, Washington hosted two meetings involving the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. Hezbollah has strongly opposed those talks.
Since Hezbollah ignited the war by opening fire in support of Iran on 2 March, Lebanon’s administration under Mr Salam and President Joseph Aoun has opened Beirut’s highest-level contacts with Israel in decades, underscoring the sharp divide between the Shia Muslim movement and its Lebanese rivals.
When announcing a three-week extension of the ceasefire on 23 April, US President Donald Trump said he hoped to host Mr Netanyahu and Mr Aoun soon and said he believed there was “a great chance” the two countries would reach a peace deal this year.
This photo, taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre, shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Chaaitiyeh
Mr Salam said Lebanon was not pursuing “normalisation with Israel, but rather achieving peace”.
“Our minimum demand is a timetable for Israel’s withdrawal,” he said, adding that the government would press ahead with a plan to place weapons exclusively under state control — an effort aimed at disarming Hezbollah.
Mr Aoun said this week that the moment was not right for a meeting with Mr Netanyahu. Lebanon “must first reach a security agreement and a halt to the Israeli attacks, before we raise the issue of a meeting between us,” he said.
Israel has established what it describes as a security zone stretching as far as 10km into southern Lebanon, saying the aim is to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah fighters operating from civilian areas.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said earlier that an Israeli airstrike killed four people in the southern town of Zelaya, including two women and an elderly man.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah had launched explosive drones and rockets at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, wounding two troops.
It also said the air force intercepted a hostile aircraft before it entered Israeli airspace, and announced strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in several parts of Lebanon.
More than 2,700 people have been killed in the war in Lebanon since 2 March, according to the Health Ministry.
The Israeli military says Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since 2 March.
Israel has said that 17 soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
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