[ad_1]
Israeli Warplanes attacked central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs on Tuesday, sending plumes of smoke above Lebanese capital ahead of a planned vote by Israel’s leadership on whether to accept a OUR– brokered a ceasefire aimed at ending more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.
Israel’s military also issued warnings to evacuate another 20 buildings in Beirut’s suburbs before they too were hit – a sign that it intended to punish Hezbollah until the final moments before the truce took effect.
Israeli ground troops also reached parts of Lebanon’s Litani River – the focal point of the emerging ceasefire – for the first time in the conflict.
READ MORE: Five more rescued after tourist yacht sinks in Egypt’s Red Sea
A ceasefire is still uncertain, but Israel’s security cabinet, which met on Tuesday afternoon, was expected to approve the US-backed proposal.
Lebanese officials said Hezbollah also supports the deal. If approved by all parties, the deal would be a major step toward completion Israel-Hezbollah war which has inflamed tensions across the region and fueled fears of an even wider conflict between Israel and its patron Hezbollah, Iran.
The deal calls for an initial two-month ceasefire and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a wide swath of southern Lebanon while Israeli troops return to their side of the border.
Thousands of Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers will be deployed in the south, and an international commission led by the United States will monitor compliance by all parties.
But implementation remains a big question mark. Israel has claimed the right to act if Hezbollah breaks its commitments. Lebanese officials refused to write it into the proposal.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz insisted on Tuesday that the military would attack Hezbollah if the UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, did not ensure “effective implementation” of the agreement.
“If you don’t act, we will act, and with great force,” he said in a conversation with UN special envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel’s security concerns had been addressed in the US-France deal.
“There is no excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise Lebanon will fall apart,” Borrell told reporters in Fiuggi, Italy, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) meeting.
He said the US would chair the ceasefire implementation committee and France would participate at Lebanon’s request.
The bombing of the southern suburbs of Beirut continues
Although Israeli, American, Lebanese and international officials have expressed increasing optimism about the cease-fire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says is aimed at crippling Hezbollah’s military capabilities.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in Beirut’s central Basta district – the second time in days that warplanes have hit a crowded area near the city center.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. It was not immediately clear if anyone in particular was targeted, although Israel says its airstrikes target Hezbollah officials and assets.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli warplanes attacked at least six buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
One strike landed near the country’s only airport, sending large plumes of smoke into the sky.
The airport continued to function despite its location on the Mediterranean coast next to densely populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah’s operations are based.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in the suburbs, as well as a warning for the southern city of Naqoura, where UNIFIL is headquartered.
Other strikes hit the southern city of Tyre, where the Israeli military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander.
Israel’s military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area at the eastern end of the Litani River, just a few kilometers from the border.
Previous hopes for a ceasefire have failed
According to the cease-fire agreement, Hezbollah is supposed to move its forces north of Litani, which in some places is about 30 kilometers north of the Israeli border.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the region’s strongest force backed by Iran, would likely significantly ease regional tensions that have led to fears of an outright, all-out war between Israel and Iran.
It is not clear how the ceasefire will affect the Israel-Hamas the war in Gaza. Hezbollah has long insisted that it will not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but omitted that condition.
Hezbollah began firing on northern Israel, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
Israel fired back at Hezbollah, and the two sides have been exchanging barrages of fire ever since.
In early September, Israel escalated its bombing campaign and sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire.
More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon in the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombing drove 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel claims to have killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah fire forced about 50,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes in the north of the country, and its rockets reached as far south as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people were killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died fighting in the ground offensive in Lebanon.
After earlier hopes for a cease-fire collapsed, US officials warned that the talks were far from over and noted that there could be a last-minute standoff that would either delay or destroy the deal.
“Nothing is done until everything is done,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
Although the ceasefire proposal is expected to be approved if Netanyahu brings it to a vote in his security cabinet, one hardline member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he would oppose it.
He said on X that a deal with Lebanon would be a “big mistake” and a “missed historic opportunity to root out Hezbollah.”
DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Follow the latest news, sports, politics and weather with our news app and receive notifications straight to your smartphone. Available at Apple App Store and Google Play.
[ad_2]