Jerusalem: The Israeli military said it launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday despite ongoing efforts to negotiate an end to the US-Iran war. Smoke could be seen rising over the Lebanese capital.
The strikes threatened to hamper negotiations over a deal, which in its current form is a deep disappointment to Israel’s government. The last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, it set off the most serious escalation of fighting between Iran and Israel since the tenuous ceasefire took hold April 7.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on the north of the country. Israel’s military said earlier in the day that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles into northern Israel, releasing footage where an audible boom was followed by a column of smoke rising above the tree line.
In Beirut the building struck was a five-story apartment building with shops on the bottom floor. The two lower floors were the most heavily damaged by the strikes. There was no word on casualties. Residents of the southern suburbs, many of whom had returned to their homes after a period of relative calm in recent weeks, could be seen fleeing the area.
Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel on March 2, two days after the US and Israel attacked Iran, sparking war in the Middle East. Israeli troops have pushed their invasion of Lebanon deeper than at any point in over a quarter century.
“Israel will not tolerate firing into its territory,” a statement from Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Sunday. Trump has pressed Netanyahu to stop hitting Lebanon hard while a deal is near, but the prime minister has defied him.
Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned on X that Israel’s strikes on Beirut’s suburbs show that “America either lacks the will to fulfil its commitments or the ability to do so.” He warned that the strikes could imperil the final stage of negotiations. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
