Borrell calls for ceasefire in Lebanon, 160 projectiles fired by Hezbollah towards Israel

The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell called on Sunday in Beirut to an “immediate ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, at a time when the Lebanese movement fired 160 projectiles towards Israeli territory.

The day after a particularly deadly day of Israeli bombings in Lebanon, which mainly targeted the heart of Beirut, Hezbollah announced on Sunday several drone and missile attacks against targets and military bases in the Tel Aviv region (center) and in southern Israel.

A photo provided by the Lebanese Parliament press office on November 24, 2024 shows Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (R) meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borell in Beirut © LEBANESE PARLIAMENT – –

In Israel, warning sirens sounded in several areas, including the greater Tel Aviv suburbs, the army said, reporting 160 projectiles fired from neighboring Lebanon, some of which were intercepted. Damage was reported in Petah Tikva.

Shortly after the army announced the projectiles, the Lebanese National News Agency (ANI) reported two Israeli strikes that hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The raids “caused massive destruction in a large geographical area” of the Kafaat district, ANI added.

Soldiers and rescue workers at the scene of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a Lebanese army post in al-Amriyeh, southern Lebanon, on November 24, 2024 © AFP – Kawnat HAJU

For its part, the Lebanese army, which is not involved in the war, announced that one of its soldiers had been killed and 18 others wounded in an Israeli attack on their position in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold bordering northern Israel.

“We see only one possible path: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said after his talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

– “On the brink of collapse” –

Residents of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, inspect the damage caused by rockets fired from Lebanon, on November 24, 2024 © AFP – Menahem Kahana

Resolution 1701, which ended the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers be deployed on Lebanon's southern border. This implies a withdrawal of Hezbollah, but also that of the Israeli soldiers who have been leading a ground offensive there since September 30.

Israel says it wants to incapacitate Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, allies of its enemy Iran. It has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist movement's unprecedented attack on its soil on October 7, 2023, which sparked war in the Gaza Strip, and is seeking to halt Hezbollah's rocket fire on its territory.

On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah opened a “support front” for its Palestinian ally, the target of an Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza.

Residents inspect the damage after rockets were fired from Lebanon, in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, on November 24, 2024 © AFP – Menahem Kahana

After a year of cross-border violence and weakening Hamas in Gaza, Israel has shifted the focus of its operations to Lebanon, launching an intense bombing campaign starting September 23 on Hezbollah strongholds.

“We must put pressure on the Israeli government and keep up the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the American ceasefire proposal,” Borrell said, stressing that the EU was ready to provide 200 million euros to help strengthen the army Lebanese.

– “Rejection of the ceasefire” –

This 13-point proposal, which provides for a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in southern Lebanon, was discussed by US envoy Amos Hochstein who shuttled earlier this week between Lebanon and Israel.

Protesters hold placards during an anti-government rally demanding action to free Israelis held hostage in Gaza, outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on November 23, 2024 © AFP – Jack GUEZ

But no results have been announced and the pace of Israeli strikes mainly against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon has accelerated after his mission.

“In September, I came and I still hoped that we could prevent an open war by Israel against Lebanon. Two months later, Lebanon is on the verge of collapse,” added Mr. Borrell.

For Mr. Mikati, “the direct targeting by the Israeli enemy of a position of The (Lebanese) army is a direct and bloody message of rejection of all efforts to achieve a ceasefire.”

The Lebanese Ministry of Health estimates that at least 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most since September of this year. On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed in 13 months.

– At least eleven dead in Gaza –

Hossam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, injured after an Israeli strike that, according to the local civil defense, hit the facility in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, late on November 23, 2024 © AFP – –

On Israel's southern front, in the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, eleven Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes, according to the local civil defense.

The director of Kamel Adwan Hospital, Hossam Abou Safiyeh, was seriously injured in a nighttime drone attack on the facility in the north of the Palestinian territory, according to the same source.

This hospital is one of the last to still partially function in the Palestinian territory in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.

Considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew from the territory it occupied for 38 years.

Displaced Palestinian children stand on sandbags used to protect tents from flooding, in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on November 24 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

In response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza that left at least 44,211 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from Hamas's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

The October 7 attack resulted in the death of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity. That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.

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