New Israeli strikes in Lebanon, international pressure for a truce

The Israeli army carried out new strikes on Monday against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where ; His troops are engaged in intense fighting with the pro-Iranian movement in the south, at a time when the international community is intensifying its pressure on the belligerents for a ceasefire. -fire.

Intensely pounded Sunday by the Israeli air force, the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, were targeted by three new strikes Monday morning, after an Israeli evacuation order, according to the official Lebanese agency Ani.

The Israeli army claimed to have struck “several Hezbollah command centers” there.

These raids come after a weekend marked by an intensification of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, in open war since the end of September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire that have displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

On Sunday, the day after an Israeli strike that killed at least 29 people in central Beirut, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for 50 attacks against Israel, targeting in particular the Tel Aviv region (center), a record since it opened a front against Israel at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

The Israeli army said its deadly strike on Saturday targeted a Hezbollah command center and reported around 250 projectiles fired from Lebanon on Sunday.

This series of Hezbollah attacks, one of the most violent against the country since the end of September, has left 24 people injured, including 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

– “Window of opportunity” –

Visiting Beirut on Sunday, the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called for an “immediate ceasefire”.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, spoke of a “window of opportunity” for a truce, calling on Israel and the Lebanese to seize it.

According to the American news site Axios, the two sides are moving toward an agreement based on a US plan for a 60-day truce during which Hezbollah and the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army to deploy there.

The plan, presented to both sides last week by US envoy Amos Hochstein, includes the establishment of an international committee to monitor its implementation, according to Axios.

The site reports US assurances to support Israeli military action in the event of hostile actions by Hezbollah.

Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister and far-right ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned Monday against a ceasefire, calling it “a big mistake.”

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Originally from northern Israel, Dorit Sison, 51, also fears that a settlement will be reached in favor of Hezbollah, as she said in 2006, following the last war between Israel and Hezbollah. The movement was then able to “rearm” and now “they have tunnels, rockets, all the munitions possible, they have everything,” she says.

The mediators are relying on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006, which stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers be deployed on Lebanon's southern border.

Israel says it wants to disable Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, allies of its enemy Iran. He has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist movement's unprecedented attack on his soil on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and is seeking to halt Hezbollah's rocket fire on his territory, which has displaced some 60,000 northerners.

– “Fierce” fighting in the south –

A photo taken in the city ​​of Tyre, southern Lebanon, shows rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel, November 24, 2024 © AFP – Kawnat HAJU

According to Ani, the Israeli army also carried out other air raids on Monday in various sectors of southern Lebanon, where “fierce” fighting is taking place against Hezbollah.

Israeli troops dynamited houses in the town of Khiam, close to the border between the two countries, where they advanced “under the cover of raids, artillery fire and phosphorus fire,” Ani said.

She reported Israeli shelling of Beaufort Castle, a ruined Crusader fortress used as a base by the Israeli army during its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.

The Lebanese Education Ministry announced the suspension of in-person classes in Beirut and its environs on Monday.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, at least 3,754 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them since last September, including 84 on Saturday.

On the Israeli side, 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed in 13 months.

Children share a meal in the Bureij displaced persons camp in the central Gaza Strip, under siege, on November 24, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

In the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, eleven Palestinians died Sunday in Israeli strikes, according to the local Civil Defense.

The war in Gaza has claimed at least 44,235 lives, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas 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 who died 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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