The Israeli army has attacked the Lebanese capital, Beirut's southern suburbs, with airstrikes in one of the heaviest daytime assaults on the area to date, after Israel's defense minister ruled out a ceasefire until Israeli targets were reached. reaches.
Smoke poured over Beirut as about a dozen attacks hit the southern suburbs from Tuesday morning (local time), killing 12 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Beirut residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing the city in September.
After posting evacuation orders to civilians on social media, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah targets in Beirut's Dahiyeh area and later dismantled most of the group's weapons and missile facilities.
It said it has taken steps to reduce harm to civilians and reiterated its standing accusation that Hezbollah has deliberately embedded itself in civilian areas to use residents as human shields, a charge Hezbollah rejects.
Two people were killed when a residential building was hit in the town of Nahariya in northern Israel, Israeli police said.
Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for a drone strike it said targeted a military base east of Nahariya.
Israelis were forced to take shelter from drone strikes in the north, the army said.
One hit the yard of a kindergarten in a Haifa suburb, where the children had been rushed to a shelter, rescuers said. No one was injured.
The conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, sparked by the Gaza war, had been raging for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, bombarding large parts of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops south.
Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, killing many of its leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, razing large parts of the southern suburbs, destroying border villages in the south and striking more widely across Lebanon.
Since hostilities broke out a year ago, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 3,287 people, most of them in the past seven weeks, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The figures make no distinction between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the past year.
New Israeli Defense Minister rejects ceasefire in Lebanon
New Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that there will be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.
“Israel will not agree to any settlement that does not guarantee Israel's right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own and to achieve the objectives of the war in Lebanon – the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and the safe return of the people of the North.” to their homes,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday that “some progress” had been made in ceasefire negotiations, but that the main challenge to a ceasefire agreement would be its enforcement are.
The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a UN resolution that ended the 2006 war between the group and Israel.
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