The Israeli army attacked the Lebanese capital, on the southern outskirts of Beirut, with airstrikes in one of its heaviest daylight attacks ever on the area, after the Israeli Defense Minister ruled out a ceasefire until the Israeli objectives.
Smoke rose over Beirut as around a dozen strikes hit the southern suburbs since mid-morning on Tuesday (local time), killing 12 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Beirut residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing them in September.
After posting evacuation orders for civilians on social media, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut and later said it had dismantled most of the Hezbollah’s weapons and missile facilities. group.
It said it had taken measures to reduce harm to civilians and reiterated its consistent accusation that Hezbollah deliberately intrudes into civilian areas to use residents as human shields, a charge Hezbollah rejects.
In northern Israel, two people were killed in the town of Nahariya when a residential building was hit, Israeli police said.
Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for a drone attack that it said was aimed at a military base east of Nahariya.
Israelis were forced to take refuge from drone attacks in the north, the military said.
One hit the courtyard of a kindergarten in the Haifa suburb, where children had been rushed to a shelter, rescuers said. Nobody was injured.
Inflamed by the Gaza war, the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah had continued for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, hitting large areas of Lebanon with air strikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, raze large areas of the southern periphery, destroy border villages in the south and strike more widely across Lebanon.
Since the outbreak of hostilities a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,287 people in Lebanon, most in the past seven weeks, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Its figures make no distinction between civilians and combatants.
Over the past year, Hezbollah attacks have killed around 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon.
Israel’s new defense minister rejects ceasefire in Lebanon
Israel’s new Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said Monday that there will be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its objectives.
“Israel will not accept any agreement that does not guarantee Israel’s right to impose and prevent terrorism on its own and to achieve the objectives of the war in Lebanon: disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and safely returning the residents of the north in the country. in their homes,” he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said on Monday that there had been “some progress” in ceasefire talks, but the main challenge facing a ceasefire agreement would be enforcement.
The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on full implementation of a United Nations resolution that ended the group’s war with Israel in 2006.
