Israeli warplanes yesterday struck buildings in Beirut’s suburbs and in a southern Lebanese city, as its security Cabinet prepared to vote on a US-brokered ceasefire proposal aimed at ending more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.
Hopes have risen for the deal, which calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border.
Israel’s security Cabinet, which was meeting yesterday afternoon, was expected to approve the proposal, which Lebanese officials have said Hezbollah also supports.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Among the main sticking points has been an Israeli demand to reserve the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Under the proposal, thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the US would monitor all sides’ compliance.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the military would strike Hezbollah if the UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, does not provide “effective enforcement” of the deal.
“If you don’t act, we will act, and with great force,” he said, speaking with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that Israel’s security concerns had been addressed in the US-French-brokered deal.
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire. Otherwise, Lebanon will fall apart,” Borrell told reporters in Fiuggi, Italy, on the sidelines of a G7 meeting.
He said the US would chair a ceasefire implementation committee, and France would participate at the request of Lebanon.
Even as Israeli, US, Lebanese and international officials have expressed growing optimism over a ceasefire, Israel has continued its campaign in Lebanon, which it says aims to cripple Hezbollah’s military capabilities.
Israeli jets yesterday struck at least six buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs. One strike slammed near the country’s only airport, sending large plumes of smoke into the sky. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Other strikes hit in the southern city of Tyre, where the Israeli military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander.
The Israeli military also said its ground troops reached parts of Lebanon’s Litani River — a focal point of the emerging ceasefire.
It said troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani, just a few kilometers from the border.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 30km north of the Israeli border.
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