Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Lebanon said Monday Hezbollah had accepted a US proposal to stop attacking Israel in exchange for Israel halting attacks on south Beirut, after President Donald Trump reported having a “very good call” with the Iran-backed group. Under the arrangement, which Hezbollah has accepted, according to a statement from the Lebanese embassy in Washington shared by the Lebanese presidency, “Israeli strikes on Dahiyeh” — Beirut’s southern suburbs — “would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from launching attacks against Israel”.
Israel had threatened to strike the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital again on Monday. Israel’s growing offensive in Lebanon, including heavy bombardment and its deepest ground invasion in two decades, has threatened to scupper the ceasefire between the United States and Iran in the wider Middle East war. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the conflict on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Trump said he had persuaded Israel and Hezbollah to de-escalate. “There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after a “very productive” call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel,” he added.
Netanyahu later said he had told Trump “that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our towns and our citizens, Israel will strike terrorist targets in Beirut”. But Trump doubled down on his ceasefire push, posting on Truth Social that “hopefully” Israel and Hezbollah would stop fighting “for ETERNITY!”
The announcements came on the eve of a fourth round of US-hosted direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Military delegations held security talks last week. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said his group’s position was “clear and stipulates a comprehensive ceasefire across all Lebanese territory,” Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel reported.
However, Hezbollah claimed multiple attacks on Israeli targets, mainly in south Lebanon, including after Trump’s announcement. Earlier on Monday, Tehran said a Lebanon ceasefire remained a key condition for any deal with Washington, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to open “new fronts” in the war over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes on dozens of locations in the country’s south, including one that damaged a hospital in the city of Tyre. An AFP correspondent saw heavy damage in the area, with first responders putting out a blaze at the Jabal Amel hospital’s car park, which had been hit. The health ministry shared videos showing damage inside a hospital ward, with rubble and debris on the ground, blown-out ceilings, blood on the floor, and shattered glass.
Near the border, Father Antonios Farah, a priest for the village Qlayaa, where some residents are still holding out despite Israeli evacuation orders, told AFP a strike on a car had killed a man, his son, and his daughter, who were students, as he drove them back from university exams in Beirut. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks since March 2 have killed at least 3,433 people. Israel’s military said two of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, bringing to 27 the number of Israeli military deaths since early March.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urged all sides “to respect the cessation of hostilities”. The UN Security Council was holding an emergency meeting on the war in Lebanon on Monday. In a report to the Security Council seen by AFP, Guterres said it would be necessary to maintain peacekeepers in Lebanon after the mandate of the current mission expires at year-end.
Earlier, Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in light of Hezbollah’s “repeated violations of the ceasefire…and the attacks on our cities and citizens”. Israel’s military later urged residents of the area, a Hezbollah stronghold mostly spared heavy attacks since April, to evacuate. Katz said there would be “no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah attacks continued, vowing to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of southern Lebanon’s Litani River.
AFP journalists saw families fleeing the densely populated southern suburbs. South Beirut resident Hadi, 24, said he had hoped for some stability during the truce, but “that feeling did not last long.” “Our fears intensified this morning” after the Israeli announcement, which “caused widespread panic, and we immediately left the area,” he told AFP by telephone. A truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire, justifying their attacks by blaming the other’s alleged breaches.
© 2024 AFP
