(MENAFN- Live Mint) At least 20 people have been killed on November 23, in continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon's capital city Beirut, according to an AP report. Citing officials, the report said that Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut“continued without warning”, while there is yet to be any agreement around a ceasefire deal.
Further, Lebanon's health Ministry said 66 people have been wounded in the city due to the strikes. Saturday's attack was the fourth in central Beirut in less than a week, it added.
The Attack
The strikes took place at 4 am on November 23 and shot down to rubble an eight-storey building in central Beirut. The attack also impacted the facade of nearby buildings and“crumpled” cars, the report said.
Walid Al-Hashash, a first responder with the Lebanese Civil Defense told the news agency,“The area is residential, with closely packed buildings and narrow streets, making the situation challenging.”
Hezbollah legislator Amin Shiri confirmed to AP that none of the outfit's officials were inside the targetted building. The Israeli Defence Forces did not comment, it added.
Full-on War
The escalation comes amid United States envoy Amos Hochstein's visit to the region to has out a ceasefire deal to end what started as an Israel-Hezbollah fight into“full-on war”, the report noted.
Over 3,500 Lebanese have been killed and 1.2 million (a quarter of the country's population) has been displaced, the ministry has said. Also, 90 Israeli soldiers and 50 citizens have died due to the conflict.
Also Saturday, a drone strike killed two people and injured three in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, according to the Lebanese state-run National News Agency.
Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area, said those killed were Palestinian refugees from nearby al-Rashidieh camp who were out fishing.
Despite a warning last month by Israel's army to avoid Lebanon's southern coast, "you can't tell someone who needs to eat that you can't fish," Bikai said.
The Health Ministry said other airstrikes killed eight people, including four children, in the eastern town of Shmustar, five others in the southern village of Roumin, and another five people in the northeastern village of Budai.
Sticking points in cease-fire talks
Two Western diplomatic officials on Saturday described disputed points between Israel and Lebanon in cease-fire negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.
The current proposal calls for a two-month cease-fire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River. Thousands more Lebanese army troops would patrol the border area with U.N. peacekeepers, and an international committee would monitor the deal's implementation.
The officials said Israel wanted more guarantees that Hezbollah's weapons are removed from the border area. Israeli officials have said they would not agree to a deal that did not explicitly grant them freedom to strike in Lebanon if they believe Hezbollah is violating it.
Lebanese officials have said the inclusion of such a term would violate their country's sovereignty. And Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said this week that the militant group would not agree to a deal that doen'ts not entail a“complete and comprehensive end to the aggression."
Lebanon and Israel also dispute which countries would sit on the monitoring committee. The officials said Israel refused to allow France, which has been close with Lebanon since its colonial rule there ended. Lebanon refused to have Britain, a close ally of Israel.
Deadly strikes in Gaza and people trapped in rubble
In northern Gaza, the Health Ministry said at least 80 people, total, were killed on Thursday and Friday, including near the Kamal Adwan and Al-Ahli hospitals. It said dozens of people were trapped under the rubble.
Israel's army said it wasn't aware of a strike near Kamal Adwan, and it didn't respond to questions about the other attacks.
On Saturday, at least six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Associated Press reporters and staff at Nasser Hospital.
“Suddenly we woke up to dust, smoke and a fire,” said one grieving father, Ahmad Ghassan.“We found him dead and his brother injured.” Another father wept as he carried his child's body in a bloodstained sheet.
And Al-Awda Hospital said it received six bodies after Israel shelled a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll from the 13-month-long war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. It has said more than half the dead are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has devastated wide areas, and around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands live in tent camps with little food, water or basic services.
At least two women were shot dead Saturday while waiting in line for bread in central Deir al-Balah, relatives and witnesses told the AP. It was unclear who shot them and why.
The United Nations says its attempts to support hard-hit northern Gaza, which has been the focus of a renewed Israeli offensive for weeks, have been denied or impeded, and that less than 20% of the population has remained there since the offensive began.
Jordan security forces kill man who opened fire near Israeli Embassy
Authorities in Jordan say they shot and killed a man who opened fire on a police patrol near the Israeli Embassy, an attack that left three police officers hurt.
The shooting happened early Sunday in the Rabiah neighborhood of Amman, the Jordanian capital.
Jordan's Public Security Directorate said in a statement that a man was shooting in the area, and police pursued the shooter.
“He was chased and surrounded, so he started firing gunshots at the security force, which in turn applied the rules of engagement, which resulted in the killing of the perpetrator,” the statement said.
It did not identify the shooter.
Israel and Jordan reached a peace deal in 1994. Tensions have been high between the two countries amid the Israel-Hamas war, which has decimated the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon.
(With inputs from AP)
MENAFN23112024007365015876ID1108918853