Israel pounds Beirut as security cabinet discusses ceasefire plan

AFP | Beirut

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Israel’s security cabinet convened to discuss a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon yesterday, as a flurry of air strikes hit central Beirut.

The United States, European Union, United Nations and G7, among others, have pushed for a halt to the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale war in late September.

But as the pressure for a truce has intensified, so too have air strikes and ground battles between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Waves of strikes pounded Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold after a flurry of Israeli evacuation warnings, AFPTV footage showed, in the heaviest raids since Israel’s air campaign escalated.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “a belt of fire has encircled (the city’s) southern suburbs” as raids targeted Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that three strikes hit the central Nweiri neighbourhood and destroyed a “four-storey building housing displaced people”. The health ministry said the first strike killed seven people and wounded 37.

“We were blown away and the walls fell on top of us,” said Rola Jaafar, who lives in the building opposite.

The Israeli army warned residents of four neighbourhoods of central Beirut to evacuate their homes, the first such warnings it had issued for the city centre in two months of war.

Waves of strikes pounded Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold after a flurry of Israeli evacuation warnings, AFPTV footage showed, in the heaviest raids since Israel’s air campaign escalated.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “a belt of fire has encircled (the city’s) southern suburbs” as raids targeted Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath.