Hezbollah fires rocket barrage at Israel after Beirut air strike
More than 200 missiles fired at Israel as Lebanon’s health ministry in Beirut raises death toll to 29
24 November 2024 - 22:07
byLaila Bassam, Crispian Balmer and Jonathan Saul
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Medics help people at the scene of a Hezbollah rocket strike in Petah Tikva, Israel, November 24 2024. Picture: REUTERS/ITAI RON
Jerusalem/Beirut — Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel on Sunday, and the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set alight near Tel Aviv, after an Israeli air strike in Beirut the day before.
Israel struck Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where intensified bombardments over the past two weeks have coincided with signs of progress in US-led ceasefire talks.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll of Saturday’s air strike from 20 to 29.
Hezbollah, which has previously vowed to respond to attacks on Beirut by targeting Tel Aviv, said it had launched precision missiles at two military sites in Tel Aviv and nearby.
Police said there were multiple impact sites in the area of Petah Tikvah, on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, and that several people had minor injuries.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said a direct hit on a neighbourhood had left “houses in flames and ruins”. Television footage showed an apartment damaged by rocket fire.
The IDF said Hezbollah had fired 240 rockets at Israel, of which many were intercepted, with sirens sounding across most of the country. At least four people had been injured by shrapnel.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell visits a patient injured by Israeli strikes at Geitaoui Hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 24 2024. Picture: REUTERS/THAIER AL-SUDANI
Video obtained by Reuters showed a projectile exploding as it smashed into the roof of a building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.
The military warned on social media that it planned to target Hezbollah facilities in southern Beirut before strikes that demolished two apartment blocks, according to security sources in Lebanon. Afterwards, the IDF said it had hit command centres “deliberately embedded between civilian buildings”.
On Saturday, it had carried out one of its deadliest and most powerful strikes on the centre of Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll from 20 to 29. It said 84 people had been killed in all on Saturday, taking the death toll to 3,754 since October 2023.
The IDF did not comment on Saturday's strike in the capital or say what it had attacked.
Israel went on the offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in September, pounding the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs with air strikes after nearly a year of hostilities ignited by the Gaza war.
Final approval
The Israeli offensive has uprooted more than 1-million people in Lebanon.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
US mediator Amos Hochstein highlighted progress in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before travelling to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said a US ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the US proposal for a ceasefire,” he said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had convened a meeting of his security cabinet for 3pm GMT.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back about 30km from the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army to deploy in the buffer zone.
The Lebanese army said on Sunday at least one soldier had been killed and 18 more injured in an Israeli strike that caused severe damage at an army centre in Al-Amiriya near the southern city of Tyre.
The Israeli military said it regretted and was investigating the incident, and that it was fighting against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese Army.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack “represents a direct bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, strengthen the army’s presence in the south, and implement ... [resolution] 1701”.
Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate €200m to support the Lebanese army.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Hezbollah fires rocket barrage at Israel after Beirut air strike
More than 200 missiles fired at Israel as Lebanon’s health ministry in Beirut raises death toll to 29
Jerusalem/Beirut — Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel on Sunday, and the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set alight near Tel Aviv, after an Israeli air strike in Beirut the day before.
Israel struck Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where intensified bombardments over the past two weeks have coincided with signs of progress in US-led ceasefire talks.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll of Saturday’s air strike from 20 to 29.
Hezbollah, which has previously vowed to respond to attacks on Beirut by targeting Tel Aviv, said it had launched precision missiles at two military sites in Tel Aviv and nearby.
Police said there were multiple impact sites in the area of Petah Tikvah, on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, and that several people had minor injuries.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said a direct hit on a neighbourhood had left “houses in flames and ruins”. Television footage showed an apartment damaged by rocket fire.
The IDF said Hezbollah had fired 240 rockets at Israel, of which many were intercepted, with sirens sounding across most of the country. At least four people had been injured by shrapnel.
Video obtained by Reuters showed a projectile exploding as it smashed into the roof of a building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.
The military warned on social media that it planned to target Hezbollah facilities in southern Beirut before strikes that demolished two apartment blocks, according to security sources in Lebanon. Afterwards, the IDF said it had hit command centres “deliberately embedded between civilian buildings”.
On Saturday, it had carried out one of its deadliest and most powerful strikes on the centre of Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll from 20 to 29. It said 84 people had been killed in all on Saturday, taking the death toll to 3,754 since October 2023.
The IDF did not comment on Saturday's strike in the capital or say what it had attacked.
Israel went on the offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in September, pounding the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs with air strikes after nearly a year of hostilities ignited by the Gaza war.
Final approval
The Israeli offensive has uprooted more than 1-million people in Lebanon.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
US mediator Amos Hochstein highlighted progress in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before travelling to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said a US ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the US proposal for a ceasefire,” he said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had convened a meeting of his security cabinet for 3pm GMT.
Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back about 30km from the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army to deploy in the buffer zone.
The Lebanese army said on Sunday at least one soldier had been killed and 18 more injured in an Israeli strike that caused severe damage at an army centre in Al-Amiriya near the southern city of Tyre.
The Israeli military said it regretted and was investigating the incident, and that it was fighting against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese Army.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack “represents a direct bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, strengthen the army’s presence in the south, and implement ... [resolution] 1701”.
Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate €200m to support the Lebanese army.
Reuters
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