Strikes hit Beirut and Israel as US seeks ceasefire deal
Summary
Five people were killed in the Lebanese capital and one in northern Israel.
An airstrike killed five people in central Beirut, and rockets fired from Lebanon killed one person in northern Israel and caused several injuries in a Tel Aviv suburb, amid a continuing U.S. push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
The strike in Beirut on Monday evening, local time, hit a residential district around a quarter mile from the Lebanese government palace, and wounded 24 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry. It was the third strike on the Lebanese capital in two days. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Two separate strikes on Sunday also hit central districts in Beirut, killing Hezbollah’s main spokesman and several other people. Israel’s military took responsibility for the strike that killed the spokesman, calling him the group’s “chief propagandist."
Israel has mostly focused its bombing in the Beirut area on southern suburbs where Hezbollah has had a heavy presence. Israel says it has been targeting Hezbollah weapons caches, command centers and personnel, mostly but not exclusively in Dahiyeh, in those southern suburbs.
Also on Monday, northern and central Israel were targeted by rockets and missiles from Lebanon, Israeli authorities said.
Over a hundred rockets were launched at northern Israel, Israel’s military said. One hit a building in Shfar’am, killing one person and injuring at least 10 others, Israeli paramedics said.
Later in the day, after the strike in central Beirut, shrapnel from a missile that was intercepted at high altitude landed in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, Israel’s military said. One woman was severely injured and four others were also wounded, one lightly, Israeli paramedics said.
Footage shared by paramedics showed an electricity pole on a street in Ramat Gan that had caught fire.
“We arrived rapidly on scene and saw large destruction. A 54-year-old female was fully conscious lying on the road," said Yaakov Lubinsky, a paramedic for Magen David Adom, the organization that manages Israel’s emergency medical response.
The strikes come as American and Israeli officials have expressed optimism about a potential cease-fire in Lebanon in the near future. Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon more than a month and a half ago in an attempt to push Hezbollah forces away from Israel’s northern border.
Write to Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com and Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com
