By Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike flattened a building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions on Friday, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the city.
One of several airstrikes on Friday morning, the attack struck near the Tayouneh junction in an area where the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city, a more central target than most that Israel has hit.
Israel has this week stepped up airstrikes against the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs – an escalation that has coincided with indications of movement in U.S.-led diplomatic contacts towards ending the conflict.
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon on Thursday submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters without providing details.
The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said.
“It is a draft to get observations from the Lebanese side,” one of the sources told Reuters. When asked about the proposal, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said: “Efforts to reach a diplomatic deal are ongoing.”
A senior diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, assessed that more time was needed to get a ceasefire done and was hopeful it could be achieved.
The diplomacy marks a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing U.S. administration to secure a Lebanon ceasefire, as efforts to end the war in Gaza appear totally adrift.
Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, met Berri and Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Friday, Lebanese and Iranian media reported.
Ahead of the latest airstrikes, the Israeli military issued a warning on social media identifying buildings in the southern suburbs and telling residents to evacuate, saying they were near Hezbollah facilities.
The sound of an incoming missile could be heard in footage showing the airstrike near Tayouneh. The targeted building turned into a cloud of rubble and debris which billowed into the adjacent Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire with the aim of delivering an early foreign policy win to President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to be strongly pro-Israel.
Israel launched its offensive against Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, declaring it wanted to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate from northern Israel.
It has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, using airstrikes to pound areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah has political and military sway, and sending troops into the south.
Hezbollah has kept up rocket attacks into Israel and its fighters have been battling Israeli troops in the south.
One major sticking point in ceasefire talks is Israel’s demand to retain freedom to act should Hezbollah violate any agreement – a demand Lebanon has rejected.
Israel’s campaign has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes in Lebanon, igniting a humanitarian crisis.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,386 people through Wednesday since Oct. 7, 2023, the vast majority of them since late September. It does not distinguish between civilian casualties and fighters.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the last year, according to Israel.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari, Riham Alkoussa and Tom Perry in Beirut; Writing by Tom Perry and Peter Graff)
