Israel strikes south Beirut after Netanyahu vows 'no ceasefire'

BEIRUT: The Israeli military launched strikes in south Beirut on Wednesday, after Netanyahu rejected the idea of a ceasefire in Lebanon that would leave Hezbollah close to his country’s border.

An AFP journalist saw black smoke billowing between buildings in the capital’s Haret Hreik area following two strikes, which hit shortly after an Israeli military order for residents to leave.

Israeli PM Netanyahu’s vow to keep fighting Hezbollah came as the United States ramped up pressure over Israel’s conduct of the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, criticising the recent bombing of Beirut and demanding that more aid reach the Palestinian territory.

In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu said he was “opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was”, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu and the Israeli military have insisted there must be a buffer zone along Israel’s border with Lebanon where there is no presence of Hezbollah fighters.

Netanyahu said that Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this (a buffer zone).

In a defiant televised speech, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said the only solution was a ceasefire while threatening to expand the scope of its missile strikes across Israel.

“Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place” in Israel, he said.

Early Wednesday Israel’s military said around 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the country’s north, without any reports of casualties.

Hezbollah said it launched “a large salvo of missiles” at the town of Safed.

Israel’s military bombed several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was put out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

It also said it had captured three Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said nine people were killed Tuesday evening in strikes on the country’s south, and five others in the east, including three children.

Asked about Israeli air strikes in Lebanon in which residential buildings in central Beirut were hit on October 10, the US State Department voiced open criticism.

“We have made clear that we are opposed to the campaign the way we’ve seen it conducted over the past weeks” in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

In a letter sent to the Israeli government on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also warned that the United States could withhold weapons deliveries unless more humanitarian aid was delivered to Palestinians in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier, has warned Israel against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was contemplating targeting only military sites.