CAIRO: As Israeli airstrikes destroyed Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed at least 64 people in the Gaza Strip on Friday, hopes of a ceasefire between Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah were dashed.
Ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, US envoys had been trying to negotiate ceasefires on both fronts.
However, Al-Aqsa Hamas television said on Friday that Hamas did not support a short-term truce. It said that the ceasefire ideas fell short of its demands that any agreement must put an end to the year-long conflict in Gaza and involve the evacuation of Israeli forces from the territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, previously stated that maintaining security “despite any pressure or constraints” was his top concern. According to his office, he delivered this message to Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, the US envoys in Israel, on Thursday.
The Israeli military struck the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut for the first time this week, prompting Lebanon’s prime minister to accuse Israel on Friday of refusing a ceasefire.
Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks was denounced by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who said it showed a lack of interest in pursuing a ceasefire. “All efforts to secure a ceasefire have been rejected by the Israeli enemy, as evidenced by their renewed expansion and their destructive raids targeting the southern suburbs of Beirut,” he stated.
Military assaults
On Friday, Israel continued its military offensives against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to Gazan medics, Israeli strikes on the towns of Deir Al-Balah, Nuseirat camp, and Al-Zawayda, both in the central and southern regions of Gaza, killed roughly 64 people and injured scores more overnight and into Friday morning.
Medical personnel at the camp’s Al-Awda Hospital say an Israeli attack at the gate of a school in Nuseirat that was providing shelter to displaced Palestinians killed fourteen individuals. According to medics, a car in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killed ten more people.
Israel also launched at least ten attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday morning. It was the first bombardment in about a week to hit the region, which was previously a heavily populated district and a bastion for Hezbollah.
Israel ordered the evacuation of ten different neighborhoods before to the strikes.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks in the country’s east on Friday have killed 10 individuals, the majority of whom were in a single village.
The ministry reported that eight people were killed in the village of Amhaz, and that the preliminary toll for today’s Israeli enemy strikes on the Baalbek-Hermel region was ten martyrs and twenty-six wounded.
“This is a brutal war and Israel does not have the right to do this,” Hassan Saad told Reuters while speaking on the street in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.Given that Israel violates all laws and human morals, there must be a limit placed on it.
Ali Ramadan, another Beirut resident, stated that he thought the Israeli bombings were an attempt to exert pressure on Lebanon during the ceasefire talks.
Any possibility of a truce before the US presidential election on November 5th has been eroded by the ongoing confrontations. According to one of the group’s top sources, Hamas television claimed that the ceasefire proposals did not satisfy its requirements.
The source stated, “The proposals do not include the return of displaced people, the withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, or a permanent cessation of aggression.” According to the source, they also ignored the Palestinians’ demands for security, aid, and reconstruction as well as the complete restoration of border crossings.
Along with demanding food, medication, and shelter, the group stated that any accord must include exchanging Israeli prisoners in Gaza for Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
Additionally, Israel attacked the Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon on Thursday, which is home to Roman ruins that are listed by UNESCO. Some cracks were visible because of adjacent Israeli strikes, according to a cultural group that hosts annual festivals amid the ruins.
