Israel turns down a US-backed plan for a peace in Lebanon and attacks Beirut again

Thursday, Israel turned down calls from around the world for a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. It did this by disobeying its closest partner, the U.S., and continuing with strikes that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and raised fears of a full-scale regional war.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that an Israeli warplane hit the outskirts of the city, Beirut, killing two and hurting fifteen. One woman was seriously hurt. That added up to 28 deaths from hits overnight and on Thursday.

Mohammad Surur, the head of one of Hezbollah’s air force units, was killed in the attack, according to two security sources. He was the latest senior Hezbollah leader to be killed in a string of high-level killings in recent days.

People saw smoke rise after the attack in an area with a lot of civilian homes and workplaces and a number of Hezbollah bases. A damaged top floor of a building was shown on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.

The army practiced a ground attack on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon. This could be the next step after the constant airstrikes and explosions of communication devices.

Israel has promised to protect its northern border and bring back thousands of people who had to leave their homes because of Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks last year to support Palestinian rebels fighting in Gaza.

“There will be no ceasefire in the north,” Israel Katz, the foreign minister of Israel, said on X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whose government includes members of Hezbollah, had said he hoped for a quick end to the fighting. These comments hurt those plans.

A lot of people have left their homes because Israel is bombing Lebanon more than it has since a big war in 2006.

Since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards formed Hezbollah in 1982 to fight an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the group has been in battle with the Israeli forces. Since then, it has grown into Tehran’s most important Middle East ally.

The United States, France, and a number of other friends called for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon right away. They also said they wanted the fighting in Gaza to stop.

Washington still wants a ceasefire.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, told MSNBC that everyone wanted the fighting to stop, and he said he would be speaking with Israeli officials in New York later today.

Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, was going to New York to speak at the United Nations. He said that he had not yet responded to the peace offer but had told the army to keep fighting.

Since Monday, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 600 people. Hezbollah has shot hundreds of missiles at Israeli targets, including Tel Aviv, which is the country’s commercial hub. However, Israel’s air defense system has kept the damage to a minimum.

On Wednesday, Israel’s army chief told troops near the border to be ready to cross, which was the clearest public statement he had made yet about the chance of a ground attack on Lebanon.

Israel’s military said Thursday that fighter jets hit infrastructure on the border between Syria and Lebanon to stop the flow of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said that most of the people killed on Thursday were Syrians in the Bekaa Valley town of Younine. About 1.5 million Syrians who left the civil war now live in Lebanon.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it had attacked the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel and an Israeli military command base in the north. It also said it had shot down two Israeli airplanes and used air defense weapons to push them back.

Thousands of Lebanese have gone to schools in Beirut to find safety. One showed women leaning out of classroom windows to smoke cigarettes or let the foam beds they had slept on this week air out.

Aid groups were giving out food and clothes and checking on old people who had left too quickly to bring their prescriptions with them to make sure they had the medicines they needed.

Countries around Lebanon are worried about the safety of their own people there. A source in the Turkish defense ministry said that the country is getting ready to possibly evacuate its own citizens and foreigners from Lebanon.

Israel has made it a priority to secure its northern border and let the 70,000 people who had to leave their homes because of almost daily gunfire return. Hezbollah started this a year ago to show support for the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Over 550 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday, which was the deadliest day since the end of the 1975–1990 civil war. This is because Israel’s bombings have become much more frequent.

Last week, attacks using pagers and walkie-talkies killed a lot of people and hurt a lot more, including Hezbollah members. This bombing happened after those attacks.