Israeli strikes targeted government and diplomatic buildings in a densely populated area of the Lebanese capital, killing at least five people overnight from Monday to Tuesday.
Amos Hochstein, outgoing US President Joe Biden’s special envoy, arrived in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, a day after Hezbollah’s positive response to a US ceasefire proposal.
The arrival of Amos Hochstein took place a few hours afteran Israeli strike killed five people and injured around 30 in central Beirut. It was about the third Israeli strike in the heart of the Lebanese capital in two days.
The United States is working on a proposal to end hostilities, which would involve the withdrawal of Israeli ground forces from Lebanon and the distancing of Hezbollah from the Israeli border.
As part of the agreement, additional Lebanese troops and United Nations peacekeepers would be sent to the buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Since the end of September, Israel has significantly intensified its bombing of Lebanon, with the stated goal of weakening Hezbollah and ending the Lebanese militant group’s attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah began its shooting on October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack in southern Israel that sparked the Gaza war. Both militant groups are supported by Iran.
The strikes prompted retaliation from Israel, and fighting has intensified significantly in recent weeks.
The Israeli strikes made more than 3,500 dead in Lebanon and nearly 15,000 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, while fighting has displaced nearly 1.2 million peopleor a quarter of the Lebanese population.
On the Israeli side, 87 soldiers and 50 civilians, including foreign farm workers, were killed by rocket, drone and missile attacks.
