BEIRUT (AP) – Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since the invasion six weeks ago and withdrew on Saturday after fighting Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.
The clashes and further Israeli shelling on the southern outskirts of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials were considering a draft proposal to end the war presented by the United States earlier this week.
Israeli forces briefly occupied a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamar, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border, state news agencies reported. The newspaper said Israeli forces had bombed the Prophet Shimon’s shrine and several houses in Chamaa, but the claim could not be immediately verified.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement that it “continues to carry out limited, localized and targeted operations in southern Lebanon.”
Israeli warplanes attacked Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahieh, as well as several other areas in southern Lebanon, including the port city of Tire. The state news agency said an airstrike on the village of Klaibe in the northeast killed a couple and four children.
A teenage girl in Beirut’s southern suburbs was injured in the head by shrapnel from a single attack and she is in intensive care, hospital officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the patient’s condition. .
The Israeli military said it had attacked multiple sites used by Hezbollah.
Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its shelling of Lebanon, significantly weakening Iran-backed Hezbollah and threatening Israel, where the militants claim to be in solidarity with the Palestinians during the Gaza war. He vowed to stop the barrage. Israel said Hezbollah fired more than 60 projectiles at Israel on Saturday, but did not provide details.
More than 3,400 people have died in Israeli fires in Lebanon, 80% of them in the past eight weeks, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Israel has said it wants to allow thousands of Israelis to return to their homelands near the Lebanese border.
The Israeli army announced on Friday that one soldier had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.
quest for peace
On Friday, Lebanon’s interim prime minister appeared to urge Iran to persuade Hezbollah to agree to a cease-fire deal with Israel. To do so, Hezbollah must withdraw from the Israel-Lebanon border. The proposal is based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.
Lebanese officials said a copy of the draft proposal presented by the United States was handed over this week to National Assembly Speaker Navi Berri, who is negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the secret talks, said Berri was expected to give the Lebanese response on Monday.
Another Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft and would give their opinion to Berri. The politician also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about ongoing talks.
Berri told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that the draft does not contain provisions that would allow Israel to act in Lebanon in the event of a violation of the agreement.
“We do not accept any violation of our sovereignty,” Berri said.
He added that one item in the draft that Lebanon did not accept was a proposal to set up a committee to oversee the agreement that would include members from Western countries. UN peacekeeping forces are already operating near the Lebanese border.
Berri said talks were continuing on that and other details, adding: “The mood is positive, but everything depends on how things end.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza
There are also efforts to end the war between Israel and Hamas. The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and abducting 250 others.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that 35 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours, bringing the war’s total death toll to 43,799. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says more than half of the dead were women and children.
Ten elected members of the UN Security Council on Thursday circulated a draft resolution calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the Security Council passes the resolution. The other four permanent members (Russia, China, Britain and France) are expected to support or abstain.
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Associated Press writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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