Israeli airstrike kills 10 in Lebanon
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An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed 10 people on Saturday, just hours after the latest round of talks aimed at preventing the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza from escalating into a regional war, local authorities said.
The Israeli military said the air strike targeted a weapons storage facility near Nabatieh belonging to Hezbollah. The Iran-backed militant group and Israel have been exchanging fire since the start of the Gaza war.
The Lebanese state news agency said the air strike hit a factory, killing 10 Syrians and wounding five more. The death toll was one of the highest in a single airstrike in the country since the conflict began 10 months ago.
In response, Hezbollah said it fired a barrage of rockets at Ayelet HaShahar in northern Israel. The Israeli military said about 55 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, causing several fires in the area, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
In two separate incidents on Saturday, the Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon in an air strike, while two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack from Lebanon.
The gunfight came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to travel to Israel on Saturday to try to push for a deal to end the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of some 115 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday evening that Israeli negotiators expressed “cautious optimism about the possibility of making progress on the deal, following the updated US proposal.”
The ceasefire talks are seen by U.S. and Arab officials as the best hope of preventing the war between Israel and Hamas, which erupted after a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, from escalating into a regional conflict.
Fears of a larger war have been growing since serial assassinations by senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures last month in Beirut and Tehran. Hezbollah and Iran have pledged to retaliate against Israel.
On Friday, after two days of talks in Doha, the United States, Qatar and Egypt presented a proposal aimed at narrowing the gap between Israel and Hamas, which remain at odds over the terms of a ceasefire despite several rounds of talks.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating the talks, said in a joint statement that a further meeting was expected to be held in Cairo before the end of next week “with the aim of finalising the agreement on the terms set out today”.
“There is no more time to waste, and no more reason to delay,” they added. “It is time to release hostages and detainees, initiate a ceasefire and implement this agreement.”
Mediators said they had presented Israel and Hamas with a “bridging proposal consistent with the principles outlined” in a three-phase plan to end the fighting set out by US President Joe Biden in May.
The first phase of that plan is a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas would release the first group of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The second phase would include the release of all hostages and what mediators hope will be a lasting ceasefire, while the third phase would begin the reconstruction of Gaza.
Biden said on Friday that talks in Doha had made good progress and that while the parties were “not there yet,” an agreement could be “close.”
Mediators have also expressed optimism about previous rounds of talks, but the talks have repeatedly failed due to disagreements between Israel and Hamas over key aspects of any deal.
