Hezbollah rockets land near Tel Aviv after large Israeli strike on Beirut
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel on Sunday, and the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set alight near Tel Aviv, after a powerful Israeli airstrike killed at least 29 people in Beirut the day before.
Israel also struck Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where intensified bombardment over the last two weeks has coincided with signs of progress in U.S.-led ceasefire talks.
Hezbollah, which has previously vowed to respond to attacks on Beirut by targeting Tel Aviv, said it had launched precision missiles at two military sites in Tel Aviv and nearby.
Police said there were multiple impact sites in the area of Petah Tikvah, on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, and that several people had minor injuries.
The Israel Defense Forces said a direct hit on a neighborhood had left “houses in flames and ruins”. Television footage showed an apartment damaged by rocket fire.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah had fired 250 rockets at Israel, of which many were intercepted, with sirens sounding across most of the country. At least four people had been injured by shrapnel.
Video obtained by Reuters showed a projectile exploding as it smashed into the roof of a building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.
Israel’s military warned on social media that it planned to target Hezbollah facilities in southern Beirut before strikes that demolished two apartment blocks, according to security sources in Lebanon.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it carried out strikes against 12 Hezbollah command centers in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.
On Saturday, it had carried out one of its deadliest and most powerful strikes on the center of Beirut.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll from 20 to 29. It said a total of 84 people had been killed on Saturday, taking the death toll to 3,754 since October 2023.
The IDF did not comment on Saturday’s strike in the Lebanese capital or say what it had attacked.
Ceasefire proposal awaits Israel’s response
The Israeli offensive has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein highlighted progress in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before traveling to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said a U.S. ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire,” he said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had convened a meeting of his security cabinet for 5 p.m. (1500 GMT).
Axios reporter Barak Ravid in a post on social media cited an unnamed Israeli official saying that Israel is moving towards a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.
But a separate report from Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said there was no green light given on an agreement in Lebanon, with issues still yet to be resolved.
