Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah traded deadly blows on Thursday as their war raged on despite signs of progress in US ceasefire efforts, with airstrikes pounding Beirut’s southern suburbs and rockets flying into northern Israel.
US mediator Amos Hochstein was in Israel for talks with Israeli officials to try to secure a ceasefire which he declared was “within our grasp” on a visit to Beirut earlier this week.
Indicating gaps remain, a senior Lebanese official said Beirut had sought changes to the US ceasefire proposal, to include ensuring a speedier withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon.
The diplomacy marks the most serious attempt yet to end the conflict between Israel and the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah, part of the regional spillover of the Gaza war that erupted more than a year ago. In southern Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike killed three in Chaaitiyeh village, some 10 km from the border, the Lebanese health ministry said.
In Israel, a 30-year-old man was killed when shrapnel from a rocket struck a playground in the northern town of Nahariya, Israel’s MDA medical service said. “The Israeli government is not safeguarding my security, my residents or the residents of the north (of Israel). It is not possible to live in such a situation like this,” Nahariya’s mayor said.
