Israel struck Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold on Sunday as Lebanese state media reported intense fighting in the border area and Israel’s military said around 250 projectiles were fired at its territory.
The heavy exchanges of fire came as US ceasefire mediation seemed to drag on while the EU tried to get involved in the diplomatic efforts.
The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 250 projectiles into Israel during the day, one of the war’s highest daily figures.
Some rockets fired on Sunday were intercepted by Israeli air defences, but others caused damage to houses in central Israel.
In Lebanon, a day after a wave of Israeli strikes that the health ministry said killed 84 people, Israel again struck the capital’s southern suburbs, an Hezbollah stronghold.
Deadly strikes also hit the heart of Beirut over the past week, and on Sunday Lebanon said in-person classes in the capital area would be suspended on Monday for safety reasons.
US mediator Amos Hochstein often mentioned “progress” in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before travelling to meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday said a US ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.
“We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah to accept the US proposal for a ceasefire,” Borrell said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.
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 and agreement on the matter to be reached within Israel’s cabinet
Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.
The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.”
On Sunday, Hezbollah said it launched attacks using missiles and drones directed at the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel, one its deepest targets so far, as well as military sites in the central Tel Aviv area.
Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded in Israel.
The Palestine Red Crescent said 13 people were injured in the occupied West Bank by a falling interceptor missile.
Images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel. In nearby Rinatya, several houses were damaged.
The wave of projectiles followed four Israeli strikes in central Beirut in the past week, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.
Israeli strikes have also targeted the city’s southern suburbs on a near-daily basis for the past two weeks, but were briefly halted during US envoy Hochstein’s visit.
On Sunday, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported two waves of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were preceded by Israeli military warnings posted online.
A military statement late on Sunday said the Air Force had struck “12 Hezbollah command centres” in south Beirut, including from intelligence, missile and weapons smuggling units.
Ground battles raged in several areas of the border strip on Sunday, according to the NNA and Hezbollah, which said its fighters had destroyed six Israeli tanks and fired rockets at troops.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.
