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The Israeli military had carried out fresh attacks in southern Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, with a strike hitting the Ghobeiry neighbourhood, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
Smoke could be seen rising over the Lebanese capital as the IDF announced these strikes to be “precise” in Dahiyeh, namely a Hezbollah command centre in Beirut that was used to advance “terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers” operating in southern Lebanon.
“All targets belonged to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, in response to Hezbollah’s firing toward Israeli territory,” stated in a communication from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. It is also added in a social media post from the IDF that prior to the strikes, steps were taken to “mitigate harm to civilians”.
Another IDF post said the Hezbollah projectiles fell near the communities of Shomera and Shlomi, and it was in addition to two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory over the weekend as part of ongoing attempts to harm Israeli civilians.
This is the second wave of strikes this weekend, as strikes on Saturday already killed at least five people. One person was killed in an air strike targeting the town of Maarakeh in the Tyre district. Ali Badie, the mayor of Ar-Rihan municipality, was killed in the Jezzine district and three people were killed in the towns of Deir al-Zahrani and Kafr Reman in Nabatieh district.
On Saturday_,_ the Israeli military had warned the residents of 24 Lebanese towns and villages to leave their homes immediately.
Lebanese President reminds of the existential necessity
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Saturday that the country is at a “fateful juncture”, with a choice to become “a sovereign state that monopolises arms and upholds the rule of law”, or to remain “hostage to the logic of militias and the culture of exclusion”.
Speaking on the anniversary of the assassination of former minister Tony Suleiman Frangieh in 1978 by armed factions, Aoun underlined that national unity is an “existential necessity”.
“We are at a moment that tolerates neither sectarian luxury nor regional tug-of-war,” he concluded.
The continuation of the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah puts a potential deal between Washington and Tehran at risk. That is because the Iranian regime, Hezbollah’s main supporter, has insisted that any US-Iran ceasefire deal must also include an end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, Iran responded with strikes on Israel.
Hezbollah joined the fight at the beginning of March, right after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatoullah Khamaney was killed, sparking a wider war in the Middle East.
A deal could wind down tensions in the region
Mediator Pakistan and US President Donald Trump are claiming that Iran and the US are closer to a deal than ever before, with an imminent signing on Sunday.
Although the deal does not address the thorniest issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme or its frozen assets, it also offers a 60-day framework for technical discussions on those issues, which could provide a basis for de-escalation in Lebanon.