Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since invasion, reports say
BEIRUT — Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back Saturday after battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.
The clashes and further Israeli bombardment came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. this week on ending the war.
Israeli troops briefly captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about three miles from the Israeli border, the state-run National News Agency reported.
It said Israeli troops blew up the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa and several homes before they withdrew, but that could not be immediately verified.
Israel’s military did not respond to requests for comment but said in a statement that its troops “continue their limited, localized and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.â€
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Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs known as the Dahieh and several other areas in southern Lebanon, including the port city of Tyre. An airstrike on the northeastern village of Khreibeh killed a couple and their four children, the National News Agency said.
Shrapnel from a strike in the Dahieh wounded a teenage girl in the head and she was in intensive care, a hospital official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak about patients’ conditions.
Israel’s military said it hit multiple Hezbollah sites.
Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel that the militants have said are in solidarity with Palestinians in the war in Gaza.
For those determined to stay out of the fight between Hezbollah and Israel, the war in Lebanon can feel at a remove.
Israel’s military said a synagogue was struck and two civilians hurt in a “heavy rocket barrage†by Hezbollah on Haifa, northern Israel’s largest city. Police said the civilians were lightly injured.
Hezbollah said it fired missiles at five Israeli military facilities in Haifa and its suburbs. Israel said Hezbollah fired more than 60 projectiles into Israel on Saturday.
More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the last eight weeks — according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has said it wants to ensure that thousands of Israelis can return to their homes near the border with Lebanon.
Israel’s military said a soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon on Friday.
As Israeli airstrikes flatten swaths of Lebanon, groups warn the attacks mirror some of the patterns of destruction and displacement seen in Gaza.
Deadly airstrikes in Gaza
In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike Saturday evening on a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced people killed 10 and wounded 20, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. It said two missiles were fired at the Abu Assi School in the Shati refugee camp on the edge of Gaza City.
Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center in the compound.
A strike on a house in Nuseirat killed at least seven, including a child and three women.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.
Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead. Israelis rallied again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand a cease-fire deal to return them.
The Health Ministry in Gaza has said at least 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said at least half of those killed have been women and children.
A search for peace
On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister urged Iran to try to convince Hezbollah to agree to a cease-fire deal with Israel, which would require the group to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border, according to Lebanese officials.
A copy of the draft proposal presented by the United States was given to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the secret talks, said Berri is expected to give Lebanon’s response on Monday.
The proposal is based on U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in 2006.
Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the draft does not include any item that allows Israel to act in Lebanon if the deal is violated.
“We will not accept any infringement of our sovereignty,†Berri was quoted as saying.
He added, however, that Lebanon does not accept the draft’s proposal to form a committee to supervise the agreement that includes members from Western countries. A U.N. peacekeeping force already operates near the border in Lebanon.
Berri said talks are ongoing regarding that and other details, adding that “the atmosphere is positive but all relies on how things will end.â€
Mroue writes for the Associated Press. AP writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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