Israel's security cabinet was set to discuss a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday, November 26, as a hail of air strikes hit the capital Beirut. Waves of strikes pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold after a flurry of Israeli evacuation warnings in the heaviest raids since Israel's air campaign escalated. Lebanese state media reported a spate of Israeli air strikes on central Beirut.
State media said Israeli aircraft targeted the Nweiri district three times, with the first attack killing seven people and wounding 37, according to the health ministry. State media also said the Mazraa area had been hit.
Israel's military said it attacked 20 Hezbollah "terror targets" in the Beirut area, including command centers, "weapons storage facilities" and "components of Hezbollah's financial system." It also said it had hit 30 targets in south Lebanon since the morning, and troops had "engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorists" and destroyed hidden weapons caches during ground raids in the Litani River region.
The United States, European Union, United Nations and G7, among others, have pushed for a halt to the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which escalated into full-scale war in late September. G7 foreign ministers called Tuesday for an "immediate ceasefire" in Lebanon, saying in a statement: "Now is the time to conclude a diplomatic settlement."
The United States and France have led the efforts to broker a ceasefire, and US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday talks had reached a "point where we're close."
Britain also called for a truce, saying this was "the only way to restore security" for civilians in Lebanon and northern Israel, while Germany said a deal was "within reach."
Defence Minister Israel Katz told the UN's Lebanon envoy Tuesday that Israel would have "zero tolerance" when defending its security interests, even after a truce. "If you do not act, we will do it, forcefully," Katz told Janine Hennis-Plasschaert during a meeting in Tel Aviv, a statement from his office said.
The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it was acting in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Lebanon says at least 3,799 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in the past several weeks. On the Israeli side, the Lebanon hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.