Iran signals it would support ceasefire in Lebanon, as Israel pounds Beirut
3 foreign workers lightly hurt in rocket barrage on Haifa area; AP photographs Israeli bomb hitting building in Beirut, after IDF issues evacuation order citing Hezbollah activity
Israeli strikes repeatedly targeted Hezbollah positions in Beirut on Friday as Iran signaled it would support any ceasefire deal with Jerusalem agreed on by Lebanon and the Tehran-backed terror group.
Strikes were seen hitting sites on several occasions in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh after evacuation warnings were issued about half an hour before the attacks.
The IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes in Beirut in recent days.
During a strike on Friday in the Tayouneh area several miles from central Beirut, an Associated Press photographer captured images of what appeared to be an Israeli bomb heading toward an 11-story residential building just before the subsequent explosion.
There were no immediate reports of casualties but the bomb hit a lower level of the building, turning much of it to rubble, after the IDF issued an evacuation order for the vicinity of the building, saying it was used by Hezbollah.
The IDF also continued to hit Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.
لحظة تنفيذ #الجيش الإسرائيلي للغارة على #الطيونة منذ قليل pic.twitter.com/hmoSO7WMFC
— Lebanon Debate (@lebanondebate) November 15, 2024
Overnight, the IDF struck several buildings and command centers belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh, the military said.
According to the IDF, the overnight strikes followed a day that saw 120 Hezbollah sites targeted in Lebanon, including weapon depots, command centers, cells of operatives and numerous rocket launchers. Some of the rocket launchers were used in an attack on Haifa on Thursday.
The strikes came as the IDF’s 36th, 91st and 146th divisions began operating in new areas of southern Lebanon. The military said the ground forces located Hezbollah rocket launchers and other weapons, as well as demolishing a tunnel during recent operations.
Separately, Israeli fighter jets hit several land crossing roads in Syria on Thursday night, which the IDF says were being used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons into Lebanon from Iran.
Several routes and border crossings between Lebanon and Syria have been struck by the IDF in recent weeks, amid efforts to counter Hezbollah’s weapon smuggling attempts.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת אגף המודיעין, יצאו במהלך הבוקר לשני גלי תקיפות כחלק ממאמץ נרחב להשמיד את מטרות הטרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה המוסתרות בלב אוכלוסיה אזרחית בדאחייה שבביירות >> pic.twitter.com/iP6eSw8K25
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) November 15, 2024
Hezbollah targets Haifa area
The Lebanese terror group kept up its rocket fire at Israel.
A barrage of five rockets fired Friday by Hezbollah lightly wounded three foreign workers in their 40s in the Haifa area.
Several of the rockets were intercepted, however, one fell at the construction site where they were working.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said all three were conscious and aware of their surroundings and were taken to Rambam Medical Center for treatment.
Earlier, rocket sirens were activated overnight in the northern coastal city of Nahariya and several nearby communities. There were no reports of injuries.
Two rockets fired at the Haifa Bay area at around 7 a.m. were successfully intercepted, the IDF said. No injuries were reported in that attack.
Ceasefire talks
Meanwhile, Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, said Friday it would support any decision taken by the Lebanese government and Lebanon’s “resistance” in current talks on a ceasefire.
The commitment was made by Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during his meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
“We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems,” Larijani said after the meeting, adding that Iran will support Hezbollah and its other proxies under all circumstances.
In a post on X posted Friday, Mikati wrote the Lebanese government prioritizes the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 in its entirety without any amendments.
The resolution ended the last round of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 and stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of arms that do not belong to the Lebanese state.
“Calls are ongoing to reach an understanding,” Mikati wrote.
His comments come a day after it was reported that the US ambassador to Lebanon had submitted a draft for a proposed truce in Lebanon to Parliament Speaker Berri.
US ambassador Lisa Johnson met with Berri, a Hezbollah ally and the typical conduit for diplomacy with the group, on Thursday to submit Washington’s first written proposal in at least several weeks, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters.
Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after fellow terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.
The attacks on northern Israel have resulted in the deaths of 43 civilians. In addition, 69 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September. Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon. Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
