- Israeli military says it will strike Beirut suburb if Hezbollah keeps up attacks on Israeli towns and cities
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered attacks on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday, signalling the risk of further escalation in a war that has complicated mediation towards resolving the US-Iran conflict.
Iranian state TV later said a ceasefire agreed between Iran and the US was very likely to end if Israeli attacks persisted in Lebanon, where war has raged since Hezbollah entered the regional conflict on Tehran's side on March 2.
People began fleeing Beirut's southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, in response to news of Netanyahu's order — the latest wave of displacement in a conflict that has uprooted more than 1 mn people in Lebanon.
Having pounded Beirut's southern suburbs in the early weeks of the war, Israel has carried out only two strikes on the area since US President Donald Trump announced a Lebanon ceasefire on April 16, even as hostilities have raged in southern Lebanon.
"There will be no situation in which Hezbollah attacks our cities and our citizens, and its headquarters in Beirut, in Dahiyeh, will remain out of bounds," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to deepen its ground activity in Lebanon, where Israeli troops have carved out a self-declared security zone in the south, saying they aim to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attacks.
The Israeli military later said it would strike targets in the southern suburbs if Hezbollah continued to launch rockets at Israeli towns and cities, and warned residents to leave the area.
Hezbollah, established by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, said its fighters had fired a missile salvo targeting Israeli military infrastructure in the Israeli city of Tiberias at 1 a.m. on Monday, among other attacks it said were in response to Israeli ceasefire violations.
On Sunday, Hezbollah said that it had fired rockets at Israeli military infrastructure in the city of Nahariya.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said there would be no "calm" in Beirut if there was no "calm" in northern Israel.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,400 people have been killed in the country as a result of Israeli attacks since March 2, when Hezbollah opened fire at Israel as it came under U.S.-Israeli attack.
Israel says 24 of its soldiers and four civilians have been killed over the same period.
Hostilities intensified in the south over the weekend, with Israeli troops capturing the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle, located on a strategic ridge overlooking the border zone.
"This is the third time since the ceasefire that we're going from place to place," said Naji Musulmani, 61, driving a pick-up truck full of mattresses through clogged Beirut streets away from the southern suburbs.
Having fled the south in recent days, Musulmani said he would head to the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said that Israeli attacks in Lebanon were among factors delaying the diplomatic process to end the U.S.-Iran war, and reiterated that a Lebanon ceasefire was an integral part of any deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, writing on X after Netanyahu ordered the attacks on Dahiyeh, said a ceasefire in place between Iran and the US since April was "unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon".
"Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation," he wrote.
Hostilities have continued in Lebanon despite a series of rare meetings between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, overseen by Washington.
A US official said on Sunday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and proposed a plan to allow for "gradual de-escalation".
As a first step, Hezbollah would stop all attacks on Israel and in return Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut, the US official said.
The official added that Aoun tried to advance the proposal and secure an agreement. However, they said Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who claimed to "guarantee" Hezbollah's commitment to a ceasefire, placed the burden on Israel to stop "shooting first".
Berri, a Hezbollah ally, in a comment reported by Lebanese media on Sunday, said he would guarantee "full and immediate commitment to a ceasefire" by Hezbollah. "But the question is, who will compel Israel to stop its aggression?" he said.
A senior Lebanese source told Reuters that the US proposal had involved a halt to Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel in exchange for sparing Beirut and its suburbs further strikes, as a step towards a full ceasefire.
The source said Berri, however, wanted a full and comprehensive ceasefire instead of a piecemeal approach.