al Jazeera:

Hezbollah says it hit Ashdod naval base and Tel Aviv; three wounded

Hezbollah targets Israeli military sites after Israel killed 20 in a strike in central Beirut as EU top diplomat calls for ceasefire.

Published On 24 Nov 202424 Nov 2024

Hezbollah says it targeted the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel “for the first time”, adding that it conducted an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using advanced missiles and strike drones.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on these claims, but earlier reported air raid sirens in central and northern areas, including the Tel Aviv suburbs. The military said it intercepted a number of the about 55 projectiles fired at northern Israel, and added that “approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation have crossed from Lebanon into Israel”.

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The attacks wounded at least 11 people, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition, according to medical agencies.

They come a day after Israel killed at least 20 people in a strike in central Beirut. At least 66 others were wounded, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat called for more pressure on both Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was “pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government”.

“We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said after his meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group.

Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208m) to assist the Lebanese military, which would deploy additional forces to the south.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution (1701) that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

Attacks on Lebanon continue

In southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said an Israeli strike on a post killed a soldier.

“One soldier was martyred, and 18 others were injured, including some with severe wounds, as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a Lebanese army centre in al-Amriyeh,” the army said in a statement.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks that have killed more than 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in Israel’s war on Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous attacks on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

After nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire, in which Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Hamas in Gaza, Israel escalated air attacks on Lebanon on September 23, sending ground troops to southern Lebanon a week later. Hezbollah said it would stop its attacks if Israel ceased fire in Gaza, which has been turned into a wasteland after 13 months of nonstop Israeli bombardment.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to the ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.