By Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) – An Israeli airstrike toppled a building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions on Friday, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel stepped up its bombing raids on Hezbollah-controlled areas of the city.
One of several airstrikes on Friday morning, the attack occurred near the Tayouneh crossing in an area where Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city, a more central target than most Israel has attacked.
This week Israel has intensified airstrikes against southern suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, an escalation that has coincided with signs of progress in US-led diplomatic contacts to end the conflict.
The US ambassador to Lebanon on Thursday presented a draft truce proposal to Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has Hezbollah’s backing for negotiations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters without providing details.
The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to stop fighting between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said.
“It is a draft to get comments from the Lebanese side,” one of the sources told Reuters. When asked about the proposal, a spokesman for the US embassy in Beirut said: “Efforts are underway to reach a diplomatic agreement.”
A senior diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that more time was needed to achieve a ceasefire and was hopeful it could be achieved.
The diplomacy marks a last-ditch attempt by the outgoing US administration to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, as efforts to end the war in Gaza appear hopelessly adrift.
Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, met with Berri and Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut on Friday, Lebanese and Iranian media reported.
Before the latest airstrikes, the Israeli military issued a warning on social media identifying buildings in the southern suburbs and asking residents to evacuate, saying they were near Hezbollah facilities.
The sound of an incoming missile could be heard in footage showing the airstrike near Tayouneh. The attacked building became a cloud of rubble and rubble that rose towards the adjacent Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and member of its security cabinet, told Reuters that prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon in a bid to deliver an early foreign policy victory to President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to be strongly pro-Israel.
Israel launched its offensive against Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the Gaza war, declaring that it wanted to ensure the return home of tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate from northern Israel.
It has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, using airstrikes to attack areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah has political and military influence, and sending troops south.
Hezbollah has continued to launch rocket attacks against Israel and its fighters have been fighting Israeli troops in the south.
A major sticking point in the ceasefire talks is Israel’s demand to retain the freedom to act should Hezbollah violate any agreement, a demand that Lebanon has rejected.
Israel’s campaign has forced more than a million people to flee their homes in Lebanon, causing a humanitarian crisis.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,386 people as of Wednesday since October 7, 2023, the vast majority of them since late September. It does not distinguish between civilian victims and combatants.
Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the past year, according to Israel.