Israel, Hezbollah in heavy exchanges of fire despite EU ceasefire call

Israel struck Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold on Sunday as Lebanese state media reported intense fighting in the border area and Israel’s military said around 250 projectiles were fired at its territory.

The heavy exchanges of fire came despite an immediate Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire call from top EU diplomat Josep Borrell while on a visit to Lebanon Sunday.

The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 250 projectiles into Israel during the day, one of the war’s highest daily figures.

On 24 September, there were 350 launches from Lebanon, according to the military.

That was the day after Israel escalated air strikes against Hezbollah, helping to transform nearly a year of limited clashes, which were initiated by the Lebanese group in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, into a full-blown war.

Some rockets fired on Sunday were intercepted by Israeli air defences, but others caused damage to houses in central Israel, according to AFP images.

In Lebanon, a day after a wave of Israeli strikes that the health ministry said killed 84 people, Israel again struck the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Deadly strikes also hit the heart of Beirut over the past week, and on Sunday Lebanon said in-person classes in the capital area would be suspended Monday for safety reasons.

The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.

On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.

Earlier this week, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said in Lebanon that a truce deal was “within our grasp”, and then headed to Israel for talks with officials there.

In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of his ally Hezbollah.

“We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said.

“Lebanon is on the brink of collapse”, he warned.

Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.”

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it launched attacks using missiles and drones directed at the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel, one its deepest targets so far, as well as military sites in the central Tel Aviv area.

The Israeli military did not comment on the specific claims, but it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several areas, including in the Tel Aviv suburbs.

Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded in Israel.

The Palestine Red Crescent said 13 people were injured in the occupied West Bank by a falling interceptor missile.

AFP images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel. In nearby Rinatya, several houses were damaged.

The wave of projectiles followed four Israeli strikes in central Beirut in the past week, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

Israeli strikes have also targeted the city’s southern suburbs on a near-daily basis for the past two weeks, but were briefly halted during US envoy Hochstein’s visit.

On Sunday, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported two waves of Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were preceded by Israeli military warnings posted online.

A military statement late Sunday said the Air Force had struck “12 Hezbollah command centres” in south Beirut, including from intelligence, missile and weapons smuggling units.

Ground battles raged in several areas of the border strip on Sunday, according to the NNA and Hezbollah, which said its fighters had destroyed six Israeli tanks and fired rockets at troops.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said a drone strike had seriously wounded a hospital chief in an attack on the health care facility, while Israeli air raids killed 11 people across the territory.

Hossam Abu Safiya heads the Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating facilities in northern Gaza, where the UN has decried “catastrophic” humanitarian conditions.

Since Hamas’s 7 October attack last year that triggered the war, Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,211 people, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead. Dozens were released during a one-week truce that began on 24 November, 2023 -- a year ago Sunday.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary, former hostage Gabriella Leimberg urged action to free others.

“For 53 days, the one thing that kept me going is that we, the people of Israel, the Jewish people, sanctify life—we don’t leave anyone behind,” she said.

“Now action is required, we don’t have any more time.”

Israelis have taken to the streets weekly to pressure their government to do more to secure a hostage release deal.

Criticism of Israel has mounted over its conduct of the war.

This week the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif who Israel says is dead.