A growing death toll and concerns of regional escalation prompted the United States to declare its opposition to the extent of Israeli assaults in Lebanon’s capital. At the same time, witnesses told Reuters that at least one Israeli strike struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday morning.
Witnesses for Reuters heard two explosions and observed smoke plumes coming from two different neighbourhoods. It happened after Israel on Wednesday morning issued a single-building evacuation order. In recent weeks, the Israeli military has attacked Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, without giving any prior notice or with warnings limited to a specific region while carrying out more extensive operations. Iran sponsors Hezbollah.
The Israeli military claimed to have struck an underground Hezbollah weapons cache in the Dahiyeh neighbourhood in southern Beirut. “Before the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area,” according to the Israeli military.
Two weeks after Israel started operations into the country’s south that it claims are intended to drive out Hezbollah, the U.N. refugee agency reports that Israeli military evacuation orders currently touch more than 25% of Lebanon.
Some Western nations have been advocating for a truce in Gaza and between the two neighbours, but the US maintains that it supports Israel and has been supplying soldiers and an anti-missile system.
According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, on Tuesday, the United States conveyed its concerns about the recent strikes to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.
Using a tougher tone than Washington has thus far, he told reporters, “When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to.”
Israel’s interactions with the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, in south Lebanon have also drawn criticism. According to the U.N., since the start of an Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah fighters on October 1, UNIFIL installations have been targeted by gunfire, and two Israeli tanks have broken past the gates of one of its facilities. Damage has been done to five peacekeepers. According to Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, nations that contribute to the European Union have no plans to stop, even if Israel demands that they do so.
