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An Israeli airstrike slammed into a densely populated residential area in Lebanon’s capital near key government and diplomatic buildings late Monday, killing at least five people as the US pressed ahead with cease-fire efforts.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two missiles hit the area of Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood–where local UN headquarters and Lebanon’s parliament and prime minister’s office are located.
Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to severely weaken the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and end its barrages in Israel that the militants have said are in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.
The US has been working on a cease-fire proposal that would remove Israeli ground forces from Lebanon and push Hezbollah forces far from the Israeli border. Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who is mediating for the militants, is expected to meet with US envoy Amos Hochstein in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday. The White House has not confirmed Hochstein’s visit.
Labor Minister Mostafa Bayram, who met with Berri on Monday, said Lebanon would convey its “positive position” to the latest US proposal.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike, which also wounded 24 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Many areas in central Beirut, including Zoqaq al-Blat, have become a refuge for many of the roughly 1 million people displaced by the ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
