BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 26 (UPI) — A 60-day ceasefire suspends the 13-month war between Israel and Hezbollah after a new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut, its suburbs and other Lebanese regions Tuesday.
The Israeli security cabinet on Tuesday voted to approve the cease-fire deal that ends fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The cease-fire would last for 60 days and might become the foundation for a permanent truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cease-fire with Hezbollah enables Israel Defense Forces to focus on the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and hostilities with Iran.
Prior to the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of the cease-fire, Netanyahu announced the initial agreement, which would prevent an escalation of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Tonight, I will bring before the cabinet a plan for a cease-fire in Lebanon,” he said in a public broadcast in Israel, adding that he expected the cabinet to approve it.
Diplomats from France and the United States brokered the cease-fire deal.
Israel’s security cabinet approved the cease-fire after the IDF said it targeted 20 locations with airstrikes in two minutes on Tuesday in the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah generally is headquartered.
The Israeli Army issued warnings to evacuate several buildings in several neighborhoods inside Beirut, saying that it “will carry out attacks on the floors where the terrorists are located.”
The warnings triggered fears and panic, prompting residents to leave the city in a chaotic way or seek safety in quarters not listed in the warnings. Dozens sought refuge at the American University Hospital in Ras Beirut.
Three people were killed and 10 were injured when an apartment was hit and set on fire in the Barbour area. Israel hit for the second time the Nuwairi neighborhood in which seven people were killed and 37 wounded in the earlier air strike that flattened their four-story building.
The targeted building in Nuwairi was inhabited by displaced families who has fled from their villages, according to the official Lebanese news agency.
Rescue teams rushed to the site to evacuate the casualties and remove the rubble.
Beirut’s southern suburbs were the mostly hit after Israel carried a series of air attacks, causing powerful explosions and big cloud of smoke. Dozens of buildings were flattened.
The state-run Lebanese news agency said “a belt of fire” surrounds the southern suburbs.
The Israeli Army said it has begun “an extensive” wave of airstrikes in Beirut on Tuesday afternoon after it issued evacuation warnings to 20 buildings in the southern suburbs.
The Army said it struck “20 Hezbollah sites within two minutes” and the “fast and extensive wave of airstrikes was carried out by eight fighter jets,” The Time of Israel reported.
It claimed that seven targeted buildings were used by Hezbollah for “the management and storage of funds, including headquarters, vaults and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, known to be used by Hezbollah as a quasi-bank.”
The other 13 sites included “a Hezbollah aerial forces center, an intelligence division command room, weapon depots, and other military infrastructure,” it added.
The Israeli claims could not be confirmed independently.
The strikes also targeted villages in southern and eastern Lebanon. One hit the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh near the southern port city of Tyre where two people, including a child, were killed and 20 wounded.
The attack on the village of Shakra in southern Lebanon killed six people and wounded four others.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced on Tuesday evening the “hysteric Israeli aggression” toward Beirut and various other Lebanese regions that “target especially the civilians.”
Mikati said that attacking Beirut, which hosts a large number of displaced people, “proves the enemy’s hatred” and that Israel “does not respect any law.”
He called on the international community to stop the “Israeli aggression” and implement an “immediate cease-fire,” but the Israeli security cabinet since has approved the 60-day cease-fire.
