Lebanese PM accuses Israel of rejecting ceasefire efforts

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of rejecting efforts to reach a ceasefire as Israeli forces resumed bombing Beirut's southern suburbs and other areas in Lebanon at dawn on Friday.

Israel's "renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression" and "its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages" are "all indicators of Israel's rejection of all efforts" in reaching a ceasefire, Mikati said during his meeting with Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, chief of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

In a statement released by the Lebanese council of ministers, the prime minister reaffirmed "Lebanon's permanent commitment to UN Resolution 1701," calling on the international community to assume its responsibility to stop this "aggression."

According to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA), a series of violent raids targeted different areas in Beirut's southern suburbs at dawn on Friday, causing massive destruction in the targeted areas, with dozens of buildings levelled to the ground and fires breaking out. The Israeli forces also resumed intense airstrikes on the eastern city of Baalbek at noon on Friday, according to the Elnashra news website.

On Wednesday, Israel's state-owned Kan TV revealed a document claimed to be a draft agreement between Israel and Lebanon, proposed by the United States, to end the current Israel-Hezbollah clashes, Xinhua news agency reported. Quoting senior Israeli officials, the channel reported that the war cabinet is satisfied with the draft formulated by US envoy Amos Hochstein and submitted to Israel, and its chances of being accepted are high.

Since 23 September, the Israeli army has launched an unprecedented, intensive air campaign on Lebanon in a dangerous escalation with Hezbollah. The Lebanese health ministry on Thursday reported that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the beginning of the war on 8 October 2023 has reached 2,867, with injuries climbing to 13,047.

Meanwhile, Israeli air attacks targeted a family home with about 20 people in it in the centre of eastern Lebanon’s Younine town, Al Jazeera has reported citing NNA. Seven bodies had been recovered at the time of reporting, and the process of removing the rubble was continuing, the report said.

About five km away, Israeli warplanes also hit a house in the village of Nahle, killing at least four people.

At least 132 healthcare workers have also been killed in Lebanon while on duty, a clear violation of international law, according to Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), as reported by Al Jazeera.

“They go to work every day to save lives. They do not go to work to lose their lives, but they have been caught up in a conflict where there seems to be no concern about attacking health facilities,” Harris told Al Jazeera, speaking from Hong Kong. “It’s very clear, under international humanitarian law, healthcare is not a target.”

The public health ministry in Lebanon is reporting much higher numbers of losses of healthcare workers because many have been killed or injured while at home, or going to and from work, she added.

“This was a healthcare system that couldn’t afford to lose one healthcare worker. They didn’t have enough healthcare workers before this conflict began, the economic circumstances meant that they were very much underserved, and it was a healthcare system that was struggling,” the WHO spokesperson said.

“And now they’ve got mass casualties. They’ve got mass needs. There’s overwhelming displacement. There’s increasing risk of outbreaks. We’ve got cholera… the attacks on healthcare are adding to the misery.”

With IANS inputs