BEITUT: An Israeli airstrike flattened a building near one of Beirut’s busiest traffic junctions on Friday, shaking the city as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the city.
One of several airstrikes on Friday morning, the attack struck near the Tayouneh junction in an area where the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs meet other parts of the city, a more central target than most that Israel has hit.
Israel has this week stepped up airstrikes against the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs an escalation that has coincided with indications of movement in US-led diplomatic contacts towards ending the conflict.
The US Ambassador to Lebanon on Thursday submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters without providing details.
The draft was Washington’s first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said.
Meanwhile, a top Iranian official pledged his country’s unwavering support for Lebanon after talks Friday.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, said he hoped circumstances would soon improve in Lebanon so that displaced people could return home.