BEIRUT: Hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area, strikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its suburbs, AFP reported. Baalbek is famous for its Roman temples.
The attacks occurred at a time when US mediators were said to be working on a plan to end Israeli-Lebanese fighting with a 60-day ceasefire.
In the meantime, Sheikh Naim Qassem, who is giving his first speech as the leader of Hezbollah, stated that his organization would agree to a ceasefire with Israel on acceptable terms, but added that no viable deal has yet been presented.
In addition, Najib Mikati, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, stated that he aimed for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict within days.
“We are doing our best… to have a ceasefire within the coming hours or days,” Mikati said during a televised interview with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, adding that he was “cautiously optimistic.” New Hezbollah chief: open to ceasefire “under acceptable terms”
State media reported that “enemy warplanes launched a series of strikes on the Asira area of the city of Baalbek” and in a nearby town. Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed that the city and its surroundings were hit by strikes.
Residents of Lebanon’s biggest eastern city and its suburbs were ordered to leave for the first time in more than a month of fighting by the Israeli army earlier on Wednesday.
The Israeli army warned that it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets and urged Baalbek residents and the villages nearby to leave immediately.
As panicked civilians fled, the main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles.
Over a loudspeaker, civil defense vehicles circulated the city, informing everyone to evacuate right away. Churches and mosques broadcast the same message through loudspeakers. Within about an hour of the evacuation warning, the city was almost empty.
The two-month truce would be used to complete the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms outside of state control, according to a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon.
White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, according to a US official, will visit Israel on Thursday to discuss a variety of topics, “including Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and broader regional matters.”
The foundation of negotiations to end the past year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which began concurrently with the war in Gaza and has dramatically intensified over the past five weeks, has been Resolution 1701.
When asked about the rumored proposal, Sama Habib, a spokesperson for the United States embassy in Beirut, stated, “We’d like to reiterate that we seek a diplomatic resolution that fully implements 1701 and gets both Israeli and Lebanese citizens back to their homes on both sides of the border.”
According to the two sources, the 60-day truce has replaced a proposal made by the United States and other nations a month ago that called for a 21-day ceasefire in advance of 1701’s full implementation.
However, both cautioned that the transaction could still fail.
The White House has confirmed that top US officials, including CIA Director William Burns and envoys Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, will visit Egypt and Israel on Thursday in an effort to lessen tensions in the region.
CENTCOM’s authority, US Armed force General Erik Kurilla, additionally is in the area and will visit Israel as a feature of the American work to examine Iran, Lebanon and the arrival of detainees in Gaza, White House representative Karine Jean-Pierre told correspondents on Wednesday.
Hezbollah ‘will acknowledge truce’
Qassem, who was named Hezbollah secretary-general on Tuesday, didn’t unequivocally connect a Lebanon truce to a finish to battling in Gaza, a position recently held by the gathering.
In a prerecorded speech, Qassem stated, “If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable.”
