by Middle East Eye News Staff at Middle East Eye
This comes as US advisors head to Israel to work out the details of an Israel-Lebanon truce
- Israeli military says it hit Hezbollah fuel reservoirs
- US backs Israeli strikes on Baalbek in southern Lebanon
- Death toll in Lebanon surpasses 2,800
Our live coverage will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.
Here are some of the day’s key developments:
The Al-Jadeed news channel in Lebanon has reported that an Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire could be announced within hours, citing the Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati. Mikati said he had already spoken to US envoy Amos Hochstein, who is expected in Israel on Thursday. A draft of the US-proposed truce between Lebanon and Israel revealed by Israel’s public broadcaster on Wednesday shows a period of 60 days without hostilities.
Israeli air strikes on Wednesday killed 19 people including eight women in two towns in Lebanon’s Baalbek region. The US said that it backs that operation: “We support [Israel’s] right to go after legitimate Hezbollah targets, but in doing so, it is critical that they do so in a way that does not threaten the lives of civilians,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters.
The Israeli military also said on Wednesday that it bombed fuel reservoirs located in military complexes of Hezbollah’s logistical empowerment unit in Lebanon’s Bekaa region.
The Washington Post reported that the US State Department has received hundreds of reports that Israel’s use of its weapons is responsible for civilian casualties. But the Biden administration has not done anything about it, the report said.
The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday “strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish” the UN relief and works agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa) after Israel passed a law banning its operations. Unrwa’s chief Phillippe Lazzarini met with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan earlier in the day, in Saudi Arabia.
In his first speech since being appointed as secretary general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem has thanked the group’s leadership for choosing him to carry this “heavy weight,” and said Hezbollah took part in “preemptive defence” against Israel…