INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Lebanon&s Hezbollah movement fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel on Sunday, and the Israeli military said houses had been destroyed or set
alight near Tel Aviv, after a powerful Israeli airstrike killed at least 29 people in Beirut the day before, Reuters reported.Israel also
struck Beirut&s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, where intensified bombardment over the last two weeks has coincided with signs of
progress in U.S.-led ceasefire talks.Hezbollah, which has previously vowed to respond to attacks on Beirut by targeting Tel Aviv, said it
had launched precision missiles at two military sites in Tel Aviv and nearby.Police said there were multiple impact sites in the area of
Petah Tikvah, on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, and that several people had minor injuries.The Israel Defense Forces said a direct hit on a
neighbourhood had left &houses in flames and ruins&
Television footage showed an apartment damaged by rocket fire.Israel&s military said Hezbollah had fired 250 rockets at Israel, of which
many were intercepted, with sirens sounding across most of the country
At least four people had been injured by shrapnel.Video obtained by Reuters showed a projectile exploding as it smashed into the roof of a
building in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.Israel&s military warned on social media that it planned to target Hezbollah facilities in
southern Beirut before strikes that demolished two apartment blocks, according to security sources in Lebanon
Afterwards, the IDF said it had hit command centres &deliberately embedded between civilian buildings&.On Sunday, the Israeli military said
it carried out strikes against 12 Hezbollah command centers in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.On Saturday, it had carried out one of
its deadliest and most powerful strikes on the centre of Beirut, read the report.Lebanon&s health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll
It said a total of 84 people had been killed on Saturday, taking the death toll to 3,754 since October 2023.The IDF did not comment on
Saturday&s strike in the Lebanese capital or say what it had attacked.Israel went on the offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in
September, pounding the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut&s southern suburbs with airstrikes after nearly a year of hostilities ignited by
the Gaza war.The Israeli offensive has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon.Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of
tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start
of the Gaza war in October 2023.U.S
mediator Amos Hochstein highlighted progress in negotiations during a visit to Beirut last week, before travelling to meet Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, and then returning to Washington.European Union foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell on Sunday said a U.S
ceasefire proposal was awaiting final approval from Israel.&We must pressure the Israeli government and maintain the pressure on Hezbollah
proposal for a ceasefire,& he said in Beirut after meeting Lebanese officials.Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had convened a meeting
of his security cabinet for 5 p.m
(1500 GMT).Axios reporter Barak Ravid in a post on social media cited an unnamed Israeli official saying that Israel is moving towards a
ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.But a separate report from Israel&s public broadcaster Kan said there was no green light given on an
agreement in Lebanon, with issues still yet to be resolved.Diplomacy has focused on restoring a ceasefire based on U.N
Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war
It requires Hezbollah to pull its fighters back around 30 km (19 miles) from the Israeli border, and the Lebanese army to deploy in the
buffer zone, Reuters reported.The Lebanese army said on Sunday at least one soldier had been killed and 18 more injured in an Israeli strike
that caused severe damage at an army centre in Al-Amiriya near the southern city of Tyre.The Israeli military said it regretted the incident
and was investigating, and that it was fighting against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese Army.Lebanon&s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati,
said the attack &represents a direct bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, strengthen the army&s presence in the south,
and implement … 1701&.Borrell said the EU was ready to allocate 200 million euros ($208 million) to support the Lebanese army.
