The Israeli military (IDF) targeted a specific target in the southern part of the capital Beirut on Thursday. Both Israel and Hezbollah's armed branch confirmed that the commander of the movement's drone and air unit, Mohammed Srur – also known as Abu Saleh, had been killed in the attack.
The Lebanese Health Department added that another person had been killed and that around 15 people had been injured in the air raid.
Attack on Safed
Later in the day, Hezbollah responded by firing around 40 rockets at Israel. The target was the city of Safed with nearly 40,000 inhabitants, according to Hezbollah. The IDF confirmed the attack and said that a large part of the rockets had been stopped by Israel's air defense.
The latest attacks followed a day of intense efforts to negotiate some kind of ceasefire; the talks were held, among other places, at the UN headquarters in New York where heads of state and government gathered for the General Assembly's debate.
The US was behind a proposal to introduce a 21-day ceasefire.
The response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was that he had not responded to the proposal.
"Full force"
"It's a proposal from the US and France, which the Prime Minister hasn't even responded to," it was stated in a communiqué from Netanyahu's office.
The message from Netanyahu was the opposite: "We will continue to fight with full force."
The White House responded late on Thursday with criticism of Netanyahu, and a spokesperson told reporters that the proposal had been "coordinated" with Israel.
Diplomatic efforts continued on Thursday. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an appearance in London that a diplomatic solution was still possible, and that it could have a bearing on an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also raised the issue in a meeting with Israeli opposition politician Benny Gantz in Berlin.
"Hezbollah must withdraw from Lebanon's border areas; all parties have a responsibility to find a diplomatic solution" Scholz wrote on X after the meeting.
No signs in the combat zone indicated that the warring parties were listening.
The Lebanese Health Department reported that over 1,500 people had been killed in the fighting that began – albeit on a smaller scale – after the terrorist-stamped Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
The deteriorating situation in Lebanon reinforced the extensive flight, both internally in the country and out of Lebanon. Over 31,000 people have fled to neighboring Syria in the past week, including over 15,000 Syrians who had previously fled their homeland due to the civil war in Syria.
