By Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) -U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will hold talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Monday on conditions for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, while Israel struck branches across Lebanon of what it describes as Hezbollah’s shadow bank.
Diplomacy has failed to cool down Israel’s conflicts with its two most dangerous and heavily armed regional militia foes – Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip – which are grinding into a second year.
Washington is hoping for a new push for peace in the Middle East following Israel’s killing last week of Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas and architect of the attacks on Israeli towns last year that precipitated Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
U.S. officials are seeking to broker a truce in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground campaign over the past month and has killed most of the senior leadership of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia which says it is fighting Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
Overnight, Israel attacked sites in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, targeting the branches of an alternative banking system that Israel says is run by Hezbollah to finance its operations. Hundreds of families fled homes near the targeted locations ahead of the strikes, though no casualties were immediately reported.
Reuters saw plumes of black smoke billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts in Beirut suburbs. Panicked crowds clogged streets and caused traffic jams in some parts of the city as they tried to get to neighbourhoods thought to be safer.
“Strike, strike, strike with planes and drones, and we don’t know who they are targeting and who will die each day,” said Micheline Jabbour, who works in a Beirut pastry shop.
The Israeli military said before its overnight attacks that it was targeting the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, an alternative to the Lebanese banking system which the U.S. has said is used by Iran-backed Hezbollah to manage its finances.
The association has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.
There was no immediate statement from the organisation, Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.
U.S. envoy Hochstein is set to meet Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati and speaker of parliament Nabih Berri on Monday. Berri told the Al-Arabiya broadcaster over the weekend that Hochstein’s visit was “the last chance before the U.S. elections” to reach a truce. But Berri said would reject any changes to the agreement which ended the last major war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
Beirut residents said they had little expectation that the U.S. official’s visit would bring a breakthrough.
“It’s all a waste of time. Will he be able to get rid of Hezbollah’s weapons? Hochstein? He won’t be able to do anything,” said Tony Rawandos, 61, owner of a car workshop.
Israel’s military has not slowed down its offensives and is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.
Iran has complained to the U.N. nuclear watchdog about Israel’s threats against its nuclear sites, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday at a weekly news conference.
The U.S. military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel, which is now “in place”, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a trip to Kyiv.
Austin declined to say whether the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, was operational. But he added: “We have the ability to put it into operation very quickly and we’re on pace with our expectations.”
ISRAELI CONDITIONS
Israel’s campaign in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. It says its aim is to drive Hezbollah fighters from the border region so tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they were forced to flee over the past year from Hezbollah cross-border fire in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has given the United States a document with its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two U.S. officials and two Israeli officials.
Israel demands its forces be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to make sure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm near the border, and wants its air force to have freedom of operation in Lebanese air space, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official.
A U.S. official told Axios it was highly unlikely that Lebanon and the international community would agree to Israel’s conditions.
Diplomats and other sources in the region say Israel is seeking to inflict the maximum damage on its enemies now, to create an irreversible new reality in the region before a new U.S. president takes office in January.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the war in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 42,500 Palestinians and devastated the territory.
Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Emilie Madi in Beirut, Clauda Tanios in Dubai and Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem and Phil Stewart in Kyiv and Elywely Elwelly; Michael Perry and Michael Georgy; Editing by Giles Elgood, Ros Russell, Diane Craft, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Peter Graff)
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