Lebanon authorities hope for ceasefire deal

By Linda Bordoni

The humanitarian situation in Lebanon continues to rapidly deteriorate with the latest Israeli airstrikes killing at least 60 people, including two children.

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, over 100 children – an average of 2 children a day – have been killed in the country since Israel intensified its campaign against Hezbollah on 23 September.

Meanwhile, rocket fire from Lebanon on Thursday killed five people in northern Israel, including four foreign workers, in the deadliest such attack since Israel's invasion. 

Hope for ceasefire

And on the diplomatic front, also on Thursday, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he hopes a ceasefire with Israel will be announced in the coming hours or days as US envoy Amos Hochstein travels to the region for truce talks.

While more than 1 million people – about one-fifth of the population – have been displaced in Lebanon, Gaza’s Health Ministry updated the death toll in the enclave to over 43,200 people killed and more than 101,000 wounded in Israeli military attacks since October 7, 2023.

Of those, it said 41 Palestinians were killed and 131 wounded in the past 24-hour reporting period.

Most of them were killed in Israeli military strikes in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations.

Airstrikes on hospital in northern Gaza

Israel's military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said "dozens of terrorists" have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the charge.

Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled Hamas' command structure, is currently the main focus of the military's assault in the enclave. Earlier this month it sent tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya to flush out militants it said had regrouped in the area.

As for a diplomatic solution to the war on Gaza, Hamas has rejected a ceasefire proposal put forward by Qatar, Egypt and the US, that would have brought the release of a small number of Israeli captives and a 30-day cessation of hostilities, but no withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. 

(Source: AP and other agencies)