Lebanese officials are expected to respond to the proposal soon. Lebanon’s parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, who Hezbollah said was authorized to negotiate on its behalf, said Friday that discussions were “progressing.” A lawmaker from the same parliamentary bloc as the speaker, Qassen Hashem, told local radio Saturday that the response to the draft cease-fire proposal would be ready by Monday or Tuesday at the latest, while accusing Israel of trying “to discuss the draft under fire to impose its conditions.”
Israel’s military has stepped up strikes on southern Beirut in recent days. On Saturday, Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, as Israel’s military issued evacuation notices to residents and said the strikes targeted Hezbollah’s “terrorist infrastructure.”
Israel’s military said it had intercepted four drones and 20 projectiles that had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory early Saturday, setting off sirens in the Western Galilee border area.
Here are other key developments
- World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an attack on a civil defense center in northeastern Lebanon had killed at least 12 paramedics. “Attacks on health care are becoming the new normal in conflicts,” he wrote on X. “This must stop — everywhere!”
- Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry denied any meeting between Trump-ally Elon Musk and the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, Iranian state media reported. The New York Times reported that the two met Monday to discuss how to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington. Trump’s election has fueled fierce debate in Iran over whether to negotiate, or take a more hostile stance, with his administration.
- Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday gave the go-ahead for 7,000 notices to be sent to ultra-Orthodox Jews to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up more than 12 percent of Israel’s population and have lent crucial backing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had promised them exemptions from military service.
- At least 43,799 people have been killed in Gaza during the war and 103,601 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. At least 3,445 people have been killed and 14,599 injured in Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry said. Neither agency distinguishes between civilians and combatants.
- Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including more than 300 soldiers. It says 373 soldiers have been killed in its military operation in Gaza…..
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