Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) - Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah bastions in Beirut and south Lebanon on Saturday, a day after Lebanese officials said they were studying a US truce proposal.

An Israeli strike on neighbouring Syria earlier this week killed two senior figures in Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza confirmed.

Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are all backed by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, which said Friday it supported a swift end to the nearly two-month war in Lebanon.

Since September 23, Israel has escalated its bombing of targets in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops after almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah militants over the Gaza war.

Israel’s military chief, in comments issued on Saturday, said Hezbollah has already “paid a big price” but Israel will keep fighting until tens of thousands of its residents displaced from the north can return safely.

“We will continue to fight, to implement plans, to go further, conduct deep strikes, and hit Hezbollah very hard,” Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on a visit earlier in the week to the Kfar Kila area of south Lebanon.

AFPTV footage showed fresh strikes Saturday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, after Israel’s military called on residents to evacuate.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported four strikes during the day and a further “heavy strike” in the early evening.

The Israeli military said aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command centre”.

In Lebanon’s east, the health ministry said an Israeli strike in the Bekaa Valley killed six people including three children.

Hezbollah said it fired a guided missile which set an Israeli tank ablaze in the southwest Lebanon village of Shamaa, about five kilometres (three miles) from the border.

Israel announced the death of a soldier in southern Lebanon, bringing to 48 the number killed in fighting with Hezbollah.

- Synagogue hit -

In eastern Lebanon, funerals were held for 14 civil defence staff killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday.

“They weren’t involved with any (armed) party… they were just waiting to answer calls for help,” said Ali al-Zein, a relative of one of the dead.

Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, targeting military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.

Israel’s military reported a “heavy rocket barrage” on Haifa and said a synagogue was hit, injuring two civilians.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,452 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.

In Hamas-run Gaza, the Israeli military said it continued operations in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the targets of an intense offensive since early October.

Israel said its renewed operations aimed to stop Hamas from regrouping.

A UN-backed assessment on November 9 warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, amid the increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid.

Israel has pushed back against a 172-page Human Rights Watch report this week that said its displacement of Gazans amounts to a “crime against humanity”, as well as findings from a UN Special Committee that pointed to warfare practices that “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.

A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as “completely false”, while the United States – Israel’s main military supplier – said accusations of genocide “are certainly unfounded”.

The Gaza health ministry on Saturday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war has reached 43,799.

The majority of the dead are civilians, according to ministry figures which the United Nations considers reliable.

- ‘Massive explosion’ -

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday reiterated demands that the government reach a deal to free dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.

The protest came a week after mediator Qatar suspended its role until Hamas and Israel show “seriousness” in truce and hostage-release talks.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency reported 24 people killed in strikes across the territory on Saturday.

In Rafah, Jamil al-Masry told AFP a house was hit, causing “a massive explosion”.

“We went to the house, only to find it in ruins, with fire raging and smoke and dust everywhere.”

In a rare claim of responsibility for a strike on Syria, Israel said it targeted the Islamic Jihad group on Thursday.

A statement from the group on Saturday confirmed that “prominent leader” Abdel Aziz Minawi and external relations chief Rasmi Yusuf Abu Issa were killed in the air raid on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.

Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack.

With diplomacy aimed at ending the Gaza war stalled, a top government official in Beirut said on Friday that US ambassador Lisa Johnson had presented a 13-point proposal to halt the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

It includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon will deploy troops to the border. The official added that Israel has yet to respond to the plan.

A second Lebanese official, who also requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said he was “optimistic” about the talks.

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