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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 11 in Beirut as diplomats push for cease-fire
Israeli airstrikes Saturday killed at least 11 people and injured dozens in central Beirut as diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah..
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the death toll in the country’s capital could rise as emergency responders dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, it said, adding that 63 people were wounded.
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images
The pre-dawn strikes, which destroyed an eight-story building and left a crater in the ground, were the fourth in Beirut in less than a week.
The escalation comes after U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a cease-fire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hochstein said on Tuesday that he held “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
“Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps,” the envoy told reporters after the two-hour meeting. “It’s ultimately the decisions of the parties to reach a conclusion to this conflict. … It is now within our grasp.”
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz to discuss ongoing operations and reaffirm the United States’ “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
In a statement, the Pentagon said Austin also reiterated the U.S. commitment to a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that “allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the border.”
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.
Israel’s military did not issue a warning for residents prior to the strikes in central Beirut and did not comment on the casualties. It warned residents Saturday in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were residing near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 meters (yards) away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centers and weapons storage facilities.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed into law a bill banning adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal.
The Kremlin leader also approved legislation that outlaws the spread of material that encourages people not to have children.
The bills, which were previously approved by both houses of Russia’s parliament, follow a series of laws that have suppressed sexual minorities and bolstered longstanding conventional values.
Russian lower house Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who was among the new bill’s authors, said in a Telegram post in July that “it is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries.”
The adoption ban would apply to at least 15 countries, most of them in Europe, and Australia, Argentina and Canada. Adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens was banned in 2012.
Other bills approved Saturday ban what they described as propaganda for remaining child-free and impose fines of up to 5 million rubles (about $50,000). Its proponents contended that public arguments against having children are part of purported Western efforts to weaken Russia by encouraging population decline.
Putin and other top officials in recent years have increasingly called for observing so-called traditional values as a counter to Western liberalism. As Russia’s population declines, Putin has made statements advocating large families and last year urged women to have as many as eight children.
Russia last year banned gender-transition medical procedures and its Supreme Court declared the LGBTQ+ “movement” to be extremist.
In 2022, Putin signed a law prohibiting the distribution of LGBTQ+ information to people of all ages, expanding a ban issued in 2013 on disseminating the material to minors.
Since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin leader has repeatedly characterized the West as “satanic” and accused it of trying to undermine Russia by exporting liberal ideologies.
Independent journalists, critics, activists and opposition figures in Russia have come under increasing pressure from the government in recent years, intensifying significantly amid the conflict in Ukraine. Hundreds of nongovernmental groups and individuals have been designated as a “foreign agent” — a label that implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations.
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