Israel pounds Lebanon, Gaza after U.S. truce push

Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip and Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, a day after U.S. envoys made a renewed but so far fruitless diplomatic push to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Overnight, 47 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The Israeli military said its troops had killed what it called armed terrorists in central Gaza and northern Gaza's Jabalia area.

Israel also pummelled Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday morning with at least 10 strikes, Reuters journalists said. It was the first bombardment on the area - once a densely-packed district and Hezbollah stronghold - in nearly a week.

The strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 separate neighborhoods. The attacks began before the final series of orders were published.

Israel has pressed on with its military offensives in devastated Gaza and Lebanon despite efforts by Washington to secure ceasefires on both fronts ahead of the U.S. presidential election next Tuesday. The hostilities have whittled away any hope a truce could be reached before next week.

Addressing graduating Israeli troops on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "agreements, documents, proposals are not the main point."

"The main point is our ability and determination to enforce security, thwart attacks against us, and act against the arming of our enemies, as necessary and despite any pressure and constraints. This is the main point," he said.

His office said he relayed a similar message to U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk in Israel on Thursday.

'Israeli stubborness'

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said on Friday: "Israeli statements and diplomatic signals received by Lebanon confirm the Israeli stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction".

Israel also carried out strikes on Thursday on the region of Baalbek in Lebanon's east, home to UNESCO-listed Roman ruins. A cultural group that organises yearly festivals amid the ruins said some cracks were visible due to nearby Israeli strikes.

Israel's offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of Gaza to rubble, Palestinian authorities say, and another 2,800 people in Lebanon, according to the health ministry there.

In Israel, a farmer and four Thai workers were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Metula, according to Israeli authorities. They said two more civilians were killed by shrapnel near the town of Kiryat Ata.

Hezbollah says it only fires at military targets in Israel.

Despite the new push for peace by the United States, Israel's close ally and main arms supplier, the deadly exchanges of fire indicate little progress has been made.

One Lebanese man, Hassan Saad, speaking in a street in Beirut, told Reuters: "This is a brutal war and Israel does not have the right to do this...There must be a limit put for Israel because Israel does not abide by any of the laws or human morality."

Another man, Ali Ramadan, said he believed the Israeli airstrikes were a way to put pressure on Lebanon in the ceasefire negotiations.

Lebanon accuses Israel of rejecting truce after Beirut strikes

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday criticized Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks on his country, saying they indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce after more than a month of war.

“The Israeli enemy’s renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire,” Mikati said.

Mikati’s statement came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Lebanon.

The Lebanese premier added that Israel’s diplomatic behavior suggested it was rejecting a ceasefire.

US asked Lebanon to declare unilateral ceasefire with Israel

A US envoy this week asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel as part of an effort to help negotiations to reach a resolution for the more than year-long conflict, a senior Lebanese political source and a senior diplomat said.

The sources said the effort was communicated by US Lebanon Envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

But such an announcement was seen as a non-starter in Lebanon, the sources said, where it would likely be equated with a surrender.

“Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction,” Mikati said in a statement.

(Additional input from AFP)