Israel, Hezbollah trade fire as truce hopes rekindled

BEIRUT/GENEVA — An Israeli airstrike killed five people in central Beirut on Monday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said, the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital as it presses its campaign against the armed group Hezbollah.

Smoke was seen rising from the strike in the densely populated Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood, near the central Beirut district where the Lebanese government is headquartered. Two people were missing after the strike and another 31 were wounded, the ministry said.

Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around the Lebanese capital over the past week, and Hezbollah has kept up missile fire into Israel.

Rocket sirens sounded across Tel Aviv and much of central Israel on Monday evening.

Falling shrapnel from an intercepted missile hit a main street in a Tel Aviv suburb, the Israeli military said. The blast wounded six people, according to Israel's ambulance service.

Hezbollah said in a statement it launched a salvo of drone attacks at "sensitive military sites" in Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said more than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon in the less than two months since Israel escalated its attacks targeting Hezbollah.

"Over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day," he added.

Meanwhile, Lebanon and Hezbollah have agreed to a US cease-fire proposal and made some comments on the content, a top Lebanese official told Reuters on Monday, describing the effort as the most serious yet to end the fighting.

Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said Lebanon delivered its written response to the US ambassador in Lebanon on Monday.

Hezbollah has endorsed Berri to negotiate a cease-fire, Reuters reported.

"All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to (UN) Resolution 1701 with all its provisions," said Khalil.

The success of the initiative now depends on Israel, Khalil said. If Israel does not want a solution, "it could make 100 problems", he added.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on Lebanon's latest assessment of the diplomacy.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel in October last year in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 43,972 people have been killed in more than 13 months of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

Agencies Via Xinhua