Report: Israelis reach deepest point in Lebanon since attack

A Middle East Airlines commercial aircraft approaching the runway of the nearby Beirut airport flies above plumes of smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday. An airstrike on a village killed a couple and their four children. brahim Amro — AFP/Getty Images for tribune news service

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By Bassem Mroue

The Associated Press

BEIRUT — Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back Saturday after battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.

The clashes and further Israeli bombardment came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. on ending the war.

Israeli troops briefly captured a strategic hill in the southern village of Chamaa, about 3 miles from the border, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said Israeli troops blew up the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa as well as several homes, but that could not be verified.

Israel’s military did not respond to requests for comment but said in a statement its troops continue “limited, localized” operations in southern Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold, and several other areas including the port city of Tyre. An airstrike on the northeastern village of Khraibeh killed a couple and their four children, the National News Agency said.

Shrapnel from a strike in Dahiyeh wounded a teenage girl in the head and she was in intensive care, a hospital official said on the condition of anonymity.

Israel’s military said it hit multiple Hezbollah sites.

Since late September, Israel has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to severely weaken the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel that the militants have said are in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

Israel’s military said a synagogue was struck and two civilians hurt in a “heavy rocket barrage” by Hezbollah on Haifa, northern Israel’s largest city. Police said they were lightly injured. Hezbollah said it fired missiles at five Israeli military facilities in Haifa and its suburbs. Israel said Hezbollah fired more than 60 projectiles into Israel on Saturday.

More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the past eight weeks — according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Israel has said it wants to ensure that thousands of Israelis can return to their homes near the border.

Israel’s military said a soldier died in combat in southern Lebanon on Friday.

In Gaza, an Israeli airstrike Saturday evening on a U.N.-run school sheltering displaced people killed 10 and wounded 20, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. It said two missiles were fired at the Abu Assi School in the Shati refugee camp.