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  "path": "/partner/israel-strikes-beirut-unsc-meeting",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-01T12:43:56.000Z",
  "site": "https://nukta.com",
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nIsrael ordered strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday, targeting the Hezbollah stronghold largely spared from heavy attacks since April. The move comes as the UN Security Council prepares an emergency meeting on Israel's deepening military operations in Lebanon, now described as the country's most significant incursion in two decades.\n\n#### Why did Israel order strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs?\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz authorized strikes on the Dahiyeh district, citing repeated Hezbollah ceasefire violations and attacks on Israeli cities. A joint statement said the IDF was instructed to hit terror targets in response to those breaches. Katz warned there would be \"no calm in Beirut\" if Hezbollah attacks continued.\n\n#### What is the current state of the Lebanon ceasefire?\n\nA truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon began on April 17 but has never held. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violating the agreement and use the other's alleged breaches to justify their own attacks. The ceasefire has been in name only since it took effect.\n\nLebanon was drawn into the broader Middle East conflict on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel following the U.S.-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader. Since then, Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,412 people. Twenty-six Israelis have been killed over the same period, 25 soldiers and one civilian contractor.\n\n#### What did residents of Beirut's southern suburbs do after the strike orders?\n\nFamilies fled the area in cars and on scooters carrying minimal belongings after evacuation warnings circulated Monday morning. A 24-year-old named Hadi told _AFP_ he had hoped the truce would bring stability. \"That feeling did not last long. Our fears intensified this morning after I received a series of messages about orders to bomb the southern suburbs, which caused widespread panic, and we immediately left the area,\" he said.\n\nBeirut's southern suburbs have been struck twice since April 8, when a series of Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed hundreds within minutes.\n\n#### What is Israel's military strategy in south Lebanon?\n\nOn Sunday, Israeli troops seized Beaufort Castle, a hilltop fortification with commanding views of south Lebanon, as part of an expanding ground operation. Netanyahu called the capture \"a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading.\" Katz said Israel plans to turn the Litani River area into a zone under IDF security control, free of weapons and armed groups.\n\nIsrael also issued evacuation orders Monday for nine towns and villages in Lebanon's Sidon and Jezzine districts, far north of the Israeli border. Israeli forces previously used Beaufort Castle as a base during their two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.\n\n#### How are the U.S., UN, and Iran responding to the escalation?\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron, who requested the UN Security Council meeting, said Sunday that nothing justifies the escalation under way in south Lebanon. The European Union called on Israel to stop its military escalation. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the situation as \"a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression.\"\n\nIranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that a Lebanon ceasefire is an essential condition for any deal to end Iran's wider war with the United States. A senior U.S. official told _AFP_ that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with both Aoun and Netanyahu, and proposed a clear sequence: Hezbollah must stop all attacks first, after which Israel would refrain from escalating in Beirut. Military delegations from Lebanon and Israel held security talks in Washington on Friday, with further U.S.-brokered negotiations scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.",
  "title": "Israel orders strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs ahead of UNSC meeting"
}