The Israel Defense Forces struck Beirut’s suburbs on Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah launched three projectiles into southern Israel.
Israel launched the strikes on the day President Donald Trump said a deal between the United States and Iran would be finalized. Tehran has said Israel’s strikes could hamper any peace deal set to be finalized.
The IDF said Sunday it struck a Hezbollah command center in Dahiyeh, Beirut, in response to three projectiles launched by Hezbollah toward northern Israel. IDF said precautions were taken to mitigate harm to civilians prior to launching its strikes.
“We attacked in Dahiyeh in Beirut targets of the terror organization Hezbollah,” Netanyahu posted on X. “Israel will not tolerate fire into its territory.” The Israeli prime minister attached aerial footage of the strikes in Beirut.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, said in a post on X that Israel’s strikes cast doubt over a peace deal from Washington under review by Tehran.
“The Zionists’ incursion into Dahiyeh has once again shown that America either lacks the will to fulfill its commitments or the ability to do so,” Ghalibaf said. “By giving the green light to the regime, you cannot gain concessions. The game of bad cop and good cop is outdated.”
Israel countered that Ghalibaf was lying and that Hezbollah had attacked unprovoked.
“The Iranian regime, as always, is lying. Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, is the one that attacked Israel again this morning, completely unprovoked,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.
“Hezbollah constantly fires at Israeli civilians. Even after the ceasefire, Hezbollah has not stopped targeting Israelis,” it added. “It was Hezbollah that launched an unprovoked attack on Israel in March, acting under the orders of its Iranian masters. Israel will not tolerate firing at its territory.”
The events on Sunday fall against the backdrop of peace negotiations reaching a new level of optimism, as Trump has said a deal would be signed Sunday. Iranian officials have said a deal would be finalized in the coming days, noting that negotiators are reviewing the proposed memorandum. Pakistani mediators have also voiced optimism about a deal coming soon.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid ripped the reported deal, calling it one of the “most shocking failures of Israel’s foreign and security policy” and placing the blame directly on Netanyahu. Lapid went on to list 13 of what he claims are failures on Netanyahu’s part, which include overselling the possibility of success in Iran to Washington and failing to convince Trump to target Iranian energy facilities.
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But Israeli state media has reported that Israeli officials have less optimism about the proposed deal, calling it “not a good deal” and adding that the Jewish state’s voice is “not being heard.”
The proposed deal includes stipulations that Iran will never be able to build, buy, or procure a nuclear weapon. Trump has said the deal would allow U.S. forces to go into Iran and remove any remaining “nuclear dust.” The deal also includes provisions to relieve economic stress on Iran and a plan to open the Strait of Hormuz.
