Iran war live: Israel kills 17 in Lebanon as US awaits Iran’s reply to deal

Israel airstrikes kill 17 in Lebanon as US waits for Iran nuclear response

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Israeli warplanes struck southern Lebanon overnight, killing 17 people including three Hezbollah fighters, as Washington pressed Tehran for a reply to a proposed nuclear agreement.

The deadliest Israeli raid since January came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran had received a “final” diplomatic offer to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.

Israel’s military confirmed it hit 15 sites across the border region, describing the targets as weapons depots and command posts used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit. Lebanese civil defense teams pulled bodies from rubble in the villages of Khiam and Kfar Kila, where strikes flattened two residential buildings at 2:30 a.m. local time.

The timing matters. Israel has vowed to blunt any Iranian retaliation for April’s assassination of a Revolutionary Guards general in Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers on Sunday that “any threat from Lebanon will be met with disproportionate force”, a signal that Jerusalem sees Hezbollah as Tehran’s most accessible pressure point.

Hezbollah responded with a barrage of 45 rockets at Israeli army positions in the Golan Heights. No casualties were reported. The exchange pushed the two sides closer to the full-scale war they have narrowly avoided since October 2023.

Rising civilian toll

Among the dead were five women and four children, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Hospital officials in Tyre said the youngest victim was 6 years old. Rescue workers used excavators to dig through concrete slabs as relatives watched in silence.

“This is the third time Israel has hit our neighborhood since March,” said Abu Hassan, 54, whose cousin’s family died in Khiam. “We don’t have bunkers. We sleep in the hallway and hope.”

Israel’s military released drone footage showing secondary explosions at one site, claiming this proved the presence of stored rockets. A senior officer who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said civilians had been warned to evacuate via Arabic text messages 90 minutes before the strikes.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the attack a “massacre” and summoned the US ambassador in Beirut to protest Washington’s military aid to Israel. Salam’s office later said Ambassador Lisa Johnson had expressed “sympathy for all civilian losses” but defended Israel’s right to self-defense.

Diplomatic clock ticks

Rubio, speaking to CBS from Tokyo, said Iran had until the end of the week to accept restrictions that would cap enrichment at 20 percent and ship out stockpiles above that level. “The ball is in their court,” he said. “Further delays will be interpreted as rejection.”

The proposal, delivered through Omani intermediaries last Tuesday, also offers release of $7 billion in frozen oil revenue and suspension of European sanctions on Iranian shipping, diplomats told GlobalBeat. In return Tehran must allow daily inspections of declared nuclear sites and halt support for proxy militias across the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tweeted that the offer was “unbalanced” but stopped short of refusal. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not commented publicly.

Analysts see the US deadline as designed to box Iran into a choice before Israel launches wider strikes. “Washington wants to test whether Tehran will trade its breakout capability for economic breathing space,” said Sanam Vakil of Chatham House. “Netanyahu would prefer the answer is no, giving him a freer hand.”

Market jitters

Brent crude jumped 3.4 percent to $82.60 a barrel on Monday morning, the highest level since November. Traders cited both the Lebanon raids and the possibility that Iran could respond by disrupting tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global oil exports pass.

Insurance premiums for vessels docking in the Persian Gulf rose 18 percent overnight, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. The US Navy’s Fifth Fleet said it had increased patrols but gave no numbers.

Israel’s shekel edged down 0.7 percent against the dollar despite central bank intervention. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Army Radio that the treasury had prepared a $5 billion war contingency fund if fighting escalates.

Military postures

The Israeli army announced it would call up 6,000 reservists for air-defense crews and intelligence units, adding to the 46,000 already mobilized since October. Columns of armored vehicles were seen heading north on the coastal highway overnight.

Hezbollah’s parliamentary leader Mohammad Raad warned that “all of northern Israel will burn” if Lebanon is attacked. The group’s media arm released video of what it said were new anti-aircraft missiles mounted on pickup trucks.

Syria’s army placed its units on the Golan front on “high alert”, state news agency SANA reported. Israeli officials have warned Damascus that any attempt to open a second front will trigger strikes on Syrian military infrastructure.

Domestic pressures

Netanyahu faces growing protests at home over the continued absence of hostages held in Gaza. Families blocked traffic in Tel Aviv on Sunday demanding a cease-fire deal, arguing that the government is stoking northern tensions to distract from stalled negotiations.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accused the prime minister of “playing with fire” to survive politically. “He wants a war in Lebanon because he can’t finish the war in Gaza,” Lapid told Channel 12.

In Tehran, hardline lawmakers circulated a petition urging the government to reject the US offer, calling it “humiliating”. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said any retreat would “erase the sacrifices” of Iranian scientists killed in recent years, referring to a series of assassinations blamed on Israel.

International reaction

France and Germany condemned the civilian deaths in Lebanon but urged “maximum restraint” from both sides. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was preparing humanitarian aid for southern Lebanon while warning that any attack on Beirut’s airport or port would be met with sanctions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed the United States for “fueling the fire” by refusing to rein in Israel. China called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose country hosts a large Palestinian population, warned that “another war will shatter what remains of regional stability”.

Egypt quietly reopened back-channel talks between Hamas and Israel aimed at calming Gaza, diplomats said, hoping that progress there could ease northern tensions.

Background

Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006 that killed more than 1,200 Lebanese and 165 Israelis. The UN-brokered cease-fire that ended that conflict required Hezbollah to pull fighters north of the Litani River and Israel to halt overflights, provisions neither side has fully respected.

Since October 2023, the border has seen daily exchanges of fire. Hezbollah says it acts in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, while Israel says it must degrade the group’s rocket arsenal before it can reach strategic depth. Previous rounds of violence in 2019 and 2021 lasted weeks but stopped short of all-out war.

Iran has supplied Hezbollah with an estimated 130,000 rockets and missiles since 2006, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, many with precision guidance kits added in Syrian workshops. Tehran spends up to $700 million annually supporting the group, viewing it as the most effective deterrent against an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

What’s Next

All eyes turn to Tehran by Friday, when the quiet Omani channel expects either an Iranian counter-proposal or outright rejection. If talks collapse, Israel has signaled it will widen strikes to cripple Hezbollah’s rocket production chain, risking massive retaliation that could draw in Syria and even US forces in Iraq. Diplomats fear the region is one miscalculation away from a conflict that would dwarf the 2006 war, with most major capitals urging restraint while quietly updating evacuation plans for their citizens.