Israeli strike on Beirut shatters diplomatic understandings, sources say

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******** strike on Beirut shatters diplomatic understandings, sources say

By Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah did not clear its sensitive sites or evacuate top officials in Beirut’s suburbs before this week’s ******* that ******* a top commander because it thought U.S.-led diplomacy would keep ******* from striking the area, security sources close to the group and diplomats said.

Hezbollah’s impression was that ******* would not hit the southern suburbs, or Dahiyeh, a heartland of support for the Shi’ite ******* group, as it believed ******** forces would adhere to unofficial red lines both sides have generally observed in the conflict that has escalated during the Gaza War, they said.

This assessment was relayed to Reuters by eight diplomats with knowledge of recent mediation efforts led by Washington and including France and the ******* Nations, as well as three security sources close to Hezbollah. They all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic.

That understanding was shattered on Tuesday when an ******** strike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh ******* Hezbollah’s top military commander, an Iranian military adviser and five civilians. Lebanese officials and Hezbollah now question whether diplomatic assurances had been relayed to the group accurately.

“We were not expecting them to hit Beirut and they hit Beirut,” Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters.

Coupled with the ******** in Tehran hours later of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of ************ armed group ******, it has risked sending the entire region into a violent tailspin.

Tensions began spiralling after a deadly strike on the ********-occupied Golan Heights on July 27 which ******* blamed on Hezbollah, vowing retaliation. The group denied any involvement.

Diplomats rushed to contain the fallout by urging ******* not to strike Dahiyeh as part of its response, with U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein specifically passing on those messages, several diplomats and a Lebanese official with direct knowledge of mediation efforts told Reuters.

A Hezbollah official said mediators had informed them of such efforts. The Lebanese official and three diplomats involved in the messaging said ******* had not made any commitments.

‘DIPLOMACY HAS *******’

Still, Hezbollah’s posture signalled its comfort: in the days leading up to the strike, top officials from the group were seen moving around Dahiyeh.

Hezbollah had cleared out some of its key sites in south and east Lebanon in anticipation of possible strikes, but did not take similar measures in Beirut, two security sources told Reuters. Hezbollah figures living near the targeted building were rushed out in a panic after it was hit, the sources said.

A regional diplomat said that meant ******* had no major Hezbollah targets to hit in south or east Lebanon. Two ********* diplomats said Hezbollah had not taken protective measures in Beirut and “were not cautious”.

Several of the diplomats, as well as a Western envoy, said they had understood Dahiyeh would be spared. “There was a clear message sent” that ******* would spare big cities including Beirut, a diplomat said.

Instead, they said, ******* shunned efforts to constrain its response. “Israelis do not listen to a word that we tell them. They are following their plan and don’t listen to us,” one of the ********* diplomats said.

The Western envoy and an Iranian official said ******* had “crossed red lines” by striking Dahiyeh. “Diplomacy has *******,” the envoy told Reuters, saying the ability of countries, even the ******* States, to influence ******* was limited.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech on Thursday marking the ******** of the slain commander Fuad Shukr, said ******* “does not know to what extent it has crossed the red lines” and that unnamed countries had asked the group not to respond to the strike – a request he rejected.

MISCALCULATION

Already, international efforts to rein in *******’s military blitz against the Gaza Strip – a response to ******’ cross-border ******* into ******* on Oct. 7 – have had limited success.

The ******* States has urged ******* to unblock aid deliveries into Gaza, avoid civilian casualties and refrain from launching a large-scale military offensive in Rafah, but its diplomatic efforts have yielded few results.

“The Israelis feel they are beset from all angles, politically, militarily, and it is a bit of a risky situation,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.

As a result, ******* had shifted the war’s rules of engagement, carrying out more audacious strikes against its Iranian, Lebanese and ************ foes, diplomats and analysts in the region said.

Hezbollah had “misread” *******’s mindset and thought it had done enough to deter ******* from bold strikes in Lebanon, several diplomats working on the issue and the Lebanese official said.

“******, *******, Hezbollah and Iran have all miscalculated since Oct. 7 and mis-assessed each other,” the Western envoy said.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam in Beirut; Editing by Samia Nakhoul and Ros Russell)

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