Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has rejected international calls for a ceasefire with Hezbollah Thursday, hours after President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement calling on them to support a temporary truce proposal that has broad international support. The U.S. and French leaders called on both sides in the high-stakes standoff Wednesday to back the proposal, but neither had signaled support by Thursday, and the exchange of Deadly fire continues.
“This is a US-French proposal to which the prime minister has not even responded,” Netanyahu’s office said Thursday, adding that it rejected a separate report suggesting the Israeli leader had asked his military to “tone down” its attack on Hezbollah to make way for discussion of a possible ceasefire.
“The reports about the alleged directive to slow down the fighting in the north are the opposite of the truth,” Netanyahu’s office said. “The prime minister ordered the Israeli army to continue the fighting with all its force.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on social media Thursday morning: “There will be no ceasefire in the north.”
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Mr Biden and Mr Macron, both in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly, issued their joint call on Tuesday evening for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after a week of Israeli airstrikes that have killed more than 630 people in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
Several people have been injured in Israel by Hezbollah’s relentless barrage of rockets and drones, most of which are shot down by the country’s advanced missile defense systems.
The escalation of violence began on October 8, when Hezbollah said it was attacking Israel in support of the Palestinians in the conflict. Gaza Strip under attack as Israel launched its devastating retaliation for the Hamas terrorist attack the day before.
THE Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire — which is larger and far better armed than its Hamas allies — has fueled fears of a broader Middle East war that could draw the United States, as Israel’s closest ally, and Iran, a backer of Hezbollah, directly into the fighting.
Tens of thousands of people from communities on both sides of the border have already been driven from their homes by the ongoing exchanges of fire, and since Israel began bombing Hezbollah targets in Lebanon with airstrikes last week, thousands more have fled the south of the country.
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“It is time to reach an agreement on the Israeli-Lebanese border that ensures security and safety for civilians to return home,” the Franco-U.S. statement said. “The exchanges of fire since October 7, and particularly over the past two weeks, threaten a much broader conflict and harm to civilians. We have therefore worked together in recent days on a joint call for a temporary ceasefire to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalation on both sides of the border.”
Mr Biden and Macron said their ceasefire proposal had been endorsed by the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“We call for broad support and immediate support from the governments of Israel and Lebanon,” the two leaders said.
The Israeli military announced overnight that the Israeli Air Force had struck “approximately 75 terrorist targets belonging to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in the Bekaa region and southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
On Thursday, Lebanon’s official news agency reported that an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers, killing 23 people and wounding eight, according to the Associated Press.
