Israel defies ceasefire calls in Lebanon

BEIRUT

Israel rejected a push by allies for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah militants "until victory", ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's expected address to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday.

Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages.

The United States, France and other allies unveiled the 21-day truce on Wednesday, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

But Israeli leader Netanyahu flatly rejected the ceasefire proposal on Thursday, ordering the military to continue "fighting with full force".

The White House expressed frustration at the rejection, saying the truce proposal had taken "a lot of care and effort".

"We wouldn't have made that statement, we wouldn't have worked on that if we didn't have reason to believe that the conversations that we were having with the Israelis in particular, were supportive of the goal there," National Security spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday.

Macron said later it was "a mistake" for Netanyahu to refuse a ceasefire and that he would have to take "responsibility" for a regional escalation.

Speaking in Canada where he met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who also backed the ceasefire — Macron noted that the ceasefire plan had been prepared with Netanyahu himself.

  'Intolerable' 

The joint ceasefire statement said the situation in Lebanon has become "intolerable" and "is in nobody's interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon".

Lebanon's National News Agency reported that Israel carried out air raids early Friday on several cities in southern Lebanon, with injuries recorded.

The country's health ministry said late Thursday that Israeli strikes had killed 92 people in the country and injured 153 in the past 24 hours.

More than 1,500 people have been killed since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah erupted last October, with Thursday's toll bringing the number of people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since Monday alone to more than 700.

According to the International Organization for Migration, about 118,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Lebanon over the past week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israel's strategic affairs minister in New York on Thursday, telling him the ceasefire would "allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes".

"Further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective more difficult," his spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

The Israeli defence ministry meanwhile announced it had secured a new $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to support the country's ongoing military efforts, underlining Washington's unwillingness to use its military aid as leverage for a ceasefire.

 Hezbollah commander killed 

For the fourth time this week, Israel carried out a strike on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, which it said killed the head of the group's drone unit.

Hezbollah said in a statement that the strike killed Mohammed Srur, born in 1973.

The Israeli military earlier said in a statement that its fighter jets had "targeted and eliminated" Srur, identifying him as "the commander of Hezbollah's air unit".

The Israeli military said it was carrying out "precise strikes" in the capital.

Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement that two people were killed in the attack and 15 wounded, "including a woman in critical condition".

  Yemen missile 

Israel's ongoing bombardments in Lebanon have raised fears of an all-out regional war in the Middle East.

Israel said earlier this month that it was shifting its focus from the Gaza Strip, where it has been fighting a war with Hamas since the October 7 attack, to its border with Lebanon.

Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive, according to an army statement.

The Israeli military said Thursday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

The leader of Yemen's Huthi rebels, Abdul Malik al-Huthi, said in a televised address earlier Thursday that the Iran-backed group would "not hesitate to support Lebanon and Hezbollah".

Since November, the Huthis have targeted Red Sea shipping with drones and missiles, saying the actions are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

  Gaza key 

Diplomats have said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon.

But despite months of mediation efforts involving the United States, a Gaza ceasefire is as elusive as ever.

At the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud announced a new international coalition to seek a two-state solution in Gaza.

Hamas's October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,534 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The U.N. has described the figures as reliable.