Israel’s Netanyahu says troops will continue to fight Hezbollah ‘with full force’ as US, France offer ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office deflected international calls for a ceasefire by Hezbollah Thursday, hours after President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement calling on them to support a proposed temporary truce with broad international support. U.S. and French leaders on Wednesday called on both sides to support the proposal, but neither had expressed support Thursday, and the exchange of the deadly fire continued.

“This is a US-French proposal that the prime minister has not even responded to,” Netanyahu’s office said Thursday, adding that it rejected a separate report suggesting the Israeli leader had asked his army to “moderate” its attack on Hezbollah to give space. to discuss a possible ceasefire.

“The report on the so-called directive to slow down the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth,” Netanyahu’s office said. “The prime minister ordered the IDF to continue fighting with full force.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Thursday morning on social media: “There will be no ceasefire in the north.”

Mr. Biden and Macron, both in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly, launched their joint call on Tuesday evening for a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after a week of Israeli airstrikes that killed more than 630 people in Lebanon. , according to the country’s Ministry of Health.

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 to support the Palestinians in the conflict. The Gaza Strip under fire as Israel launched its devastating retaliation to the Hamas terrorist attack the day before.

THE exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah – which is larger and far better armed than its Hamas allies – has fueled fears of a broader war in the Middle East that could draw in the United States, as Israel’s closest ally and supporter of Iran, directly into the fighting.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have already been driven from their homes by the ongoing firefights, and since Israel began striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon last week, thousands of others fled the south of the country. the country.

“It is time to reach a settlement at the Israeli-Lebanese border that ensures safety and security to allow civilians to return home,” the US-French statement said. “The exchange of fire since October 7, and particularly over the past two weeks, threatens a much wider conflict and harm to civilians. We have therefore worked together in recent days on a joint call for a cease -the temporary fire in order to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations beyond 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.

Speaking in London on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah “deeply troubling,” acknowledging the risk of all-out war and calling on Israel and Hezbollah to “choose a different path” with a diplomatic solution.

“The best way forward is to pursue a ceasefire that allows diplomacy to take place,” Austin said.

Asked about remarks from Netanyahu’s office earlier in the day, Austin said he believed neither Israel nor Hezbollah wanted a broader war, and he remained “optimistic that good things will happen.”

The Israeli military said overnight that the Israeli Air Force had struck “approximately 75 terrorist targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Bekaa region and southern Lebanon, including storage facilities weapons, 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 injuring eight, according to the Associated Press.

Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.