On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejected the proposals for a ceasefire with Hezbollah following the United States and France called for a 21-day pause in fighting that has killed hundreds in Lebanon and increased the fears of a ground invasion.
Katz said in a statement on the social media platform X, ‘There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes’.
The comments raised hopes for a peaceful settlement, following Prime Minister Najib Mikati had expressed hope that a ceasefire can be reached soon in Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes seeking safety. Across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier, the biggest fighting in nearly two decades between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has raised fears.
However, Hezbollah has faced off against the Israeli military since the Shi’ite Muslim movement was created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to counter an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Notably in the middle east it has evolved into Tehran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East.
France, United States and many allies called for the immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border and also expressed support for a ceasefire in Gaza following discussions at the United Nations on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hadn’t yet given his reply to the truce proposal but had instructed the army to fight on. ‘Israel should reject any truce and keep hitting Hezbollah’, said hardliners in his government.
Notably, overnight the Israeli airstrikes hit around 75 Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire launchers, according to the media reports. In the latest deadly strike, at least 23 Syrians, most of them women and children, were killed when Israel hit a three-story building in the Lebanese town of Younine overnight, the town’s mayor, Ali Qusas. Lebanon is home to over 1.5 million Syrians who fled civil war there.
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