Israel flatly rejected yesterday a push led by key backer the US for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, as it vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah militants “until victory.”
Israeli aerial bombardment of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has hit back with barrages of rockets.
“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,” Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X.
Photo: REUTERS
Moments earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying he had “not even responded” to the truce proposal, and that he had ordered the military “to continue the fighting with full force.”
The US, France and other allies issued a joint statement calling for a 21-day halt in the fighting, after US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
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,” the statement said.
On the ground, there was no let-up in the violence.
The Israeli military yesterday said it had struck “approximately 75 terror targets” in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the south, both Hezbollah bastions that have seen a huge exodus of people fleeing their homes in recent days.
One strike on the town of Yunin near the ancient city of Baalbek killed at least 20 people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said, with the official National News Agency describing the bombing of the area as “the most violent” of recent days.
“It was indescribable, it was one of the worst nights we’ve lived through. You think there’s just a second between life and death,” said Fadia Rafic Yaghi, 70, who owns a shop in Baalbek.
The Israeli military also said about 45 rockets had been fired from Lebanon, adding that some had been intercepted while others had landed in unpopulated areas.
Hezbollah said that it had again targeted defense industry complexes near the city of Haifa in northern Israel, saying it was “defending Lebanon and its people.”
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