Israel strikes in Lebanon | Netanyahu rejects a truce with Hezbollah and orders the bombings to continue in Lebanese territory
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday defied pressure from his allies to agree to a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah, stressing that he had ordered the army to continue operations in Lebanon “with all its might.” In fact, Israel continued its bombing campaign against different points in the south and east of the country during the early hours of Thursday, after a day on Wednesday that ended with at least 81 deaths.
Tel Aviv’s allies, including the United States, Canada, France, and Germany, issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling for a 21-day ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border, with the intention of boosting negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the hostages captured in the October 7 attacks. “The situation between Lebanon and Israel since October 8, 2023 is intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation,” reads a statement issued by the White House on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
At least 23 Syrians killed in Israeli airstrikes on town in eastern Lebanon
At least 23 Syrians were killed yesterday by Israeli airstrikes on the town of Younine in eastern Lebanon, a region that the Jewish state has been intensively bombing since Monday, the mayor of the municipality, Ali Qasas, announced on Thursday.
Speaking to the Lebanese National News Agency (ANN), Qasas said the bombing left 23 people dead and eight wounded, including four Lebanese who suffered “light injuries,” while noting that emergency teams completed rescue and debris removal work in Younine this morning.
The airstrike targeted a building located near a gas station in Younine that was “rented by Syrian workers,” according to the mayor, adding that “rescue teams were also able to remove debris from the roads as a result of previous attacks.”
Netanyahu denies any possible truce in Lebanon and says bombings will continue
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied reports of a possible truce with the Shiite militia-party Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon and stressed that he had ordered the army to continue “with all its might” operations against the neighbouring country.
“The reports of a ceasefire are not true. This is a Franco-American proposal to which the prime minister has not even responded,” Netanyahu’s office said on its account on the social network X, after Washington and Paris raised the possibility of a 21-day truce as a preliminary step to a ceasefire.
The Prime Minister’s Office has stressed that reports in the Israeli press about an order to the army to reduce the intensity of the bombings while the proposal was being considered “are contrary to the truth.”
Israeli Army detects some 45 rockets launched by Hezbollah against Western Galilee
The Israeli army confirmed on Thursday that it had detected the launching of some 45 rockets from Lebanon against the Western Galilee region, where the northern cities of Haifa and Acre are located, which did not cause damage or injuries, according to medical sources.
“Following the alerts that were activated in the Western Galilee area, 45 launches were detected crossing from Lebanon, some were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas,” detailed a military statement today.
UN Mission welcomes call for truce in Lebanon, calls for ‘seizing’ opportunity
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, welcomed on Thursday the international call for a 21-day ceasefire and called for “seizing this opportunity” to achieve a de-escalation of violence.
“We welcome and applaud the call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire to enable diplomacy to succeed. We count on the unequivocal support of all to seize this opportunity,” the head of the UN mission said in a brief message posted on her official X account.
Several Israeli ministers reject a ceasefire in Lebanon that would give “time to the enemy”
Several Israeli ministers, especially from the radical right, rejected on Thursday the proposal for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon put forward by a coalition of countries led by the United States and France, stressing that only the surrender of the Islamist organisation was possible. “We must not give the enemy time to recover and reorganise in order to continue the war after 21 days,” said the finance minister, radical settler Bezalel Smotrich on the social network X on Thursday. “The surrender of Hezbollah or war, this is the only way to return residents and security to the north now (Israel),” he added.
For her part, the openly homophobic minister Orit Struck, of the far-right Religious Zionism party and in charge of the National Settlements and Missions portfolio, has said that there is no “moral mandate for a ceasefire. Neither for 21 days nor for 21 hours.” “Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a barrel of explosives,” she added in statements reported by Channel 12.
Israel has continued its bombing campaign in Lebanon overnight
Israel continued its bombing campaign in the early hours of Thursday against various points in southern and eastern Lebanon, after a day on Wednesday that left at least 81 dead.
The Lebanese National News Agency (ANN) reported that during the early hours of Thursday morning, Israeli fighter planes carried out a series of air strikes against a dozen towns located in the eastern Bekaa Valley, one of the strongholds of the Lebanese armed formation.
The area around the northeastern city of Hermel was also the target of “several night-time attacks,” although most were concentrated in southern Lebanon, where “the Israeli enemy continued its bloody aggression day and night,” according to ANN, which noted that more displacements had occurred from that region.
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