YoIsrael said on Thursday that it will continue to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon “until victory,” rejecting a joint call for a 21-day ceasefire made on Wednesday by the United States, France and other allies.
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Faced with this escalation that threatens to drag the entire region into war, the United States, France and other allies, including Arab countries, launched a joint call for a 21-day ceasefire, in order to “give diplomacy a chance,” said a statement released by the White House.
But a few hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly dismissed the call and ordered his troops to continue fighting Hezbollah. “with all necessary force.”
“We will continue to fight the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the inhabitants of the north to their homes,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz added on social media X.
For the fourth consecutive day, moreover, The Israeli army launched a barrage of bombings against strongholds of the Islamist movement in Lebanon, while the Iranian-backed group again fired projectiles at Israeli military complexes.
At least 20 people, almost all of them Syrian nationals, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Yunin, a Hezbollah stronghold in eastern Lebanon, Lebanese health authorities said.
For its part, Israel said 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted and others fell in uninhabited areas.
Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 600 people, including many civilians, and forced 90,000 to flee their homes in Lebanon since Monday, the UN said.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for months, but the artillery duels intensified after the deadly detonations of the devices broadcasts by members of the Lebanese movement, attributed to Israel, on September 17 and 18, and an Israeli bombing on September 20 in a southern suburb of Beirut, which decapitated the pro-Iranian group’s elite Radwan unit.
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US, EU and several Arab countries call for 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon
The United States, France, the European Union and several Arab countries called on Wednesday for an “immediate 21-day ceasefire” in Lebanon, where attacks between Israel and Hezbollah threaten to engulf the Middle East in all-out war, according to a joint statement issued by the White House.
“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire on the border between Lebanon and Israel to give diplomacy an opportunity to reach a diplomatic solution” to the situation in Lebanon and Gaza, the text reads.
The United States, France, the EU, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar signed the declaration.
Israel says it struck 75 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon early Thursday
The Israeli army said on Thursday that it had attacked some 75 targets belonging to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in southern and eastern Lebanon overnight.
“During the night, the army (…) struck some 75 terrorist targets” belonging to Hezbollah “in the Bekaa area” in eastern Lebanon, “as well as in the south” of the country, the armed forces said in a statement. Among the targets attacked were ammunition depots and rocket launching platforms.
Hezbollah says it fired rockets at Israeli military complexes near Haifa
Hezbollah said Thursday it has again fired projectiles at Israeli military complexes near the northern city of Haifa, after the Israeli army bombed numerous pro-Iranian targets in Lebanon.
“In the defence of Lebanon and its people,” Hezbollah “attacked the military-industrial complexes of Rafael (…) with a barrage of rockets,” the Lebanese movement said in a statement. Hezbollah said it had targeted the state-owned weapons complex with rockets in recent days.
Israeli FM says there will be no truce with Hezbollah ‘until victory’
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Thursday there would be no truce with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, after the United States and its allies called for a 21-day ceasefire.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the people of the north to their homes,” Katz wrote on social media X.
More than 22,000 people have entered Syria fleeing Israeli bombings in Lebanon
More than 22,000 people fleeing Israeli bombing in Lebanon have entered Syria since Monday, Syrian security sources said Thursday.
“The total number of people who entered through the Jdeidet Yabus border crossing in the past three days and until Thursday morning is more than 6,000 Lebanese and about 15,000 Syrians,” said a source who requested anonymity.
A second source said 1,000 Lebanese and 500 Syrians had passed through another border point, Jusiyah.
Lebanon reports 20 dead, mostly Syrians, in Israeli attack in east
The Lebanese health ministry said Thursday that 20 people, almost all Syrian, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon.
“An Israeli enemy bombardment of the town of Yunin” killed “20 people, including 19 Syrians,” the ministry said in a statement, raising the previous death toll to nine.
*With AFP and EFE
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