US pushes cease-fire in Lebanon as Netanyahu says Israel will fight on
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived in New York on Thursday for what he called an “important visit to the United Nations,” but he gave no indication that Israel would accept a new cease-fire proposal international diplomats have been working on to defuse the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might,” he said in a statement released as he arrived. “This is the policy.”
The statement came after several key members of Netanyahu’s government, including the foreign minister, had already dismissed the proposal, which was put forward late Wednesday by the United States, its European allies and several Arab nations. Hezbollah has not yet responded to the offer.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that President Joe Biden had not spoken directly with Netanyahu about the proposal, though it had been discussed with officials of Lebanon and Israel. “It is up to the parties to respond,” she said.
Analysts said it would be hard for either side to accept the proposal because it falls short of their respective conditions for a truce. Efforts to bring about a cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of Israeli hostages there have similarly been blocked by conflicting demands from Israel and Hamas.
Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militia, had been trading fire since the beginning of the war in Gaza, but Israel intensified its attacks over the last week, with one of the biggest bombing campaigns in recent military history.
Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and spread fear and desperation. Roughly 500,000 people have been displaced, according to Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry, and civilians have clogged the main roads leading to Beirut, the capital.
Here’s what else to know:
Cross-border strikes
Israel’s military pressed its air attacks on Lebanon on Thursday, saying that it was striking Hezbollah targets in that country’s south in response to a wave of 45 rockets fired from there into northern Israel. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 20 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, and that three people were killed in the Tyre district, on the Mediterranean coast. An airstrike in Beirut, which Israel’s military said targeted the commander of Hezbollah’s drone unit, killed two people and injured 15 more, according to the ministry.
In Gaza
The war between Israel and Hamas has endured more than 11 months. On Thursday, the Israeli military said it bombed a school compound being used as a temporary shelter in northern Gaza, claiming it housed a Hamas command-and-control center. Palestinian Civil Defense officials said 15 people, including women and children, were killed and dozens more were wounded. And with Israel’s new focus on Hezbollah, families of the hostages being held in Gaza fear their loved ones are being forgotten.
Israeli preparations
On Thursday, the Israeli military released a video of the commander of its air force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, telling his forces that Israel was preparing for a possible ground invasion in Lebanon, and saying that the military was intent on doing whatever was necessary to prevent Hezbollah from being resupplied with more arms from Iran, its backer.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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