TEL AVIV, Israel – Israel’s prime minister on Thursday appeared to play down hopes of a near-term deal with Hezbollah after the United States and its allies called for a 21-day ceasefire to “give room for negotiations.”
In a statement issued when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on his way to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, his office said that there was only a proposal on the table and he had not yet responded. The statement also denied that there had been an order to ease fighting on the northern border with Lebanon.
The comments raised questions about a new international plan to stop the exchange of fire that has killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and threatened to spark a war between Israel and Hezbollah. This statement was issued when Israel threatened to attack Lebanon on the ground to push the militant group away from the border and after the Israeli strike in Lebanon killed 20 people, most of them from Syria.
Shortly after the statement was issued, the Lebanese Hezbollah group’s television channel reported an Israeli airstrike in a suburb of Beirut. Al-Manar TV did not provide details on the strike.
Israel’s military said it carried out a strike south of Beirut without elaborating. Army officials said details would be released later.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, earlier said the country would continue to fight “with all our might until victory and the safe return of northern citizens to their homes.”
Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal for a temporary ceasefire. Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati has welcomed it, but his government has no influence on the party.
Hezbollah has insisted that it will stop its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting Hamas for almost a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
In its statement, Netanyahu’s office said that “the war in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved.” Netanyahu is expected to meet with other world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
In other developments, a right-wing partner in Netanyahu’s government has threatened to abandon the coalition if an agreement is reached to end Hezbollah once and for all.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party, has threatened to end cooperation with the coalition if an interim agreement is reached.
“If the temporary suspension agreement becomes permanent, we will resign from the government,” he said.
It was the latest sign of unhappiness in Netanyahu’s government over international efforts to end the ceasefire.
If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu will lose his majority in parliament and see his government overthrown, although opposition leaders have said they will support an end-to-end deal.
Israel launched a major operation in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 killed around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and captured another 250. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, according to local officials.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel one day after the Oct. 7 to support its Hamas allies, and Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire ever since.
The Israeli families of the hostages said they are pushing for a ceasefire so that Lebanon can put war provisions into Gaza, especially to secure the release of about 70 hostages who are believed to be alive and the bodies of about 30 others.
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was abducted and who was one of six Israelis whose bodies were found in the Gaza Strip in August, said the families of the abductors feel forgotten as they look north.
“We know that these things are connected, the north and the south. They’re all part of the same big trend we’ve been in since Oct. 7 on, and we are very concerned that if we don’t make the right decisions now, we will miss this wonderful opportunity to get the hostages out,” Dickmann said on Tuesday, as hopes for a ceasefire increased.
He criticized Netanyahu for missing numerous opportunities to free his cousin and urged him not to miss another opportunity by agreeing to a deal with Hezbollah and Hamas that would include provisions for hostages. Dickmann’s sister-in-law, Yarden Roman-Gat, was released in a week-long truce last November, along with 100 other hostages.
Israel has carried out heavy strikes across Lebanon, targeting what it says are Hezbollah rockets and other military infrastructure. The military fired hundreds of rockets into Israel and on Wednesday targeted Tel Aviv for the first time with a long-range missile intercepted.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon struck a building housing Syrian workers and their families, killing 19 Syrians and one Lebanese, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. It was one of the deadliest strikes in the fierce air campaign against Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the strike took place near the ancient city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, which runs along the Syrian border. The news agency first reported that 23 people died.
Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said that most of the dead were women and children, and that the rescue efforts lasted all night until Thursday morning.
“We dug through the rubble with our hands” until a small tractor was brought in, Salloum told The Associated Press by phone. “We had limited skills.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said it had recovered nine bodies, while others were recovered by Hezbollah and Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics.
Lebanon, with a population of around 6 million, hosts nearly 780,000 Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands of unregistered refugees – the highest number of refugees in the world.
Israel attacked 75 locations overnight in southern and eastern Lebanon, the military said. At least 45 projectiles were fired into Lebanon early Thursday, all of which were intercepted or fell into open areas, it said.
Israeli strikes since Monday have killed more than 630 people in Lebanon, according to local health authorities, with nearly a quarter of them women and children. Several people were injured by explosives in Israel.
The war has killed dozens of people in Israel and driven tens of thousands from their homes on both sides of the border.
Israel has vowed to do whatever it takes to allow its citizens to return, and has moved thousands of troops to the northern border in preparation for a possible ground operation.
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