LAST UPDATE | 6 hrs ago
THE US, FRANCE and other allies have jointly called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation”.
“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” the statement said.
“We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary cease-fire immediately.”
However, Israel’s foreign minister has said it won’t support a ceasefire “until victory”.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X.
The White House has insisted the international call for a ceasefire in Lebanon was “coordinated” with Israel, despite Israel publicly rejecting it.
“The statement was indeed coordinated with the Israeli side,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, adding that talks were continuing at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“It is an American-French proposal, which the prime minister has not even responded to,” said a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, adding that he had ordered the army “to continue the fighting with full force”.
Israel’s far-right national security minister has today threatened to boycott cabinet activities if the government agrees to a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah.
“If a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah is signed, the (Jewish Power) faction will not fulfil all coalition obligations – this includes voting, attending government and cabinet meetings, and any coalition activities,” Itamar Ben Gvir said in a party statement, while vowing to resign altogether if a ceasefire became permanent.
The Israeli military has said it hit 75 targets in Lebanon during the night, with about 45 projectiles fired from Lebanon this morning.
The Israeli military said today its latest strike on south Beirut killed Mohammed Srur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, who a source close to the group had earlier said was the target.
“Following precise intelligence guidance from the Air Force and the Intelligence Division, fighter jets targeted and eliminated (Srur), the commander of Hezbollah’s air unit, in Beirut,” a military statement said.
Lebanon said today that more than 1,500 people have been killed in almost a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
According to figures in a statement released by the country’s disaster management unit, 1,540 people have been killed, 60 of them in the past 24 hours, and 5,410 wounded in the ongoing hostilities.
Hezbollah has said it targeted the northern Israeli town of Safed with dozens of rockets in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
“Defending Lebanon and its people, and in response to the barbaric Israeli” attacks on “cities, villages and civilians” in Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters targeted Safed “with 80 rockets”, a statement said.
Meanwhile, Syrian security sources say more than 22,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria via two of the countries’ border crossings this week.
Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, and escalated attacks over the past week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East.
The US officials said Hezbollah would not be a signatory to the ceasefire but believed the Lebanese government would coordinate its acceptance with the group.
They wrongly expected Israel to “welcome” the proposal and perhaps formally accept it when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the General Assembly on Friday.
The nations calling for a halt to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict are the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Work on the proposal came together quickly this week with President Joe Biden’s national security team, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, meeting with world leaders in New York and lobbying other countries to support the plan, according to US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic conversations.
Blinken first raised the proposal with the French foreign minister on Monday and then broadened his outreach that evening at a dinner with the foreign ministers of all the Group of Seven industrialised democracies.
During a meeting on Wednesday morning with Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers, Blinken approached Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan to ask for their approval and got it.
Blinken and senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein then met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who signed off on the deal.
Blinken expects to meet Netanyahu’s top strategic adviser in New York today ahead of the prime minister’s arrival.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu has given the green light to pursue a possible deal, but only if it includes the return of Israeli civilians to their homes.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the UN Security Council during a special meeting that “we are counting on both parties to accept it without delay” and added that “war is not unavoidable”.
At the meeting, Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, publicly threw his support behind the French-US plan that “enjoys international support and which would put an end to this dirty war”.
He called on the Security Council “to guarantee the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Lebanese territories and the violations that are repeated on a daily basis”.
Addressing the Security Council, Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon claimed that Israel “does not seek a full-scale war”.
Both Danon and Mikati reaffirmed their governments’ commitment to a Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war.
Never fully implemented, it called for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by Lebanese forces and UN peacekeepers, and the disarmament of all armed groups including Hezbollah.
Earlier yesterday, Biden warned in an appearance on ABC’s The View that “an all-out war is possible” but said he thinks the opportunity also exists “to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region”.
That war is approaching the one-year mark after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking hostages.
Israel responded with an offensive that has since killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not provide a breakdown of civilians and fighters in their count.
With reporting from David Mac Redmond and AFP
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