Israel is pushing back expectations of a truce with Hezbollah. Israel has been under pressure in recent hours, after threatening a ground invasion of Lebanon, to stop the escalation of the conflict. Its threat has caused a group of countries to propose at least a temporary cessation of the 21-day hostilities between the Jewish state and Hezbollah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Thursday travelled to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, has not given any sign of optimism regarding this negotiation initiative led by the United States and France. What is more, he has given orders to his army to maintain the pressure “with all its strength”. The increase in border tension and the risk of an all-out war is one of the issues that world leaders are addressing at the UN headquarters. All this, just a few days before the first anniversary of the conflict, on October 7, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli siege of Gaza.
Even before Netanyahu had thrown the kibosh on the diplomatic route, some members of his government had taken it upon themselves to consider it unviable. Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded categorically: “There will be no ceasefire in the north.” [en Líbano]”. According to these political representatives, opening the door to a truce would give wings to the Lebanese militia backed by Iran. Meanwhile, in recent hours, both the Israeli air force’s bombing of Lebanese territory and the firing of missiles by the party-militia towards Israel have continued.
“The prime minister has instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to continue fighting with all their might and in accordance with the plans that had been presented,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office. The statement insisted that a possible agreement to silence the guns was not on the table, at least not on his part. “The reports about a ceasefire are not true. This is a Franco-American proposal to which the prime minister has not even responded,” it added.
“The reports surrounding the alleged initiative to moderate the fighting in the north are also contrary to the truth,” it added. Netanyahu’s office also issued a reminder, in case anyone has forgotten, about the situation on the southern front, in the Palestinian Strip. “The fighting in Gaza will continue until all the war objectives are achieved,” the statement concluded.
In addition to rejecting any possible ceasefire, the Israeli foreign minister insists that they will continue to attack the Shiite militia “with full force until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Katz added, referring to the 60,000 displaced people from the immediate vicinity of the border. The foreign minister is replacing the prime minister, who is due to return on Saturday, although, according to local press, he will not make any essential decisions for the outcome of the war on his own initiative in this time frame.
The Paris-Washington initiative provides for a three-week ceasefire. US President Joe Biden has said his proposal is capable of attracting support from European and Arab countries. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says there is still time to stop the escalation and expressed hope in statements to Reuters. But the main barrier faced by the Americans and French is the refusal of the Israeli authorities to withdraw.
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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid appears to be taking the middle path, calling for his country to accept a seven-day truce so as not to give Hezbollah too many opportunities to regain strength and “reorganize its command systems,” he said on his X social network profile. “We will not accept any proposal that does not include the expulsion of Hezbollah from our northern border,” he clarified. The idea is to allow Israeli evacuees from that area to return to their homes, something that Netanyahu has been insisting on for days as an essential objective.
The ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, on the other hand, is firmly opposed to this. He sees only one scenario for the current military pressure in the north: “crushing Hezbollah.” “The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows it has received and to reorganize itself for the continuation of the war after 21 days.” Minister Orit Strock, a party colleague of Smotrich and in charge of illegal Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine, calls on Israel not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to close the door to a ceasefire in the north.
Aside from the political negotiations, the attacks continue. At least 23 Syrians, almost all women and children, were killed in one of the Israeli bombings on a building in the town of Younine (eastern Lebanon), on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, according to Reuters, citing information from the mayor. Meanwhile, in northern Israel, alarm bells continue to ring, warning residents of the possibility of attacks from Lebanon. Some thirty rockets have been intercepted in the vicinity of the city of Acre, some 15 kilometres from the border between the two countries. Dozens of other projectiles have been launched towards Haifa Bay, further south, without causing any fatalities. The authorities continue to warn residents in the northernmost areas of Israel not to move away from their shelters.
Meanwhile, on the Lebanese side, the 100,000 residents who had already fled the southern border in recent months have been joined by more than half a million people who have been forcibly displaced in recent days, driven by Israeli air strikes.
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