Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the country\u2019s military to continue fighting with \u201cfull force\u201d against the armed group Hezbollah, despite calls from the US and other allies for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said at least 92 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday, with hundreds more killed since the strikes escalated on Monday.<\/p>\n
Hezbollah has confirmed that an air strike on an apartment building in the south of Beirut killed the head of its drone unit, Mohammad Surur.<\/p>\n
Fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah are at a high, after a dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since Monday.<\/p>\n
The increase in hostilities prompted a 12-strong bloc \u2013 including the US, UK and EU \u2013 to\u00a0propose a three-week ceasefire\u00a0between Israel and Hezbollah on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The proposal was initially met with hope after Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said his country was \u201copen to ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n
But by Thursday it had been roundly rejected by Israeli politicians.<\/p>\n
Landing in New York for the UN General Assembly, Mr Netanyahu said Israel would \u201cnot stop\u201d in Lebanon until it reached all of its goals, \u201cchief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House later said the ceasefire proposal had been \u201ccoordinated\u201d with Israel, despite Mr Netanyahu\u2019s assertion, just hours later, that his country would continue fighting.<\/p>\n
Speaking in New York, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called for an \u201cimmediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement\u201d to resolve the conflict in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
He said the conflict could spill over into a war \u201cno one can control\u201d.<\/p>\n
Around 70,000 Israelis have been displaced from the north of the country since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by the war in Gaza, began nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n
In Lebanon, around 90,000 people have been displaced since Monday, adding to the 110,000 who had fled their homes already, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
Through Thursday, the Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon\u2019s south and in the Bekaa Valley in the country\u2019s east.<\/p>\n
It also struck infrastructure on the Lebanese-Syrian border, which it said was to cut weapons supplies to the group.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it had fired 50 rockets towards the city of Kiryat Ata, and 80 missiles towards the city of Safed, both in northern Israel.<\/p>\n
The Israeli army said it intercepted a missile that was fired from Yemen after sirens and explosions were heard.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military chief Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said on Wednesday Israeli air strikes on Lebanon could pave the way for the IDF to \u201center enemy territory<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n Israeli Air Force (IAF) Commander Maj Gen Tomer Bar told troops on Thursday they should be \u201cprepared\u201d to support a \u201cground manoeuvre\u201d into Lebanon.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Qatar joined calls for a de-escalation with government spokesman Majed al-Ansari saying the country had received \u201chorrific reports from Lebanon about targeting whole families, in a way that is similar to the atrocities in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n After meeting with British and Australian counterparts in London, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Israel and Hezbollah face the risk of \u201can all-out war\u201d but that \u201ca diplomatic solution is still viable\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael has stated that its goal is to return its citizens to their home in the north. I believe the quickest way to do that is through diplomacy,\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n On Thursday evening, Israel\u2019s defence ministry (IMoD) said it had secured an $8.7bn (\u00a36.5bn) US aid package to support its current military campaigns.<\/p>\n In a statement, IMoD said the package includes $3.5bn for \u201cessential wartime procurement\u201d, which has already been transferred, and $5.2bn for air defence systems such as the Iron Dome, David\u2019s Sling and an advanced laser system.<\/p>\n The post Israel striking Hezbollah with \u2018full force\u2019 despite ceasefire calls<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Israel striking Hezbollah with \u2018full force\u2019 despite ceasefire calls<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the country\u2019s military to continue fighting with \u201cfull force\u201d against the armed group Hezbollah, despite calls from the US and other allies for a ceasefire. Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said at least 92 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday, with hundreds more killed since the strikes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}