Israel to continue ceasefire discussions for Lebanon, Netanyahu says
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, September 27, 2024 - Israel will press on with discussions on ceasefire proposals for Lebanon in the days ahead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, and Washington warned that further escalation would make it harder for civilians on both sides to return home.
Israel's foreign minister on Thursday rejected global calls for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and continued airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and heightened fears of a regional war.
Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, said 25 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since the early hours of Friday.
One attack killed nine members of a family, including four children, in the border town of Shebaa, mayor Mohammad Saab told Reuters. More than 600 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks since Monday, the health ministry says.
"The shops behind us were hit," said 13-year-old Syrian Abdallah Tawfik Al-Hamid, lying in a hospital bed in southern Lebanon following an airstrike. "The young boy who was with me was martyred (killed), and I’m still alive."
Hezbollah said it had fired rockets into Israel on Friday at Kiryat Ata near the city of Haifa some 30 km (20 miles) from the border, and at the city of Tiberias, declaring the attacks a response to Israeli strikes on villages, cities and civilians.
Though Israeli air defences have shot down many of Hezbollah's rockets, limiting the damage caused, the group's attacks have shut down normal life across much of northern Israel as more areas fall into its crosshairs.
Israel's military said it had intercepted four unmanned aircraft that crossed from Lebanese territory into the maritime space off the coast of Rosh Hanikra at the Lebanese border.
Amichai Susson, a 19-year-old volunteer paramedic in northern Israel, said the past week had been "intense", adding that "there still isn't enough ambulances to get to every rocket fall, every single time, as quick as possible."
CEASEFIRE PROPOSALS
The conflict between Israel and the heavily armed Hezbollah is at its fiercest in more than 18 years, part of the spillover that has swept through the Middle East as a result of the Gaza war.
Demonstrating the conflict's widening reach, Syrian state media reported that an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed five soldiers in Syria, where Israel has intensified a years-long campaign to roll back the influence of Iran and Hezbollah.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they had targeted the Israeli coastal cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon with a ballistic missile and a drone in support of Gaza and Lebanon.
The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile that was fired from Yemen after sirens and explosions were heard early on Friday.
The United States and France proposed on Wednesday an immediate 21-day truce across the Lebanese-Israeli border, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.
Netanyahu said Israeli teams had meetings to discuss the U.S. ceasefire proposals on Thursday and would continue discussions in the days ahead, adding that he appreciated the U.S. efforts.
"Our teams met to discuss the U.S. initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes. We will continue those discussions in the coming days," he said in a statement.
On Thursday, after Netanyahu left for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, his office issued a statement saying the prime minister had ordered Israeli troops to continue fighting with full force in Lebanon.
His statement made no reference to the comments of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who on Thursday rejected ceasefire proposals, or other Israeli politicians who have echoed that position, saying only that there had been "a lot of misreporting around the U.S.-led ceasefire initiative".
GAZA SOLIDARITY
Israel says its campaign aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis who have been forced to evacuate areas near the Lebanese border over a year of hostilities.
Hezbollah began firing at Israel on Oct. 8 as the Gaza war began, declaring solidarity with the Palestinians. Hezbollah has said it will only cease fire when Israel's Gaza offensive ends.
In Lebanon, more than 90,000 people have been reported as newly displaced this week, according to the United Nations, adding to more than 111,000 already uprooted by the conflict.
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 30,000 people had crossed from Lebanon into Syria in the last few days, 80% of them Syrians. Well over a million Syrians fled to Lebanon during the Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel further escalation would only make it harder for civilians to return home on both sides of the border, the State Department said.
"The Secretary discussed the importance of reaching an agreement on the 21 day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border," the State Department said in a statement on Thursday, referring to talks between Blinken and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.
"He underscored that further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective (of civilian return) more difficult."
The State Department added that Blinken also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and steps that Israel needs to take to improve aid deliveries to the enclave where nearly the entire 2.3 million population is displaced.
Source: Reuters
