Israeli govt rejects cease-fire talks and keeps up attacks on Lebanon

By Henry Meyer and Ethan Bronner

Israel ordered the military to maintain its bombardment of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and denied interest in a truce, a setback for efforts by the US and allies to de-escalate hostilities. 
 

“There will be no cease-fire,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X on Thursday. “We will continue to fight the Hezbollah terror group with full force until victory and the return of residents of the north to their homes.” 

Katz is standing in for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while the latter travels to the US, where he is due to address the annual United Nations summit on Friday. Netanyahu’s office said earlier that the Israel Defense Forces had been told to continue bombing Lebanon.

The push to secure a three-week cease-fire to win time for further negotiations is being led by US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. The plan came as Israel prepared for a possible ground invasion, a move that would risk spiraling into a regional conflict that could drag in the US and Iran, which backs Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s Economy Minister Amin Salam described the cease-fire proposal as “very serious” and said subsequent developments would be crucial. “We feel there is a lot of flexibility in the past 24 hours from Hezbollah’s side,” he told Bloomberg TV on Thursday. There was no immediate official response from the militant group.

Israel and Hezbollah remain deadlocked over the militant group’s determination to pursue cross-border rocket attacks as long as Israel maintains its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported, citing an unidentified Lebanese official familiar with the matter. That conflict has been running since October of last year and there’s no sign an end is near. 

The bid for a cease-fire in Lebanon comes as Israeli forces pounded targets in the economically stricken country for a fourth day, including on the outskirts of Beirut. More than 600 people, including at least 50 children, have been killed since Monday, with tens of thousands of Lebanese fleeing the country’s south. 

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel in response — including its first-ever attempt to target Tel Aviv — in the worst violence between the two sides since a 2006 war.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported senior officials as saying they have their own conditions for a cease-fire that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is unlikely to agree to. Israel’s Army Radio, meanwhile, reported unidentified security officials saying the military needs more time to achieve its goal of degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities.

The US, European states and Arab powers including Saudi Arabia and Qatar urged a pause in fighting late Wednesday. “It is time to conclude a diplomatic settlement that enables civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety,” they said in a joint statement.

The Lebanon proposal is intended to eventually lead to the return of tens of thousands of Israelis who have left their homes in the north to escape rocket attacks from Hezbollah, which began shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said half a million people have been displaced inside the country by the Israeli bombardment.

In the past week, Israel has significantly stepped up air attacks. The military has killed top Hezbollah commanders with strikes and many members were maimed in an operation in which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Hezbollah and Iran blamed Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. Israel says it has destroyed a significant part of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal.

One of Netanyahu’s far-right allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, threatened to quit the ruling coalition if a permanent truce is reached in Lebanon. Such a move could bring down the government. 

Israel’s political opposition also indicated little enthusiasm for the cease-fire proposal. 

Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister who’s likely to challenge Netanyahu at elections, said on X that the time is not right. “If Hezbollah wants the fire to stop, it can lay down its arms, demilitarize itself and move 15 km away from the Israeli border,” he said.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, said a pause should last no more than seven days to prevent Hezbollah from regaining its military footing.

US efforts of a diplomatic breakthrough to end fighting in Gaza have been repeatedly dashed. Domestic critics of Netanyahu have accused him of delaying a truce because of the need to placate his far-right government allies such as Ben Gvir. Iran-backed Hamas, which like Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the US, has taken a similarly uncompromising line, despite the destruction of much of its military capability.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been working on the cease-fire proposal all week in New York, according to a US official familiar with the process.