Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied accepting a ceasefire proposal floated by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
The Biden-Macron proposal, backed by the European Union and several Arab states, calls for a three-week truce between Israel and the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah.
Despite mainstream media reports suggesting an imminent ceasefire, Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered Israel’s military to keep fighting with “full force” against the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, his office clarified Thursday.
“The report about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Thursday morning.
“The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth. The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Reports of a ceasefire deal with terror group Hamas in Gaza were also unfounded. “The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved,” the statement added.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, also denied agreeing to any ceasefire. “There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” the foreign minister said in a statement.
The statements come a day after Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, told his troops that the ongoing airstrikes could “prepare the ground for the possibility of your entry” into Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon.
Israeli fighter jets on Saturday targeted and eliminated the chief of Hezbollah’s drone and aerial forces, Abu Salah.
In last week’s airstrikes, the IDF eliminated several of Hezbollah commanders — wiping out large-parts of the terror group’s command structure. The recent pager and walkie talkie blasts also decimated the rank and file of the Shia-Islamist group.
The Times of Israel reports:
The IDF said on Thursday that it carried out a targeted strike on the Dahieh quarter in Beirut, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the city Watch the footage from the scene of the attackAn airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah leader in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon, the military said, with fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group showing little sign of slowing as an international bid to secure a ceasefire appeared to fall apart. (…)According to the military, the attack was against the head of Hezbollah’s drone force known as Abu Salah and local reports said it was carried out by three missiles directed at a10-story apartment block near the attack that killed Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s senior commander, last week.https://twitter.com/JewishWarrior13/status/1839279319153004805
Israel’s armed forces have begun an operation to drive Hezbollah away from the country’s northern border and bring back more than 70,000 civilians displaced by the terrorist group’s relentless cross-border rocket attacks since October 7, the head of IDF’s Home Front Command Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo assured Thursday.
“We have set a very, very clear goal. We want to change the security reality in the north fundamentally. So that we can bring the residents back home with security, with a sense of security, and truly change the security situation,” Maj. Gen. Milo said in a press release on Thursday.
“This week we are in a very significant offensive effort,” the head of Israel’s Home Front Command noted.
Hezbollah, from its position in southern Lebanon, continued to fire missiles and drones toward Israeli towns and cities. “‘Following the sirens that sounded in the western Galilee area, approximately 45 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon, some of the projectiles were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas,” the IDF said Saturday morning.
The Israeli Air Forces (IAF) responded by conducting strikes aimed at destroying the terrorist build-up in southern Lebanon. “This morning, IAF fighter jets, directed by IDF intelligence, continued to strike Hezbollah terror targets in several areas in southern Lebanon. Among the targets struck were Hezbollah military sites, terrorists, and weapons storage facilities,” the Israeli military revealed. “In the area of Kfarchouba in southern Lebanon, the IAF struck a number of terrorists who were identified in the area.”
As part of the ongoing Gaza operation, the Israeli military eliminated a senior Hamas commander responsible for weapons smuggling and overseeing terrorist attacks in the West Bank area. “During joint IDF and ISA [Israel Security Agency] operational activity over the last week, IAF [Israeli Air Force] aircraft struck in the area of Rafah, eliminating the terrorist Suleiman Juad Suleiman Abu Lafi. Abu Lafi facilitated the transfer of weapons to and from the Gaza Strip, and directed terrorist attacks in the area of Judea and Samaria,” the IDF said in a statement on Thursday.
Israeli fighter jets also struck the hideouts linked to Hamas’s elite Nukhba terrorist force, which spearheaded the October 7 attack. “In addition, IAF fighter jets, following IDF and ISA direction, eliminated a team commander of Hamas’ “Nukhba” Company, as well as an additional terrorist who took part in the October 7th massacre,” the military disclosed Thursday.
Israeli military and security service “are continuing to precisely strike terrorists in the Gaza Strip, eliminating terrorists who participated in the October 7th massacre,” the IDF assured.
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