Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered his troops to “continue fighting with full force” against Hezbollah, crushing hopes for a ceasefire.
The rocket exchanges continued with another attack in Beirut that reportedly killed the terrorist group’s top drone commander.
Israel’s recent rejection of a ceasefire with Hezbollah and the killing of hundreds of people in Lebanon in attacks has sparked fears of an all-out regional war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “all hell is breaking loose” in the region by backing a Franco-American peace proposal.
Earlier today, word spread that a three-week pause could be agreed upon “in the next few hours,” before Mr. Netanyahu’s office quelled the rumor.
“The news about a ceasefire… is not true,” a spokesman said. ‘This is a Franco-American proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond…he ordered the IDF to continue the fighting at full strength, and according to the plans presented to him.’
Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered his troops to “continue fighting with full force” against Hezbollah, crushing hopes for a ceasefire.
Smoke rises over southern Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on September 26.
When the Israeli prime minister landed in New York, where he will speak at the UN today, he said that his “policy is clear.”
“We will not stop until we achieve all our goals, chief among them the safe return of northern residents to their homes,” Netanyahu said.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, was supposed to disarm Hezbollah and prevent it from amassing on the border after the 2006 war.
But it failed and on October 8 the terrorist group began bombing northern Israel, forcing 70,000 people to flee their homes while attempting to support the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
It now appears that the Jewish state is preparing a ground invasion to try to expel Hezbollah from southern Lebanon after almost 20 years of diplomatic failure.
Such a move could cause Iran, which backs Hezbollah, to intervene and trigger a regional war. The IDF’s 7th Brigade conducted exercises today just a few miles from the border as its air force attacked 75 terrorist targets across Lebanon.
It hit weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire rocket launchers, claiming as many as one in three homes in the South where weapons were stored.
Israel said it killed Mohammed Surur, the head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, south of Beirut.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Khiam, southern Lebanon, on September 25.
A fire burns as a result of shells fired from southern Lebanon near the northern Israeli city of Safed on September 25.
The rocket exchanges continued with another attack in Beirut that reportedly killed the terrorist group’s top drone commander (pictured: a man watches smoke rise over southern Lebanon).
A woman walks her dog along the beach to the Mediterranean Sea as smoke from an Israeli airstrike rises behind her on September 26, 2024 in Tyre, Lebanon.
He joined the terrorist group in the 1980s and was wanted for having “directed and commanded” numerous unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against Israel.
Footage showed that the attack hit two rooms on the second and third floors of an eight-story building and, according to local health agencies, killed two people and injured 15. It is the fourth such attack in the capital. in recent days, as the relentless bombing continues with at least 26 dead across the country today.
The United States joined 11 other allies in calling for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “the world is speaking clearly” about the need to end the conflict. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that the situation “is deeply concerning” in a meeting with his British and Australian counterparts in London.
Austin said: “We face the risk of an all-out war that would be devastating for both sides. Israel and Lebanon can choose a different path.
‘Despite the strong escalation, a diplomatic solution remains viable. “It is the only way that displaced civilians on both sides of the border can return to their homes.”
He warned that the United States maintained “the posture of protecting our forces and personnel throughout the Middle East” and, in a tacit message to Iran, warned that no other state should attempt to “exploit the situation.”
UK Defense Secretary John Healey urged Netanyahu and Hezbollah leaders to “heed the combined voices at the UN calling for a 21-day ceasefire… where talks can begin, fighting and a longer-term solution can emerge.
But Netanyahu is under pressure from far-right parties in his coalition to press ahead with the war.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security, warned that his far-right Otzma Yehudit party would resign from the government if a ceasefire occurs. He said: ‘When your enemy is on his knees, you do not allow him to recover, but you work to defeat him and strive to defeat him. If you don’t, you convey weakness, jeopardize the safety of your citizens, and show that you have no intention of winning.’
Israel’s recent rejection of a ceasefire with Hezbollah and the killing of hundreds of people in Lebanon in attacks has sparked fears of an all-out regional war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pictured) warned that “all hell is breaking loose” in the region as he backed a Franco-US peace proposal.
A building is damaged following an earlier Israeli attack on a residential building on September 26
Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is serving as prime minister while Netanyahu is in New York, said “there will be no ceasefire in the north.” Israel “will continue to fight the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all its strength.”
our power until victory and the safe return of the inhabitants of the north to their homes,’ he added.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also approved the “continuation of the IDF’s offensive activity.”
A Western diplomat told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that some Israeli ministers are “deliberately trying to damage the negotiations.” Any incursion into Lebanon would be devastating for the region. While Israel claims to have shot down half of Hezbollah’s feared 150,000 rockets, it still maintains ferocious firepower.
The outlawed terrorist organization has 50,000 fighters embedded in tunnels in the south and represents a much tougher adversary than Hamas, which the IDF has yet to destroy despite nearly a year of war.
BLOODSHED FRONTIER
A view of the damage after the Israeli army attacks, on September 26, 2024 in Lebanon
Yemeni university staff and students burn an Israeli flag during an organized protest against Israeli airstrikes against Lebanon, September 25.
The bloodshed in Gaza has horrified observers, but a war in Lebanon would be of an entirely different magnitude.
Terror group Hezbollah’s 50,000-strong army includes 10,000 elite Radwan fighters embedded in tunnels on the mountainous border. From here they can launch thousands of rockets, missiles and drones a day.
The reserves, from Iran, Russia and China, are believed to exceed 150,000. Israel says it has eliminated up to half, but a huge arsenal remains.
It was assembled after the Lebanon War of 2006. Since then, a UN force of just 11,000 people was supposed to oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah and keep it north of the Litani River, approximately 18 miles from Israel. But the Iranian representative ignored the UN. On October 8, it began firing missiles in support of Hamas in Gaza. He has managed to continue this daily, killing around 50 Israelis and forcing 70,000 from their homes.
In addition to having precision missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel, terrorists also have short-range rockets, suicide drones, and anti-tank missiles.
The IDF’s greatest advantage is its air power. Hezbollah is not its own and the Israeli Air Force, the strongest in the region, has modern aircraft, including American F-35s.
