Netanyahu vows to use 'full force' against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire

NEW YORK -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out "full force" strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a ceasefire proposal put forth by U.S. and European officials.

Israel carried out a new strike in the Lebanese capital, which killed a senior Hezbollah commander, and the militant group launched dozens of rockets into Israel. Tens of thousands of Israeli and Lebanese people living near their countries' border have been displaced by the fighting.

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Netanyahu spoke as he landed in New York to attend the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, where U.S. and European officials were putting heavy pressure on both sides of the conflict to accept a proposed 21-day halt in the fighting to give time for diplomacy and avert all-out war.

Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week as Israel dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah's military capacities. Israeli leaders say they are determined to stop the group's cross-border attacks, which began after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war in Gaza.

Israel's "policy is clear," Netanyahu said. "We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes."

Later, the prime minister's office said in a statement that Israel and U.S. officials met Thursday to discuss the ceasefire proposal and would continue talks in coming days.

One of Israel's latest airstrikes killed a Hezbollah drone commander, Mohammed Hussein Surour, in the suburbs of Beirut. Israel's military announced the death, which Hezbollah later confirmed.

The Health Ministry said two people were killed and 15 wounded in the strike. Associated Press photos of the scene showed a gutted apartment in a residential building in Dahiyeh, the mainly Shiite suburb where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Until recently, Israel had rarely targeted sites in Beirut during the low-level conflict with Hezbollah that began in October. But it has struck Beirut's southern suburbs several times this week. Several strikes in Beirut targeted senior Hezbollah commanders. One strike in eastern Lebanon on Thursday killed 20 people, most of them Syrian migrants, according to Lebanese health officials.

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Israel hit 75 sites early Thursday across southern and eastern Lebanon and launched a new wave of strikes in the evening, the military said. Throughout the day, Hezbollah fired some 175 projectiles into Israel, the Israeli military said. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, sparking some wildfires, though one rocket hit a street in a town near the northern city of Safed.

Israel has talked of a possible ground invasion into Lebanon to drive Hezbollah -- an Iranian-backed Shiite group that is the strongest armed force in Lebanon -- away from the border. It has moved thousands of troops to the north in preparation. Some 100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the past week, streaming into Beirut and points further north.

Israeli military vehicles transported tanks and armored vehicles toward the country's northern border with Lebanon a day after commanders issued a call-up of reservists. Several tanks arrived in Kiryat Shmona, a hard-hit town just several miles from the border.

An emergency worker cuts concrete blocks as he searches for survivors at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in the town of Maisara, north of Beirut, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanon's foreign minister called for an immediate cease-fire "on all fronts," warning that continued violence at his nation's border will "transform into a black hole that will engulf international and regional peace and security."

Abdallah Bouhabib, speaking before the UN General Assembly, decried Israel's "systematic destruction of Lebanese border villages."

"The crisis in Lebanon threatens the entire Middle East," Bouhabib said. "We wish today to reiterate our call for a ceasefire on all fronts."

He said Lebanon welcomes efforts by the United States and France to move urgently toward a ceasefire before things spin out of control.

Hezbollah has not yet responded to the proposal.

Israel's military on Friday also said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen that set off air raid sirens across the country's center. Sirens rang out across Israel's populous central area, including the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv. Another missile from Yemen landed in central Israel about two weeks ago.

The escalation has raised fears of a repeat -- or worse -- of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah that wreaked destruction across southern Lebanon and other parts of the country and saw heavy Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli cities.

"Another full-scale war could be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon," U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said after talks with his British and Australian counterparts in London.

One of Netanyahu's far-right governing partners threatened to suspend cooperation with his government if it signs onto a temporary ceasefire with Hezbollah -- and to quit completely if a permanent deal is reached. It was the latest sign of displeasure from Netanyahu's allies toward international ceasefire efforts.

"If a temporary ceasefire becomes permanent, we will resign from the government," said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the Jewish Power party.

If Ben-Gvir leaves the coalition, Netanyahu would lose his parliamentary majority. That could topple his government, though opposition leaders have said they would offer support for a ceasefire deal.

Hezbollah has insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has battled Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach.

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One day after Hamas' Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel, bringing Israeli counterfire and a cycle of reprisals that has gone on near daily since. Hezbollah says its barrages are a show of support for Palestinians and that it is targeting Israeli military facilities, though rockets have also hit civilian areas.

Before this week, the cross-border exchanges had killed about 600 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but including more than 100 civilians, and about four dozen people in Israel, roughly half of them soldiers and the rest civilians. The fighting also forced tens of thousands to flee homes on both sides of the border.

Israel says its escalated strikes across Lebanon the past week are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. Since Monday, strikes have killed more than 690 people in Lebanon, around a quarter of them women and children, according to local health authorities.

The campaign opened with what is widely believed to be an Israeli attack on Sept. 18 and 19 detonating thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 39 people and maiming thousands more, including civilians.

Hezbollah in turn has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Several people in Israel have been wounded. On Wednesday, the group fired on Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.

Early Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building housing Syrian workers and their families near the ancient city of Baalbek in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 19 Syrians and a Lebanese were killed, one of the deadliest single strikes in Israel's intensified air campaign.

Hussein Salloum, a local official in Younine, said most of the dead were women and children. The state news agency had initially reported that 23 people were dead.

Lebanon, with a population of around six million, hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered -- the world's highest refugee population per capita.

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Mroue reported from Beirut, Lidman from Tel Aviv. Associated Press journalist Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Kiryat Shmona, Israel.