Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday pushed back against reports that Israel was about to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The news about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American-French proposal that the prime minister has not even responded to,” his office said, while Netanayhu was en route to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer—a close adviser to Netanyahu—was scheduled to meet with top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on the sidelines of the summit, CNN reported.
Sources in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office cited by Israel’s Channel 12 News said that Dermer received a green light to continue negotiations.
“The report of an alleged instruction to moderate the fighting in the north is also contrary to the truth,” Netanyahu’s statement claimed. “The prime minister has instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force and according to the plans presented to him,” his office said.
Israel’s military operations in Gaza, too, would continue “until all war objectives are achieved,” the statement added.
Minutes later, Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted to X: “There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
לא תהיה הפסקת אש בצפון. נמשיך להילחם נגד ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בכל העוצמה עד לניצחון והשבת תושבי הצפון בביטחון לבתיהם.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) September 26, 2024
The statements come as Netanyahu’s coalition members rejected the U.S.-France proposal for a 21-day ceasefire.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit Party, vowed to leave the coalition government “if the temporary ceasefire becomes permanent.
“The most basic and understandable thing is that when your enemy is on his knees, you do not allow him to recover, but work to defeat him,” Ben-Gvir said, adding that a truce “conveys weakness, endangers the security of your citizens, and proves that you do not intend to win.”
“The campaign in the north must end with one scenario—the crushing of Hezbollah and the elimination of its ability to harm the residents of the north,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key member of the ruling coalition.
The United States, Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar called jointly on Wednesday night for an “immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement.”
Before the statement went out, U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron stated that “it is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes.”
Neither of the two statements referred to Hezbollah.
