Calls for ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah

The international community is also concerned about the spread of the conflict in the Middle East to Lebanon. But the prospects for a ceasefire are bleak.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia continue to fight undeterred. The mutual shelling continued. A group of states including the USA and Germany, together with influential Arab countries, called for a 21-day ceasefire in the Middle East on Thursday night in order to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office denied a report that Benjamin Netanyahu had given the green light for a ceasefire with Hezbollah. “It is a US-French proposal to which the Prime Minister has not even responded,” the statement said. Israel’s head of government traveled to the USA on Thursday morning for the UN General Assembly.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza War between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip almost a year ago, there has been almost daily mutual shelling in the Israeli-Lebanese border region. Hezbollah says it wants to support Hamas in the Gaza Strip with its attacks. After the massive Israeli bombings of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the weekend, there is now a threat of open war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel wants to weaken the militia to the point where it stops shelling and Israelis can return to their residential areas in the north of the country.

In view of a possible Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon, there are concerns that the situation will worsen further. According to military sources, Israeli troops held an exercise on the border with Lebanon. The 7th Brigade had “practiced maneuvers and battles in mountainous terrain with a lot of thickets” a few kilometers from the border, it said in a statement. The readiness for “various combat scenarios in enemy territory on the northern front” had been improved.

Ultra-right politicians in Jerusalem criticized a possible ceasefire with Hezbollah. “The fighting in the north can only end in one way: with the destruction of Hezbollah and its ability to harm the inhabitants of the (Israeli) north,” wrote Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on X. “Hezbollah’s capitulation or war, only then will we bring the inhabitants and security back to the north,” added Smotrich.

According to the Israeli army broadcaster, the right-wing extremist coalition party Ozma Yehudit threatened to no longer support coalition votes in parliament in the event of a limited ceasefire – and even to withdraw from the government alliance in the event of a permanent ceasefire.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, mutual shelling continued on Thursday. The Israeli army announced that the western part of Galilee in northern Israel had been attacked with 45 missiles from Lebanon. Some of these were intercepted by missile defense systems. The rest landed in open areas.

Israeli fighter jets had previously attacked other targets in southern Lebanon. According to the army, these were “Hezbollah military posts, terrorists and weapons depots.” The military also launched another attack in a suburb of Beirut. A high-ranking military commander of the militia, Ibrahim Akil, was killed in the area last week. According to unconfirmed Israeli media reports, the new air strike was aimed at the commander of the Hezbollah drone unit.

During the night, the Israeli Air Force reportedly attacked 75 “terror targets” in the south and northeast of Lebanon.

The bombings hit mainly the south and the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, causing panic and despair in the small country of just under six million inhabitants. Villages near the border with Israel are now almost deserted. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 90,000 people have been forced to flee.

The ongoing conflict is hitting Lebanon particularly hard; the country has been suffering from a serious economic crisis for years and the health system is on the verge of collapse. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Lebanon has taken in around 1.5 million refugees. But now, according to UN figures, tens of thousands of Lebanese are fleeing themselves, some even to Syria. A good 13,500 Syrians have also returned to their homeland since Monday, Lebanon’s Interior Minister said.