Israel's foreign minister rejects call for 21-day ceasefire in conflict with Hezbollah

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Thursday rejected proposals for a ceasefire with Hezbollah after the United States and France called for a 21-day halt in the fighting that has alarmed Lebanon and raised fears of a ground invasion.

"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," he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

The United States, France and several allies, including Canada, called for the immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Israel-Lebanon border while also expressing support for a ceasefire in Gaza following intense discussions at the United Nations on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, heading to New York for a scheduled United Nations General Assembly address on Friday, said he had not yet given his response to the truce proposal and had instructed the army to fight on. Hardliners in his government said Israel should reject the truce and keep hitting Hezbollah.

Israel has launched the heaviest air strikes against Lebanon since a 2006 war over the past week, killing more than 600 people, as months of cross-border fire with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement spiraled close to all-out war.

Israel's military said on Thursday afternoon it was carrying out precise airstrikes in Beirut. It did not elaborate on the strikes in the Lebanese capital.

Witnesses had told Reuters a large blast was heard in Beirut's southern suburbs and a thick cloud of smoke emanated from the area.

Earlier, Israeli airstrikes overnight hit around 75 Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire launchers, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

At least 23 Syrians, most of them women and children, were killed when Israel hit a three-storey building in the Lebanese town of Younine overnight, the town's mayor, Ali Qusas, told Reuters. Lebanon is home to around 1.5 million Syrians who fled civil war there.

The Israeli military said dozens of Hezbollah targets were attacked, including military buildings and weapons depots, in several areas on Thursday morning.

LISTEN l Lebanese newspaper reporters Tasnim Chaaban on the scenes on the ground:

In response this week, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles at targets in Israel including, for the first time, its commercial hub Tel Aviv, although Israel's aerial defence system has ensured that the damage has been limited.

On the other side of the border, around 45 projectiles were fired from Lebanon toward the western Galilee area, some of which were intercepted, with the rest falling on open ground, said the Israeli military.

Netanyahu repeated pledges to ensure that tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from northern border areas can return home. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads one of two nationalist-religious factions in the governing coalition, said Hezbollah should be crushed and that only its surrender would make it possible for the evacuees to return.