Israel's Netanyahu says troops will keep fighting Hezbollah "with full force" as U.S., France propose cease-fire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office deflected international calls for a cease-fire with Hezbollah Thursday, hours after President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement calling for them to back a temporary truce proposal with wide international support. The U.S. and French leaders called Wednesday on both sides in the high-stakes standoff to back the proposal, but neither had indicated any support by Thursday, and the exchange of deadly fire continued. 

"This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to," Netanyahu's office said Thursday, adding a dismissal of a separate report suggesting the Israeli leader had told his military to "moderate" its assault on Hezbollah to give space for discussion about a possible cease-fire. 

"The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth," Netanyahu's office said. "The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force."