Israel-Lebanon latest: Netanyahu rules out ceasefire plans with Hezbollah

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz has also outright rejected the calls for a ceasefire.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “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.”

More has emerged on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ruling out a possible ceasefire deal.

In resonse to reports that Tel Aviv was open to negotiating, the Prime Minister’s office said: “The news about a ceasefire – not true.

“This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond.”

Netanyahu will meet fellow world leaders at the United Nations this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had not yet responded to a US and and French proposal for a ceasefire.

The bombing campaign in southern Lebanon has continued, with over 600 people in Lebanon killed so far, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Netanyahu has instructed the military to continue fighting at full power for the moment, Reuters news agency reported.

He added that the fighting in Gaza would continue until Israel has achieved its war aims.

The mother of a British teacher in Beirut has shared her “relief” at her son’s escape from Lebanon.

Charlie Peters, 24, from Highgate in north London, worked in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s capital and has fled the country after the UK government urged British citizens to leave.

His mother, Nicola, said: “I’ve spent three days with the jitters and the jumps and not wanting really to look at the news, but also having to look at the news, and that’s really tricky.

“All those stages of, ‘are you at the airport? Have you got your boarding pass? Are you at gate?’ Because you’re waiting for that sort of news to come through the airport is shot.

“What Charlie was really keen to do is that he did not want to be evacuated

“He was like, ‘we’re edging towards emergency evacuation here. I don’t want to be somebody who’s left it to the point where that’s my only option.”

Nicola said that her son had to wrestle with the decision to leave Lebanon.

“What you have to understand for these people who work in these sort of refugee camp systems is you’re leaving people behind who have no choice,” she said.

Charlie hopes to arrive at London Heathrow this afternoon.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, says Israel has “crossed all red lines” and called for the UN Security Council to “intervene to restore peace and security”.

Mr Araghchi said the region was on the brink of a “full-scale catastrophe” and that Israel’s “attacks on Lebanon must stop”.

He also said that Iran supported Hezbollah in its “just cause” to defend Lebanon against Israeli “atrocities” and “occupation”.

Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati has expressed hope that a ceasefire could be reached soon to end fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has shaken his country and raised fears of a ground invasion.

The US, France and several allies called for an 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.

Mikati welcomed the call for a truce but said the key to its implementation is whether Israel, which has been moving troops closer to Lebanon, is committed to enforcing international resolutions.

Asked if a ceasefire could be secured soon, Mikati told Reuters: “Hopefully, yes.”

Scotland’s First Minister has said the situation in the Middle East is cause for the “deepest concern” as he called for a binding ceasefire in the region.

UK citizens are being urged to leave Lebanon after Israel launched an intense series of air strikes earlier this week.

The UK has joined the US, France and other allies in calling for an immediate temporary ceasefire in Lebanon, warning the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah is “intolerable”.

Writing on X, John Swinney said: “The worsening situation in the Middle East is a cause of the deepest concern.

“It is essential that there is a binding ceasefire now to end the suffering in Gaza and to act to avoid escalating conflict in Lebanon.”

Israel is preparing for a potential ground invasion of Lebanon, army chiefs said on Wednesday, as US president Joe Biden admitted “all-out war” is possible and Sir Keir Starmer urged British nationals to leave the area immediately.

Airstrikes in Lebanon are laying the groundwork for a possible operation to push Hezbollah back and “safely return” displaced Israeli citizens, said Israeli army general Lt Gen Herzi Halevi.

He told troops on Israel’s northern border the military is “preparing the process of a manoeuvre, which means your military boots, your manoeuvring boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts”.

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We’re hearing more on the ground on the impact of the overnight strikes by Israel on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon this morning.

News agency Reuters has spoken to a mayor in the town of Younine, who says at least 23 people, all of them Syrian, have been killed in a strike on a three-storey building.

Mayor Ali Qusas added that eight others had been wounded.

As Israel’s military announces it hit 75 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, pictures have emerged showing smoke rising into the sky from impacted areas.