People check the destruction in an area targeted overnight by Israeli airstrikes in el-Karak in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, on September 26. Picture: AFP
Israel flatly rejected on Thursday a push led by key backer the United States for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, as it vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah militants "until victory".
Israeli aerial bombardment of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has hit back with barrages of rockets.
"There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on social media platform X.
Moments earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement saying he had "not even responded" to the truce proposal, and that he had ordered the military "to continue the fighting with full force".
The United States, France and other allies issued a joint statement calling for a 21-day halt in the fighting, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The situation in Lebanon has become "intolerable" and "is in nobody's interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon," the statement said.
On the ground, there was no let-up in the violence.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had struck "approximately 75 terror targets" in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the south, both Hezbollah bastions that have seen a huge exodus people fleeing their homes in recent days.
One strike on the town of Yunin near the ancient city of Baalbek killed at least 20 people, Lebanon's health ministry said, with the official National News Agency describing the bombing of the area as "the most violent" of recent days.
"It was indescribable, it was one of the worst nights we've lived through. You think there's just a second between life and death," said Fadia Rafic Yaghi, 70, who owns a shop in Baalbek.
The Israeli military also said around 45 rockets had been fired from Lebanon, adding that some had been intercepted while others had landed in unpopulated areas.
Hezbollah said that it had again targeted defence industry complexes near the city of Haifa in northern Israel, saying it was "defending Lebanon and its people".
Israel earlier this month said it was shifting its focus from Gaza, where it has been fighting a war with Hamas since the October 7 attack, to securing its border with Lebanon.
Hamas ally Hezbollah has been fighting Israeli troops across the Lebanon border since October, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes.
Netanyahu, who is due to address the UN General Assembly on Friday, has said that ensuring the safe return of Israelis to their homes was a priority.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah positions along the border with Syria were among its latest targets.
"A short while ago, (Israeli air force) fighter jets struck infrastructure along the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon," it said Friday.
Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive against Hezbollah, as two reserve brigades were called up "for operational missions in the northern arena".
Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday — by far the deadliest day of violence in Lebanon not just in the latest escalation, but since the 1975-1990 civil war.
For many on both sides of the border, the violence has sparked bitter memories of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
According to the UN, Israel's bombardment of Lebanon had by Wednesday forced 90,000 people to flee their homes in traditional Hezbollah strongholds to safer areas elsewhere in the tiny Mediterranean country.
On Thursday, two Syrian security sources told AFP more than 22,000 people had crossed the Lebanese border into Syria this week, most of them Syrians.
In Israel, too, many were weary of the violence.
"We've been needing a ceasefire for a while now. This war has been going on for too long," said Fida Khoury, a 28-year-old software engineer from the city of Haifa.
Others, like 67-year-old David Lander, believe war is the only way.
"I'm against a temporary ceasefire," the retired Haifa resident said. "I want the citizens of the north to be able to go back to their homes."
Prior to the current escalation, diplomats had said efforts to end the war in Gaza were key to halting the fighting in Lebanon.
But Qatar, a key broker in the stalled talks to reach a Gaza ceasefire, said it was unaware of a "direct link" between the two.
"I'm not aware of a direct link, but obviously both mediations are hugely overlapping when you are talking about the same parties, for the most part, that are taking part," foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,495 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
AFP