International Pressure Grows for Israel to Halt Lebanon Fight as Hezbollah Launches 300 More Rockets

JERUSALEM, Israel – In the face of growing international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists Israel will keep attacking Hezbollah to finally put a stop to nearly a year of rocket attacks.

For the first time during the war, Hezbollah fired a ballistic missile deep into Israel, targeting Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Israel's David Sling anti-missile defense system intercepted the missile, but it represents an escalation by Hezbollah. Despite being battered by more than 2,000 air strikes, Hezbollah continued to fire hundreds of projectiles throughout northern Israel.

Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated Tuesday, "Today, 300 rockets were fired at Israel. Six civilians and soldiers were injured, most of them lightly.”

Who’s renting houses in southern Lebanon? Take a look into Hezbollah's playbook and you'll see: pic.twitter.com/mz7b2Pdl3T

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 24, 2024

Netanyahu again addressed the Lebanese people, saying, "We will continue to hit Hezbollah. And I say to the people of Lebanon: our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah. Nasrallah is leading you to the brink of the abyss."

Hagari announced Israel has eliminated Hezbollah's commander who was in charge of rockets and missiles, responsible for thousands of attacks.

In describing the event, Hagari said, “Fighter jets of the Air Force hit precisely one floor in a building, where he was present along with other commanders in Hezbollah's rocket unit."

The IDF has now killed nearly all of Hezbollah's top leadership. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant suggested the military is quickly cutting Hezbollah down to size.

“The Hezbollah of today is not the Hezbollah of a week ago," Gallant said. "The sequence of blows it faced in its command and control, its operatives, its weapons – all these things are extremely severe blows.”

Hagari declared, “We aim for the operation to be short – as short as possible. That's why we're attacking with great force."

Meanwhile, the U.K. is telling all its citizens in Lebanon to get out immediately. In nearby Cyprus, 700 British troops have been deployed to help evacuate those citizens. The Lebanese foreign minister says the number of Lebanese evacuees from southern Lebanon is nearly one-half million.

At the United Nations, Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon blamed Iran for the fighting, pointing to Tehran as the puppet master of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

“We will not let Iran's terrorist cronies dictate the future of our nation," Danon vowed.

President Joe Biden was also at the U.N., demanding peace for the region.

"Since October 7th, we've also been determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region," he declared. "Hezbollah, unprovoked during the October 7th attack, launching rockets at Israel. Almost a year later, too many at each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced. Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest. Even as the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Gaza a "nonstop nightmare" and said the world cannot afford to have Lebanon become another Gaza.

Israel's defense minister responded to the U.N. leader on X, writing, "Mr. Secretary-General, the nightmare you speak of is, in fact, reality. The reality is that Hezbollah has taken Lebanon hostage, and the U.N. is neither acknowledging their actions nor fulfilling its fundamental obligation – preventing Hezbollah attacks and demanding the implementation of Resolution 1701."

Netanyahu is scheduled to speak at the U.N. on Thursday. It's expected that he will make a robust call for Israel's right to self-defense, eliminating the threat from Hezbollah, and returning more than 60,000 Israeli evacuees in northern Israel to their homes.

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