JERUSALEM, Israel – After 11 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, a number of nations, including the U.S. called for a 21-day ceasefire with Hezbollah and in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was flying to the U.S., flatly rejected the ceasefire plan, saying Israel will continue to fight.
President Joe Biden told reporters about the ceasefire proposal. "We were able to generate significant support from Europe as well as the Arab nations. It's important the war does not widen," Biden stated.
The statement by the U.S., France, and several other nations, calls for the implementation of United Nations Resolution 1701. The resolution, crafted to end the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, called for the end of hostilities and the removal of all forces except for the Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers.
The U.N. failed to enforce the resolution, allowing Hezbollah to dramatically re-arm in the past 18 years. The new statement signed by the U.S. makes no mention of Hezbollah.
By midday Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office strongly denied that a ceasefire was imminent, saying in a statement, "The report about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American-French proposal that the prime minister has not even responded to."
The statement added, "The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth. The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him. The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved."
Late Wednesday night, Netanyahu left for the U.S. to speak Friday at the annual U.N. General Assembly session. Before leaving, he reiterated why Israel is fighting Hezbollah.
"We are determined to return our residents in the north safely to their homes," he declared. "We are inflicting blows on Hezbollah that they did not imagine. We do it with power, we do it with ruse. I promise you one thing: we will not rest until they return home."
Since October 8th, Hezbollah has fired more than 9,000 rockets, missiles, drones, and UAVs into Israel.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesman, Maj. Doron Spielman, asserted, "This is the reality of Hezbollah's threat on Israel. If this was a home, the entire family would've been killed, which is why Israel is at war until these people can come back home. There's no evidence that Hezbollah has been willingly leaving the border with Israel. Hezbollah's entire raison d'etre is to invade and attack Israel."
The IDF has moved more tanks to the border and called up two brigades of reservists.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told troops they may soon cross the border. “The goal is very clear to safely – return the residents of the north. To achieve that, we are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory.”
Meanwhile, two top Senate Republicans accuse the Biden administration of holding up weapons to Israel.
In a letter to the White House, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) stated, "We write to strongly condemn your administration's continued delay in providing critical military equipment and weapons to our ally Israel in the midst of an existential war."
Those weapons include Apache attack helicopters and MK-84 bombs, the kind needed to reach Hezbollah and Hamas assets underground in deeply buried tunnels.
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