1 of 2 | An airstrike on a village near Marjaayoun in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Israel Defense Forces continued striking targets in the country overnight killing at least 13 people despite the United States, France, Britain and nine other allies, including the European Union and United Nations, calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Photo by STR/EPA-EFE
Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Israel continued airstrikes on Lebanon overnight killing at least 13 people despite the United States, France, Britain and nine other allies, including the European Union and United Nations, calling for a 21-day cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli forces carried out "precision strikes" against 75 "terrorist targets in the area of Bekaa and in southern Lebanon," Israel Defense Forces said on its account on X with reports Thursday morning that Hezbollah was firing rockets into northern Israel after air raid sirens were triggered in Upper Galilee and Acre.
A video posted on social media contained night-vision footage of a series of guided strikes the IDF said were carried out on weapons storage facilities in the Bekaa Valley and Srifa in the south, a Hezbollah launcher in Zawtar El Charqiyeh, also in the south, and terrorist infrastructure in at least two other unspecified locations.
The IDF also posted photos of the aftermath of strikes on buildings in four villages where it said Hezbollah was hiding weapons and a map showing just how close the villages were to Israeli settlements across the border.
It said Hezbollah was continuing to fire missiles and rockets at civilians across Israel "forcing millions into bomb shelters."
"The weapons used in these attacks -- including advanced strategic missiles and UAVs -- have been systematically embedded by Hezbollah in Lebanese civilian areas over the years," the IDF claimed saying it was hitting the weapons and other "terrorist infrastructure" to neutralize the threat and enable Israelis who have had to flee their homes in northern Israel to return.
Lebanese health officials said an Israeli strike on Younine in the north-east of the country killed at least nine people and injured 11 while another four people were killed in the south in attacks on Qana and Aita el Shaab.
The United States and its allies, including several in the Middle East, on Wednesday, moved to head off an all-out war by calling for a three-week cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah to allow for a diplomatic solution to be negotiated amid worries that the conflict could spread throughout the region, if not halted.
"It's time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. The exchange of fire since Oct. 7, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict and harm to civilians," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement hours after Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told Israeli troops to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon.
The 21-day, temporary cease-fire, Biden said, would create a window "to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalation across the border."
Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar backed the plan which calls for the sides to halt the fighting in line with a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war under which Hezbollah was to pull back from southern Lebanon beyond the Litani River, about 20 miles from the Israel border, creating a demilitarized buffer zone, and Israel respecting Lebanon's sovereignty.
"We call on all parties, including the governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary cease-fire immediately consistent with UNSCR 1701 during this period, and to give a real chance to a diplomatic settlement," the countries said in a joint statement.
"We are then prepared to fully support all diplomatic efforts to conclude an agreement between Lebanon and Israel within this period, building on efforts over the last months, that ends this crisis altogether."
However, Israel roundly rejected the plan Thursday with Foreign Minister Israel Katz categorically ruling out a cease-fire in the north while the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who is en route to New York for the U.N. General Assembly -- issued a statement saying Israel is fighting with "full force."
"We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Katz wrote in a post on X.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging attacks over the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, a day after Hamas, another Iran-backed militia, attacked Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, kidnapping 251 and igniting the nearly one-year-old war.
The United States and its allies had pushed to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas over the summer, which has since stalled, and have now turned their attention to securing a temporary one between Israel and Hezbollah as their conflict has escalated in the last few weeks.
The joint statement was published Wednesday following an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the cross-Lebanon border conflict called by France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the council that they should use the ongoing U.N. General Assembly that has brought world leaders to New York City to "impose a diplomatic solution and turn around this cycle of violence."
"War is not inevitable" he said. "A diplomatic solution is indeed possible."
The temporary cease-fire platform announced by the United States, but fashioned with France, should be accepted by both Israel and Hezbollah "without delay," Barrot said, to prevent further destruction and death.
"We stand fully ready to work on this," he said, adding that he is going to Beirut this week to advance the cease-fire proposal.
Fears of an all-out war have skyrocketed since last week when communications devices held by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon exploded in a daring, coordinated attack blamed on Israel, leading to further intensification of the cross-border fighting.
At the same time, Israel said its Security Cabinet updated the objectives of the war against Hamas to include returning tens of thousands of Israelis, evacuated due to the Lebanon border fighting, to their northern Israel homes.
On Monday, the United States announced it was sending a small number of additional troops to the region while the European Union warned the conflict was devolving into a "full-fledged war."
Barrot told the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday that the consequences of the war spilling throughout the region would be "incalculable."
"Lebanon, considerably weakened, would not be able to be restored after such a war," he said.
