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France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon
Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth report for the Guardian in New York
The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told a UN security council meeting that “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon.
The joint statement issued by US president Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said: “It is 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 October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”
The two leaders, who met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, said they had worked on a temporary ceasefire “to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border”.
They urged Israel and Lebanon to back the move, which was also endorsed by the UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours”.
Read more from Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth in New York here: France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon as UN chief warns ‘hell is breaking loose’
Key events
Here from our video team are the clips of Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, and Danny Danon, Israel’s UN envoy speaking at the UN security council.
Mikati told the council that Israel was violating his country’s sovereignty “by sending its war planes and drones to our skies, by killing our civilians, including youth, women and children, destroying homes and forcing families to flee”.
Danon said Israel did not seek a full-scale war. Yesterday, Israel’s top general said the country is preparing for a possible ground operation into Lebanon. The death toll after three days of Israeli bombardment of Lebanon this week has passed 600, with thousands more injured.
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
The former UK ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, who remains closely in touch with diplomats at the UN, said the joint statement backing a 21 day ceasefire in Lebanon signed by the US, France, the UK, the EU and three other countries, including three Gulf States, has to be used to bring about change on the ground.
If that happens, he said it could represent a watershed in the crisis and even a moment when diplomacy fought back. He also praised the UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy for “coming out impressively early and hard” in favour of an immediate ceasefire in the way a Labour government failed to do in the 2006 Lebanese crisis
He said “we have got to use this scaffolding so it turns into something that matters on the ground and not just to pause it for 21 days”.
He set out three headline priorities
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“Get all sides to step back from escalation. There are signs that Israel is holding back from hitting Beirut and there are signs of Hezbollah holding back from hitting Tel Aviv at scale. Maybe this shows the mutual recognition of the dangers of escalation.”
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“Get the official Lebanese army on the ground on the Israel Lebanon border – not Hezbollah not Iran – get state authority back into the south Lebanon border.”
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Return to persuading both sides – Hamas and Israel – to re-engage with the Gaza ceasefire agreement. “It is that agreement that gets th- e hostages out, the aid in and in the end potentially opens the conditions for the two state solution”.
In the message diplomats will be relaying to Benjamin Netanyahu when he reaches New York, Fletcher suggested Hezbollah, already degraded and its popularity reduced, would only be strengthened if a ground invasion goes ahead
“Hezbollah has lost a lot of support but the second those tanks cross that border into Lebanon. Hezbollah starts to redraw confidence and rebuild support in the population”, he said.
Israel’s air force has stated that after “warnings that were activated in the western Galilee area, about 45 launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon.”
It said “some of them were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas.”
23 Syrians killed, most of them women or children, in Israeli strike on Younine in Lebanon – mayor
At least 23 people, all of them Syrian and most of them women or children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a three-storey building in the Lebanese town of Younine late on Wednesday, mayor Ali Qusas has told Reuters. Qusas said another eight people were wounded.
The UN estimates there are about 750,000 Syrian refugees inside Lebanon. Israel claimed overnight it struck “approximately 75” Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.
The Israeli military reports that warning sirens are sounding again in Upper Galilee.
Finance minister Smotrich rejects ceasefire proposal, says ‘crushing’ Hezbollah is only option
Israel’s hardline finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has rejected appeals for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, saying the only option for the north of Israel is for Hezbollah to be crushed.
In a post to social media, Smotrich, part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, said:
The campaign in the north should end in one scenario – crushing Hezbollah and denying its ability to harm the residents of the north. The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows it received and to reorganize for the continuation of the war after 21 days. Surrender of Hezbollah or war, that’s the only way we will return the residents and security to the north and the country.
The far-right finance minister has previously described in explicit terms his active effort to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank permanently to Israel, and has said “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that trade unions in the country have called on people to show solidarity, and for “the owners of food establishments, bakeries, gas stations and pharmacies to keep their establishments open, and facilitate everything necessary for our people.”
In a statement the trade unions also called on “merchants not to raise prices and not to exploit people.”
Northern Israel community leaders reject ceasefire plan, saying ‘this is a time for war’
The Jerusalem Post reports that community leaders of northern Israel are unhappy with the prospect of a ceasefire with Hezbollah, claiming that a deal would lead to another 7 October style attack in the future, but from Hezbollah in the north.
It quotes the Upper Galilee regional council’s chairman, Amir Sofer, who said “There is a time for negotiations, this is not the time. This is a time for war. We must not be misled by international pressure.”
Metula regional council chairman David Azulai said the government would be responsible for the next 7 October if it did a deal. The Jerusalem Post quotes him saying:
They want to do exactly what Hamas did in the south. Remember, we have been in this situation for a whole year. In the past week, the army has fought as it should, as we expect, to bring us back home. It seems we are again taking two steps back.
In an operational update on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military claims that overnight it struck “approximately 75 terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation” in Beqaa and in southern Lebanon.
It claimed the targets included “weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists, and terrorist infrastructure,” citing
Lebanese authorities have reported four people killed. The claims have not been independently verified.
Emanuel Fabian, military correspondent at the Times of Israel, reports that rockets appear to have been fired from inside the Gaza Strip aimed at Israel this morning, and he reports that “according to the IDF, several rockets were launched at troops inside the Gaza Strip”. He said there were no reports of injuries, and none of the rockets crossed into Israel.
Interceptor missiles were launched over Kibbutz Sufa amid an apparent rocket attack from the Gaza Strip a short while ago. No sirens sounded in any towns. pic.twitter.com/gLHOdzRrx3
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 26, 2024
According to the IDF, several rockets were launched at troops inside the Gaza Strip. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and the rest did not cross the border.
There were no injuries in the incident.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 26, 2024
Israel’s opposition leader has called for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to accept the US-French proposal of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, but says his country should only do so for a period of seven days.
In a post to social media, Yair Lapid said:
The state of Israel should announce this morning that it accepts the Biden-Macron ceasefire proposal, but only for seven days in order not to allow Hezbollah to restore its command and control systems. We will not accept any proposal that does not include removing Hezbollah from our northern border.
Any proposal that is put forward must allow the residents of the north to immediately return safely to their homes and lead to the renewal of negotiations for the kidnapping deal. Any violation – even the slightest – of the cease fire, will lead to Israel attacking again with its full force and in all areas of Lebanon.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that in an Israeli raid on Al-Ain camp, west of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one Palestinian has been shot and then detained by Israeli security forces. Three others, including a woman, have also been detained.
Authorities in Lebanon have reported four people dead on Thursday after Israeli airstrikes on the south of the country continued. The state National News Agency reports that a Syrian national was killed in Qana, and three people were killed in an Israeli air raid on Aita al-Shaab.
Israeli media reports that a planned rally by the family and friends of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza for Saturday is to be postponed due to “security and safety concerns”. It was scheduled to take place at the Begin Gate in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities believe that about 101 hostages are still in captivity in Gaza, having been held there for nearly a year.
France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon
Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth report for the Guardian in New York
The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told a UN security council meeting that “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon.
The joint statement issued by US president Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said: “It is 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 October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”
The two leaders, who met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, said they had worked on a temporary ceasefire “to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border”.
They urged Israel and Lebanon to back the move, which was also endorsed by the UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours”.
Read more from Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth in New York here: France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon as UN chief warns ‘hell is breaking loose’
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations.
A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours.”
The US officials said that the 21-day period was chosen in order to provide space in order to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement between the two sides to allow residents to return to their homes along the Israel-Lebanon border without fear of further violence or an “7 October-like attack in the future”.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
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At least 72 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Wednesday and hundreds were wounded, according to figures by the Lebanese health ministry. The geographic scope of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah has widened, after Israel targeted the mountains north of Beirut for the first time in the war, and Hezbollah aimed a long-range missile at Tel Aviv, drawing an Israeli warning that it was preparing a major response. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it hit more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the past three days.
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Israel’s top general has said the country is preparing for a possible ground operation into Lebanon. As an intense bombing campaign inside Lebanon stretched in to a third day, Maj Gen Herzi Halevi said the airstrikes aimed to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and prepare for the possibility of Israeli troops crossing the border. “We are preparing the process of a manoeuvre,” he told troops during a visit to Israel’s north on Wednesday.
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However the Pentagon said an Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon did not appear “imminent”. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US was making “a full-court press” for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. She referred reporters to Israel for questions about its operations and plans.
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France’s foreign minister has told the UN security council that his country and the United States are working to hammer out a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel to allow time for broader negotiations. “A diplomatic solution is indeed possible. In recent days, we’ve worked with our American partners on a temporary ceasefire platform of 21 days to allow for negotiations,” Jean-Noël Barrot told the 15-member UN security council.
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Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, has told the UN security council that Israel is violating his country’s sovereignty “by sending its war planes and drones to our skies, by killing our civilians, including youth, women and children, destroying homes and forcing families to flee”. Mikati says hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to accept any more victims.
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Danny Danon, Israel’s UN envoy, has said that his country does not seek a full-scale war. Danon has accused Iran of being the “driving force” behind the instability sweeping the Middle East. Danon also said that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to arrive in the US on Thursday to address the UN general assembly.