‘Hell is breaking loose’ as Israel rejects calls for ceasefire

Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to ‘continue fighting with full force’ against Hezbollah last night– crushing hopes of a ceasefire. Rocket exchanges continued with another strike on Beirut reportedly killing the terror group’s top drone commander.

Israel’s recent rejection for a ceasefire with Hezbollah, and killing hundreds in Lebanon with strikes has sparked fears of an all-out-regional war. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pictured) warned that ‘hell is breaking loose’ in the region as he backed a French-US peace proposal.

Word spread early yesterday that a three-week pause could be agreed ‘in the coming hours’ – before Mr Netanyahu’s office shut down the rumour. ‘The news about a ceasefire… not true,’ a spokesman said. ‘This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond… he instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force, and according to the plans presented to him.’

As the Israeli PM touched down in New York, where he is due to speak at the UN, he said his ‘policy is clear’. ‘We will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes,’ Mr Netanyahu said. The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon, known as Unifil, was supposed to disarm Hezbollah and prevent it building up on the border after the 2006 war.

But it failed and on October 8 the terror group began bombarding northern Israel, forcing 70,000 to flee their homes as it tried to support the Hamas terror group in Gaza. It now appears the Jewish state is preparing a ground invasion to try to remove Hezbollah from southern Lebanon following nearly 20 years of diplomatic failure. Such a move could provoke Iran, which backs Hezbollah, to intervene and spark a regional war. The IDF’s 7th brigade conducted exercises just a few miles from the border yesterday as its air force hit 75 terror targets across Lebanon.

Footage showed the strike hit two rooms on the second and third floors of an eight-story building which local health agencies said killed two and injured 15. It is the fourth such strike on the capital in recent days as the relentless bombardment continues with at least 26 killed across the country last night. The US joined 11 other allies in calling for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ‘world is speaking clearly’ on the need for the conflict to stop. Meanwhile US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned the situation ‘is deeply troubling’ at a meeting with his British and Australian counterparts in London.

Mr Austin said: ‘We face the risk of an all-out war that would be devastating for both parties. Israel and Lebanon can choose a different path. Despite the sharp escalation a diplomatic solution is still viable. It is the only way displaced civilians on both sides of the border can return to their homes.’ He warned the US remained ‘postured to protect our forces and personnel across the Middle East’ and, in a tacit message to Iran, warned no other state should attempt to ‘exploit the situation’. UK Defence Secretary John Healey urged Mr Netanyahu and Hezbollah leaders to ‘pay heed to the combined voices at the UN calling for a 21 day ceasefire… where talks can start, fighting can end and a longer term solution can emerge’.

But Mr Netanyahu is under pressure to push ahead with the war from far-Right parties in his coalition. Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security warned his extreme-Right Otzma Yehudit party would resign from the government if there is a ceasefire. He said: ‘When your enemy is on his knees, you don’t allow him to recover, but work to defeat him and strive to defeat him. If you don’t do this, you convey weakness, endanger the security of your citizens and prove that you don’t intend to win.’ Foreign minister Israel Katz, who is serving as PM while Mr Netanyahu is in New York, said there will be ‘no ceasefire in the north’. Israel ‘will continue to fight against the terrorist organisation Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes’, he added. Defence minister Yoav Gallant also approved ‘continued IDF offensive activity’.

A Western diplomat told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that some Israeli ministers are ‘deliberately attempting to damage negotiations’. Any incursion into Lebanon would be devastating for the region. While Israel claims to have taken out half of Hezbollah’s feared 150,000 rockets, it still maintains ferocious fire power. The proscribed terror organisation has 50,000 fighters embedded in tunnels in the south and represents a far tougher adversary than Hamas, which the IDF has still not destroyed despite nearly a year of war.

BORDER OF BLOODSHED. The bloodshed in Gaza has horrified observers but a war in Lebanon would be of a different magnitude altogether. Terror group Hezbollah’s army of 50,000 includes 10,000 elite Radwan fighters embedded in tunnels in the mountainous border. From here they can unleash thousands of rockets, missiles and drones a day. The stockpile, from Iran, Russia and China, is thought to exceed 150,000. Israel says it has taken out as much as half, but that still leaves a huge armoury.

It was assembled after the 2006 Lebanon War. Since then, a UN force of just 11,000 was supposed to oversee Hezbollah’s disarmament and keep it north of the Litani River – roughly 18 miles from Israel. But the Iranian proxy ignored the UN. On October 8 it started firing missiles in support of Hamas in Gaza. It has managed to continue this daily, killing around 50 Israelis and forcing 70,000 from their homes. As well as having precision missiles which can hit anywhere in Israel, the terrorists also have short-range rockets, [self-murder] drones and anti-tank missiles. The IDF’s biggest advantage is its air power. Hezbollah as none of its own and the Israeli Air Force, the region’s strongest, has modern aircraft including US F-35s.

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