Israel-Hezbollah: Netanyahu tells military to 'continue fighting with full force'

In a joint statement the UN called for the ceasefire 'to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country's military will keep using its "full force" against Hezbollah, despite UN calls for a ceasefire.

Speaking as he landed in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, he said Israel had a clear policy.

"We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force," he said.

"And 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.”

Hours after the UK, US and allies called for a 21-day pause in fighting, Netanyahu's office refuted the rumours of a proposed deal, calling the news "not true".

"This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond," a statement posted to X reads.

"The news about the supposed directive to moderate the fighting in the north is also the opposite of the truth."

Shortly before Netanyahu's statement in New York, the Israeli military said it had killed Hezbollah drone commander Mohammed Hussein Surour in an airstrike on Dahiyeh, a suburb in the south of Beirut.

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Hezbollah has not confirmed his death, but according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, 15 people were injured and two were killed in the blast which hit an apartment building.

It comes after 20 people were killed in north Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building housing workers, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.

Of those killed, 19 were Syrian refugees and one was a Lebanese national.

It comes after the UK joined the US, France and a host of allies in calling for an immediate temporary ceasefire in Lebanon, warning the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah is “intolerable”.

In a joint statement, the 12-strong bloc calls for a 21-day ceasefire “to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement”, as well as a ceasefire in Gaza.

The statement calls for the governments of Lebanon and Israel to “endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately… and to give a real chance to a diplomatic settlement”.

Signatories to the statement include the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The US hopes the new deal could lead to longer-term stability along the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, and escalated attacks over the past week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East.

The US officials said Hezbollah would not be a signatory to the cease-fire but believed the Lebanese government would coordinate its acceptance with the group.

While the deal applies only to the Israel-Lebanon border, the US officials said they were looking to use a three-week pause in fighting to restart stalled negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group, after nearly a year of war in Gaza.

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