Live updates: Israel and Hezbollah exchange strikes as U.S. proposes Lebanon cease-fire

Right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government have struck out at calls for a 21-day cease-fire to curb mounting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a post on X this morning that Hezbollah must “not be given time to recover” and that the only way to see Israeli residents who have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel and secure the area was “the surrender of Hezbollah or war.”

He said he believed Israel’s operations should only “end in one scenario — crushing Hezbollah and denying its ability to harm residents in the north,” using wording similar to that used to describe Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, where more than 41,400 people have been killed, according to local health officials, since Israeli forces launched their offensive following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid suggested that Israeli leadership should agree to a cease-fire, but only for 7 days “in order not to allow Hezbollah to restore its command and control systems,” adding: “We will not accept any proposal that does not include removing Hezbollah from our northern border.”

Netanyahu’s office this morning shut down a report suggesting a cease-fire could soon be announced, saying the news was “incorrect.”

“This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond,” his office said of the 21-day cease-fire deal proposed by the U.S. and allies.

Netanyahu’s office further said reports about a “supposed directive to moderate the fighting in the north” was “also the opposite of the truth.”

“The Prime Minister instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force, and according to the plans presented to him,” it said, amid mounting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. “Also, the fighting in Gaza will continue until all the goals of the war are achieved,” it added.

The statement from the Israeli leader’s office, came as Netanyahu himself is aboard a flight to New York where he will address the UNGA.

After sirens and sounds of blasts rang out in northern Israel, the IDF said around 45 “projectiles” had been identified crossing from Lebanon. It said some were intercepted, while the rest fell in open areas.

The IDF also said it was continuing to strike targets in Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah military sites and weapons storage facilities were among the sites hit. It also said “a number of” militants were hit in the area of Kfarchouba in southern Lebanon, but did not provide further information.

Israel says its campaign is targeting Hezbollah, but Lebanese officials have reported more than 600 people killed.

Images taken this morning show destruction in the Masaken neighborhood near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, following an Israeli airstrike.

Blasts could be heard ringing out near the northern Israeli port city of Haifa this morning, NBC News’ team on the ground said, as sirens sounded in the area.

The IDF said in a post on Telegram around 8:45 a.m. local time (1:45 a.m. ET) that sirens were sounding in parts of the Upper Galilee area in northern Israel. It had yet to issue any further statement on possible aerial attacks targeting the area.

Israel has a robust aerial defense system, though rockets and missiles fired by Hezbollah can and do get through.

Israel continued to hammer southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley with airstrikes overnight into Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it hit around 75 targets, all of which it said belonged to Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces said “weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists, and terrorist infrastructure” were among the targets hit as the military said it continued its operation in a bid to “dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities” and infrastructure.

Israel’s strikes have had a deadly toll in Lebnaon, with more than 600 people, including dozens of children, killed since Monday, about half the number of people killed over the 34 days of fighting during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, fueling fears of a developing humanitarian crisis in a nation that has been hard hit by economic and political crisis, as well as the impacts of the Port of Beirut explosion and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The U.S., European Union and nearly a dozen other nations have called for an immediate 21-day cease-fire in order for negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah to prevent the possibility of an all-out war in the region.

President Joe Biden warned yesterday that the feared outcome was possible, but that there was an “opportunity” for “a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region,” as Israel also continues its deadly offensive in Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, with Israel continuing to hammer parts of the Bekaa Valley and the south with airstrikes overnight.