The Israeli prime minister has appeared to downplay hopes of an imminent truce with Hezbollah.
In a statement released on Thursday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, his office said there was only a proposal on the table and that he had not yet responded to it. The statement also denied that there had been any directive to ease up on fighting on the northern border with Lebanon.
The Lebanese militant group has insisted it would only halt its strikes if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Hamas for nearly a year. That appears out of reach despite months of negotiations led by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Israeli families of the hostages said they are pushing for a possible ceasefire deal for Lebanon to include provisions for the war in Gaza, especially securing release of the roughly 70 hostages still presumed to be alive and the bodies of some 30 others.
Israel has carried out days of heavy strikes across Lebanon, targeting what it says are Hezbollah rocket launchers and other military infrastructure. The militants have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel and on Wednesday targeted Tel Aviv for the first time with a longer-range missile that was intercepted.
An Israeli firefighters plane uses a fire retardant to extinguish a fire after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an open area near the city of Safed, northern Israel.
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