Since Monday, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to the northern border with Lebanon where intense shelling has killed more than 700 people and forced the exodus of more than 118,000.
In his speech at the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked away from any hope of a truce and continued his war message.
“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has the right to end this threat and return its citizens to their homes safely,” he said, adding that operations will continue “until all our objectives are achieved.
Netanyahu also attacked Iran and pointed out that if this country “attacks, we will attack it back,” warning from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly that “there is no place in Iran that Israel’s long arms cannot reach and “That goes for the entire Middle East,” review RFI.
Several delegates, including those from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, left the room as Netanyahu took the rostrum to deliver his speech amid a mix of cheers and boos.
Before his intervention, dozens of protesters gathered outside the hotel where Netanyahu is staying in New York to demand an end to violence in Gaza and Lebanon.
On Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies unveiled a 21-day ceasefire proposal, following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the General Assembly in New York.
The White House said the call for a ceasefire had been “coordinated” with Israel, but Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that the prime minister had not responded to the proposal.
“It is a Franco-American proposal, to which the prime minister has not responded,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office, in which he specified that the president had ordered the army “to continue the bombing to the maximum.”
*Read also: UN Commission accuses Israel of crimes against humanity due to conflict in Gaza
Hezbollah and Israel have maintained clashes since the Hamas attacks on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023.
On Gaza, Netanyahu warned on Friday that “Hamas must go” and that it will have no role in the reconstruction of Gaza and warned that it will continue fighting until “total victory.”
Since Monday, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to the northern border with Lebanon where intense shelling has killed more than 700 people and forced more than 118,000 to exodus.
The UN estimated on Friday that the “catastrophic” escalation of Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon they constitute the “deadliest period (…) in a generation.”
Israeli bombings have caused more than 1,500 deaths in nearly a year, according to Lebanese authorities, which already exceeds the 1,200 deaths, most of them civilians, recorded in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in which 160 Israelis died, most of them soldiers.
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