BEIRUT — Israel spurned a push by allies for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah militants "until victory," ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's expected address to the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages.
The United States, France, and other allies disclosed the 21-day truce on Wednesday, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Israeli leader Netanyahu, however, totally rejected the ceasefire proposal on Thursday, ordering the military to continue "fighting with full force."
The White House expressed frustration at the rejection, saying the truce proposal had taken "a lot of care and effort."
"We wouldn't have made that statement; we wouldn't have worked on that if we didn't have reason to believe that the conversations that we were having with the Israelis in particular were supportive of the goal there," National Security spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday.
Macron said later it was "a mistake" for Netanyahu to refuse a ceasefire and that he would have to take "responsibility" for a regional escalation.
Speaking in Canada, where he met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who also backed the ceasefire — Macron noted that the ceasefire plan had been prepared with Netanyahu himself.
'Intolerable'
The joint ceasefire statement said the situation in Lebanon has become "intolerable" and "is in nobody's interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon."
Lebanon's health ministry said late Thursday that Israeli strikes had killed 92 people in the country and injured 153 in the past 24 hours.
According to the International Organization for Migration, about 118,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Lebanon over the past week.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israel's strategic affairs minister in New York on Thursday, telling him the ceasefire would "allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes."
"Further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective more difficult," his spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The Israeli defense ministry, meanwhile, announced it had secured a new $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to support the country's ongoing military efforts, underlining Washington's unwillingness to use its military aid as leverage for a ceasefire.
Yemen missile
Israel's ongoing bombardments in Lebanon have raised fears of an all-out regional war in the Middle East.
Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive, according to an army statement.
The Israeli military said Thursday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
The leader of Yemen's Houthi rebels, Abdul Malik al-Huthi, said in a televised address earlier Thursday that the Iran-backed group would "not hesitate to support Lebanon and Hezbollah."