Israeli PM’s office now says officials discussing ceasefire proposal with US
Israeli officials have met with their US counterparts to discuss the 21-day ceasefire proposal, which has been advanced by the US and France along with countries in the Middle East and Europe.
The office of Israel’s prime minister said in a series of posts on social media that a meeting took place on Thursday to “discuss the US initiative” and “we will continue those discussions in the coming days”.
The announcement marks a stark change of tone from Israel.
On Thursday, the PM’s office released a statement on X saying the “news about a ceasefire – not true”. “This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond,” the office said in a statement that was reposted by Netanyahu on his personal X account.
The statement added that Netanyahu had instructed Israeli forces attacking Lebanon “to continue the fighting with full force, and according to the plans presented to him”.
Netanyahu is currently in New York to address the UN General Assembly.
Can Israel’s economy survive another war in Lebanon?
Almost a year into the war on Gaza, Israel’s economy is facing its deepest decline in years.
Military spending is ballooning, borrowing is rocketing and revenues are drying up.
International trust in Israel’s economy is also waning, while thousands of highly educated and skilled workers are leaving the country. Israeli economists now fear a wider war in the Middle East could strain the economy even further and say only a ceasefire can help repair the financial damage.
Israeli air strikes alone will not stop Hezbollah rocket attacks: Analysts
Hezbollah fired rockets targeting the headquarters of Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Haifa on Thursday, the third attack aimed at the firm’s plant in the Israeli port city in recent days, military analysts report.
US-based defence think tanks the Critical Threats Project (CTP) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said Hezbollah also targeted four civilian areas in northern Israel for the first time on Thursday and noted the difficulty Israel’s military has in responding to such attacks.
“Targeting the relatively mobile and well-hidden Hezbollah drone, missile, and rocket array is a difficult undertaking, even for an air force as tactically proficient as the [Israeli] Air Force,” the CTP and ISW said in a joint report on the fighting in Lebanon.
“The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War taught the [Israeli military] the lesson that airstrikes alone cannot stop Hezbollah rocket barrages, even when such an air campaign is effectively designed and executed on a tactical level,” the CTP-ISW report adds.
Netanyahu’s growing popularity at home spells grim outlook for ceasefire in Lebanon
The message from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, as he faced a backlash from his coalition amid leaked reports that he was considering a ceasefire, was that Israel would continue full force. And this is what you are seeing on the ground.
Netanyahu is all about domestic politics and nobody in Israel wants a ceasefire with Hezbollah. They see what is happening as a major victory for their army and intelligence, so they certainly don’t want a pause.
However, there has been some walk back from the prime minister’s office, saying that they spoke to the Americans about the ceasefire proposal and that they share values in terms of returning residents to their homes in the north of Israel. Those meetings [with US officials] went on Thursday and will continue today. I think the big question mark is whether Netanyahu will agree [to a ceasefire] because of the political pressures he faces inside Israel.
The latest polls show his popularity higher than ever since October 7. That is what’s important to him.
