After hours of silence, the Prime Minister's Office reacted to the proposal made by the United States and France for a 21-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, and says that the Prime Minister "as not even responded" to it.
Rocket intercepted over Acre
(Video: Miki Gafni)
This announcement came after government ministers and residents and council heads in the north lashed out following news of an apparent imminent cease-fire.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who is filling in for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he travels to the United States to address the UN General Assembly, wrote: "There will be no cease-fire in the north. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes."
More than three hours after the report, and while Netanyahu was on the "Wing of Zion" plane, a message was delivered from his office stating that "The report about a ceasefire is incorrect. This is an American-French proposal that the Prime Minister has not even responded to."
IDF attacks in Lebanon
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"The report about the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth," the PMO also said in a message that was also posted on the prime minister's social media accounts. "The Prime Minister has directed the IDF to continue fighting with full force, according to the plan that was presented to him. The fighting in Gaza will also continue until all the objectives of the war have been achieved."
The IDF, meanwhile, continued its attacks. An official announcement on Thursday morning from the IDF spokesman said that overnight the Israeli Air Force, directed by IDF intelligence, struck approximately 75 terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the area of Bekaa and in southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers, terrorists and terrorist infrastructure. At noon there were reports of attacks in Tzur, an attack on a vehicle in the village of Shoba, and fighter jets breaking the sound barrier over various areas in Lebanon, including over Beirut. At noon, there were also reports of an attack deep in the country, in Ba-Lava, north of Baalbek.
Rocket alert sirens were heard in the Acre area at about 10:45 a.m., the first rockets to be fired in more than 12 hours. Some 45 rockets were launched in the heavy barrage, and dramatic footage shows a sequence of falls in the sea off the coast of Acre. Following the attack residents of the northern Golan, Upper Galilee and Krayot-Haifa Bay were ordered by the IDF Homefront Command to stay near protected areas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, leave for the United States
(Video: GPO)
On Thursday morning an Israeli source told CNN that the talks regarding a potential temporary cease-fire with Hezbollah were the main reason for Netanyahu's flight to New York. He noted that the message in the briefings from Israel the previous day were that "Israel prefers a diplomatic solution."
The spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, Majed Al-Ansari, said at the same time that "there is still no official mediation path that works for a cease-fire in Lebanon. We are not aware of a direct connection between the proposal for a 21-day cease-fire in Lebanon and the proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza."