Israel will press on with discussions on ceasefire proposals for Lebanon in the days ahead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, and Washington warned that further escalation would make it harder for civilians on both sides to return home, APA reports citing Reuters.
Israel's foreign minister on Thursday rejected global calls for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and continued airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and heightened fears of a regional war.
Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, said 25 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since the early hours of Friday.
Hezbollah said it had fired rockets into Israel on Friday at Kiryat Ata near the city of Haifa some 30 km (20 miles) from the border, and at the city of Tiberias, declaring the attacks a response to Israeli strikes on villages, cities and civilians.
Though Israeli air defences have shot down many of Hezbollah's rockets, limiting the damage caused, the group's attacks have shut down normal life across much of northern Israel as more areas fall into its crosshairs.
Israel's military said it had intercepted four unmanned aircraft that crossed from Lebanese territory into the maritime space off the coast of Rosh Hanikra at the Lebanese border.
The United States and France proposed on Wednesday an immediate 21-day truce across the Lebanese-Israeli border, and said negotiations continued, including on the sidelines of a United Nations meeting in New York.
Netanyahu said Israeli teams had meetings to discuss the U.S. ceasefire proposals on Thursday and would continue discussions in the days ahead, adding that he appreciated the U.S. efforts.
"Our teams met to discuss the U.S. initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes. We will continue those discussions in the coming days," he said in a statement.
On Thursday, after Netanyahu left for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, his office issued a statement saying the prime minister had ordered Israeli troops to continue fighting with full force in Lebanon.
His statement made no reference to the comments of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who on Thursday rejected ceasefire proposals, or other Israeli politicians who have echoed that position, saying only that there had been "a lot of misreporting around the U.S.-led ceasefire initiative".
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israel further escalation would only make it harder for civilians to return home on both sides of the border, the State Department said.