The US and France have led international calls for a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, hours after an Israeli military chief told troops to prepare for a potential ground offensive in Lebanon.
The initiative, backed by the G7, EU, Australia and three Arab nations, on Wednesday called for a swift endorsement of the truce, in a statement issued on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
While no deadline was set, US officials said they expected responses from the parties including the governments of Israel and Lebanon in “the coming hours”.
One senior US administration official said a temporary ceasefire could “shake things up” and create space for a longer-term resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group along their shared border, while helping avert the threat of a wider regional war.
While the Biden administration described the initiative as a significant breakthrough, it was not clear whether Israel or Hizbollah would accept it. Hizbollah on Wednesday fired a ballistic missile at the Tel Aviv area for the first time, one of its deepest strike attempts on Israel so far.
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