Middle East crisis threatens Lebanon’s ‘very existence’, foreign minister tells UN – as it happened | Middle East and north Africa

This live blog will close shortly. For the latest on the crisis and the diplomatic efforts to bring it to an end, you can read this report from our diplomatic editor:

• Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will not stop” its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon despite calls from the US, France and other allies for an immediate three-week ceasefire. The Israeli prime minister told reporters that his government’s policy was clear as he landed in New York on Thursday. “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we reach all our goals,” Netanyahu said.

• The US and France called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations. A joint statement calling for “a diplomatic settlement” of the crisis was also endorsed by the UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. It called for an urgent cessation of hostilities, which presented “an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation”.

• Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabibhas said his country is enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”. Speaking at the UN general assembly, he has said that his government welcomed yesterday’s ceasefire plan raised by the US and France – and demanded it be implemented.

• US officials hope to persuade Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire proposal by the time he addresses the UN general assembly on Friday. They argue that a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could also provide a breathing space in which to revive long-stalled negotiations with Israel and Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages in return for a truce in Gaza. Hezbollah has yet to respond to the call for a truce, although it and its backer, Iran, have previously insisted it would halt its strikes only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

• Israeli airstrikes continued in Lebanon on Thursday, in which health authorities said 92 people had been killed. Two people were killed and 15 others wounded, including a woman in critical condition, after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel said it carried out a strike that it said killed one of the heads of the Hezbollah air force unit, Mohammad Surur. Hezbollah later confirmed his death.

• Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said it had targeted the northern Israeli town of Safed with dozens of rockets on Thursday in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Later on Thursday, air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. The IDF said the sirens were triggered by a missile fired from Yemen, which it said was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow missile defence system.

“Time is of the essence,” Lebanon’s Abdullah Bouhabib has told the UN general assembly, as he wraps up his speech.

The Lebanese foreign minister has said there is a need “to embrace a political process to end the crisis which is escalating.”

Diplomacy is not always easy, but diplomacy is the only way to save innocent lives … Lebanon views the US-French initiative as an opportunity to generate momentum, to take steps towards ending this crisis. Diplomacy needs to succeed, there is no other way.”

The shortest path for the return of displaced people across the Israel-Lebanon border is an “immediate ceasefire, as stipulated by [yesterday’s] US-France declaration”, Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdullah Bouhabib has said.

Bouhabib says peace is incumbent on Israel’s government, but there can be no lasting peace without a “two-state solution”.

We are at a very difficult time, marred by tragic escalation of violence in Lebanon.”

At the UN general assembly Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdullah Bouhabibhas described last week’s pager and walkie-talkie attacks as “detestable”.

He said the explosions that occurred across the country left hundreds in critical conditions many of whom were “disfigured, maimed, lost limbs and lost vision”.

On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkie radios belonging to members of Hezbollah detonated across the country in simultaneous explosions. Hezbollah has blamed Israel and vowed to retaliate.

Lebanon is “counting on the support of the international community” to help it implement UN resolution 1701the minister for foreign affairs, Abdullah Bouhabibhas said.

That resolution – adopted after a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 – expanded the mandate of a UN peacekeeping force, allowing it to help the Lebanese army keep parts of the south free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.

Bouhabib has said Lebanon will fully implement the resolution and deploy 100,000 extra soldiers to the south of the country.

In the past, resolution 1701 has sparked friction with Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon despite the presence of the Lebanese army.

Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bouhabibhas said his country is enduring a crisis that “threatens its very existence”.

Speaking at the UN general assembly, he has said that his government welcomed yesterday’s ceasefire plan raised by the US and France – and demanded it be implemented.

At yesterday’s UN security council meeting, Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikatiaccused Israel of violating his country’s sovereignty.

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s minister for foreign affairshas said broader regional escalation in the Middle East will “not bring anyone long-lasting security”.

She has called the lack of progress on a ceasefire deal frustrating, but during her speech at the UN general assembly said that “resignation was not an option”.

More on the death of Mohammed Srurthe head of Hezbollah’s drone unit, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday.

Srur – born in 1973 – studied mathematics and was among a number of top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the country’s Houthi rebels, who are also backed by Iran, a source close to Hezbollah told the AFP news agency.

It was the fourth attack in a week targeting Hezbollah commanders in the densely populated area, one of the group’s strongholds.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said “three missiles” targeted “a residential apartment in a 10-storey building”.

Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement that two people were killed in the attack and 15 wounded, “including a woman in critical condition”.

At the UN general assemblyleaders continue to give their addresses. We’re still waiting to hear from Lebanon’s foreign minister, but currently, Alexander Schallenberg, Austria’s foreign affairs minister is speaking.

Schallenberg has said it is “wishful thinking to think that a full-scale escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could be controlled”.

The result would be a firestorm engulfing the whole regions and beyond. And in the end, everyone would lose.”

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Abdul Malik al-Huthisaid in a televised address earlier Thursday the Iran-backed group “will not hesitate to support Lebanon and Hezbollah” as cross-border fire between the Lebanese group and Israel intensified.

Late on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen. Sirens went off in several areas of central Israel “as a result of a missile that was fired from Yemen”, the Israel Defense Forces said on messaging platform Telegram.

“The missile that was fired from Yemen was successfully intercepted by the ’Arrow’ Aerial Defense System. Sirens and explosions were heard after the interception and falling shrapnel,” it added.

Since November, the Houthis have targeted Red Sea shipping with drones and missiles, saying the actions are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The United States appears to be continuing in its efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The White House said that US and Israeli officials, including US Middle East envoy Brett McGurkwould hold discussions on Thursday in New York, regarding the proposed temporary ceasefire.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken was due to meet with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer as well.