Middle East crisis live: Israel and Hezbollah expected to respond to ceasefire proposal | Middle East and north Africa

At least 23 people, all of them Syrian and most of them women or children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a three-storey building in the Lebanese town of Younine late on Wednesday, mayor Ali Qusas has told Reuters. Qusas said another eight people were wounded.

The UN estimates there are about 750,000 Syrian refugees inside Lebanon. Israel claimed overnight it struck “approximately 75” Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.

Israel’s hardline finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has rejected appeals for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, saying the only option for the north of Israel is for Hezbollah to be crushed.

In a post to social media, Smotrich, part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, said:

The campaign in the north should end in one scenario – crushing Hezbollah and denying its ability to harm the residents of the north. The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows it received and to reorganize for the continuation of the war after 21 days. Surrender of Hezbollah or war, that’s the only way we will return the residents and security to the north and the country.

The far-right finance minister has previously described in explicit terms his active effort to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank permanently to Israel, and has said “My life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

The Jerusalem Post reports that community leaders of northern Israel are unhappy with the prospect of a ceasefire with Hezbollah, claiming that a deal would lead to another 7 October style attack in the future, but from Hezbollah in the north.

It quotes the Upper Galilee regional council’s chairman, Amir Sofer, who said “There is a time for negotiations, this is not the time. This is a time for war. We must not be misled by international pressure.”

Metula regional council chairman David Azulai said the government would be responsible for the next 7 October if it did a deal. The Jerusalem Post quotes him saying:

They want to do exactly what Hamas did in the south. Remember, we have been in this situation for a whole year. In the past week, the army has fought as it should, as we expect, to bring us back home. It seems we are again taking two steps back.

Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth report for the Guardian in New York

The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told a UN security council meeting that “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon.

The joint statement issued by US president Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said: “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. The exchange of fire since October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”

The two leaders, who met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, said they had worked on a temporary ceasefire “to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border”.

They urged Israel and Lebanon to back the move, which was also endorsed by the UK, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours”.

Read more from Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth in New York here: France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon as UN chief warns ‘hell is breaking loose’

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis.

The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations.

A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours.”

The US officials said that the 21-day period was chosen in order to provide space in order to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement between the two sides to allow residents to return to their homes along the Israel-Lebanon border without fear of further violence or an “7 October-like attack in the future”.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• At least 72 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Wednesday and hundreds were wounded, according to figures by the Lebanese health ministry. The geographic scope of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah has widened, after Israel targeted the mountains north of Beirut for the first time in the war, and Hezbollah aimed a long-range missile at Tel Aviv, drawing an Israeli warning that it was preparing a major response. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it hit more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the past three days.

• Israel’s top general has said the country is preparing for a possible ground operation into Lebanon. As an intense bombing campaign inside Lebanon stretched in to a third day, Maj Gen Herzi Halevi said the airstrikes aimed to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and prepare for the possibility of Israeli troops crossing the border. “We are preparing the process of a manoeuvre,” he told troops during a visit to Israel’s north on Wednesday.

• However the Pentagon said an Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon did not appear “imminent”. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US was making “a full-court press” for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. She referred reporters to Israel for questions about its operations and plans.

• France’s foreign minister has told the UN security council that his country and the United States are working to hammer out a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel to allow time for broader negotiations. “A diplomatic solution is indeed possible. In recent days, we’ve worked with our American partners on a temporary ceasefire platform of 21 days to allow for negotiations,” Jean-Noël Barrot told the 15-member UN security council.

• Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, has told the UN security council that Israel is violating his country’s sovereignty “by sending its war planes and drones to our skies, by killing our civilians, including youth, women and children, destroying homes and forcing families to flee”. Mikati says hospitals are overwhelmed and unable to accept any more victims.

• Danny Danon, Israel’s UN envoy, has said that his country does not seek a full-scale war. Danon has accused Iran of being the “driving force” behind the instability sweeping the Middle East. Danon also said that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to arrive in the US on Thursday to address the UN general assembly.