Lebanese PM: Latest Attack Signs Israel Rejects Ceasefire

JAKARTA - Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack on Beirut and military evacuation orders on Lebanese cities were indicators that Israel rejected efforts to reach a ceasefire.

This was conveyed by Mikati in a meeting with UN peacekeeping forces in Beirut on Friday, November 1.

The re-expansion of Israeli enemy aggression in Lebanese territory, its repeated threats to residents to vacate the entire city and village, and return to target Beirut's southern suburbs with destructive attacks, all of which are indicators affirming Israel's actions, Mikati said according to the Lebanese state news agency, NNA.

The Prime Minister of Lebanon referred to the UN resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war of Hezbollah-Israel.

Israeli warplanes carried out massive attacks in southern Beirut from Thursday night to Friday.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, residents of the northeastern Lebanese city fled after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order. Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Mikati's latest comments contradicted a statement she gave earlier this week expressing optimism that a ceasefire could be reached in Lebanon before the US presidential election on Tuesday, November 5.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that Israel should have the ability to enforce a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon to thwart threats from the country.