The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning responded to reports of an impending ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group.
"The reports of a ceasefire are not true," the Prime Minister's Office said. "This is a French-American initiative that the Prime Minister has not even responded to."
"The reports of an instruction to moderate the fighting in the north is also the opposite of the truth. The Prime Minister instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force, and according to the plans presented to him.
"As well, the fighting in Gaza will continue until all of the goals of the war are achieved."
According to Sky News, senior US officials said that a temporary ceasefire deal with Hezbollah is expected in the next few hours. The officials claimed that diplomatic moves behind the scenes have brought the parties closer to an agreement.
"The ceasefire will be for 21 days, along the blue line (the border between Israel and Lebanon)," the officials said. "During this time, the parties will hold negotiations towards a possible solution to the conflict that has been going on since Hezbollah launched an attack on October 8, with the intention of reaching an overall agreement along the blue line that will allow residents to return to their homes in both Lebanon and Israel."
The officials clarified that this is an agreement only for the northern region, and is not related to the Gaza Strip, but according to them, this may facilitate progress on the Gaza issue.
Sky News also reported that in the event of signing an agreement, Hezbollah itself would not be a signatory to the agreement, but the US officials said that the Lebanese government would coordinate the signing with Hezbollah.