No break in our Hezbollah fight, pledges new Israeli defence chief Israel Katz

The Israeli army will “not take its foot off the pedal” until Hezbollah has been disarmed, the new defence minister has said in an apparent expansion of the country’s war aims in Lebanon.
Speaking to soldiers on the northern border, Israel Katz, who replaced the sacked Yoav Gallant last week, ruled out a ceasefire despite intimations from senior officials over recent days about a possible end to hostilities.
Israel forces are pressing into Lebanon and are thought to have reached the second line of villages from the border.
The initial stated aim of the offensive was to purge the borderlands of Hezbollah fighters and munitions so that 60,000 Israelis who had been evacuated from their homes under a hail of rocket fire could return home.
Last week Katz claimed that Hezbollah had been defeated, having lost 80 per cent of its rockets and some of its key commanders, including Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader. More than 3300 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli attacks since the start of October, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Nevertheless, there are those in government who are pushing for Israel to press home its advantage and deal the Shia militia a mortal blow.
“We will not make any ceasefire, we will not take our foot off the gas, and we will not allow any arrangement that does not include the achievement of the war’s goals,” Katz said.
Shortly after his comments, Hezbollah fired a heavy barrage of rockets aimed at central Israel.
Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli foreign minister, said on Monday that there had been “a certain progress” in ceasefire talks over Lebanon, a deal that President Joe Biden’s administration is keen to see completed before relinquishing the White House at the end of the year.
Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide to Lebanon’s parliament speaker, said on Wednesday that Lebanese negotiators had reached a preliminary understanding with Amos Hochstein, the US envoy, on a framework for a ceasefire that would see the area south of the Litani River demilitarised.
Khalil said that the proposal was conveyed to the Israeli side through Hochstein, though Lebanon had yet to receive any response or suggested amendments from Israel.
Meanwhile, a badly scarred Mojtaba Amini, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, made his first public appearance after being injured in Israel’s audacious pager attacks on Hezbollah members in September. Amini appeared with his left hand bandaged, his face scarred and with visible swelling around his eyes.
He told Iranian news that prior to the detonation a message appeared on the screen that read: “You have an important message,” accompanied by a loud beeping. When he pushed a button to read it, the pager then exploded.

Iran selects its ambassadors in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen – allied countries that are known regionally as the “axis of resistance” – from the senior ranks of the Revolutionary Guards because they also serve as important conduits with militant groups backed by Iran.
It came amid signs of the conflict widening in the region.
Syrian state media said Israel had carried out two air strikes on Damascus, killing at least 15 people. One of the strikes targeted an office of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Sixteen people were also wounded in the air strikes, state news agency Sana said, quoting an unnamed military official.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria targeting members of Hezbollah and officials from other Iranian-backed groups.
The Times