Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Hezbollah confirms top commander killed

Israeli officials are insisting they will continue fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shot down a 21-day cease-fire proposal submitted by the U.S. and France.

"We need to continue attacking Hezbollah, we have been waiting for this opportunity for years," Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff for the Israel Defense Forces, said Thursday.

The IDF is working to "eliminate" more Hezbollah senior officials, "thwart the transfer of weapons, to detract from Hezbollah's firepower and to attack it throughout Lebanon," Halevi added.

After landing in New York before he is set to speak at the United Nations on Friday, Netanyahu doubled down on continuing to fight Hezbollah.

"The policy is clear: we continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might -- we will not stop until we achieve all our goals," Netanyahu said.

-ABC News' Dana Savir

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared on social media on Thursday that there "will be no ceasefire in the north," as U.S.-led efforts to prevent a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon appeared to fall flat.

"We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Katz wrote in a post to X.

The statement came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed reports that the U.S. was gathering international support for a 21-day cease-fire. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the plan had "significant" backing.

"This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond," a post to Netanyahu's official X page said.

The Israel Defense Forces continued its bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon overnight into Thursday while its troops prepared for an expected ground operation.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the IDF General Staff, told units at the northern border on Wednesday: "We are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and David Brennan

At least 23 more people were killed as Israeli warplanes continued airstrikes in Lebanon through Thursday morning.

The Israel Defense Forces said its aircraft struck approximately 75 Hezbollah targets in the south of the country and the eastern Bekaa region overnight. The force said it is continuing operations "to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah's capabilities."

Since Monday, Israel's intensified air campaign killed nearly 700 people and wounded more than 1,700 others, per data from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

The IDF said Hezbollah fired approximately 45 projectiles into Israel from Lebanon on Thursday morning, some of which were intercepted with the rest falling in open areas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, dismissed hopes of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that would forestall Israel's planned ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu "instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force and according to the plans presented to him," according to a statement published on his official X page on Thursday.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said news about a potential cease-fire deal between Hezbollah and Israel being discussed is "incorrect."

"This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond," he said in a statement posted on social media on Thursday.

He added, "The news about the supposed directive 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. Also, the fighting in Gaza will continue until all the goals of the war are achieved."

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey