Beirut | Jerusalem | Israel kept up its bombardment of Hezbollah positions in Lebanon on Thursday, as the US and its allies proposed a three-week ceasefire to allow for negotiations in a last-ditch effort to avoid full-blown war.

The initiative unveiled late on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) and led by US President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron comes as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion of Lebanon. Such a move would risk spiralling into a regional conflagration that could drag the US and Iran, which backs Hezbollah, into a direct conflict for the first time.

Bloomberg