When the US and France launched a call for a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon on Thursday, they were confident that Benjamin Netanyahu backed it. A day later, still in New York for the UN general assembly meeting, the Israeli prime minister approved the airstrike on Beirut that killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
Many in Lebanon – as well as in Israel, Syria and elsewhere – will not mourn a man with so much blood on his hands. But they are terrified. More than 1,000 people in Lebanon have reportedly been killed in the past week. Almost a fifth of the population is said to be displaced; families are sleeping in the streets. With bombs still falling, and the threat of a ground invasion looming, Mr Netanyahu said that Israel’s work was not completed.
