Israel has rejected a push by allies for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah “until victory”, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expected address to the UN General Assembly on Friday.

According to AFP, the United States, France and other allies unveiled the 21-day truce on Wednesday. But Israeli leader Netanyahu flatly rejected the ceasefire proposal on Thursday, ordering the military to continue “fighting with full force”.

The White House expressed frustration at the rejection, saying the truce proposal had taken “a lot of care and effort”.

“We wouldn’t have made that statement, we wouldn’t have worked on that if we didn’t have reason to believe that the conversations that we were having with the Israelis in particular, were supportive of the goal there,” National Security spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Thursday.