Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is opposed to agreeing to a “unilateral ceasefire” in Lebanon during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, AFP reports.

“The prime minister said in the conversation that he is opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu hit back at Macron’s comments, saying the country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.

“A reminder to the president of France: It was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the war of independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors — including from the Vichy regime in France,” Netanyahu said.

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