The Israeli defence ministry has announced it had secured a new $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to support the country’s ongoing military efforts, underlining Washington’s unwillingness to use its military aid as leverage for a ceasefire in Lebanon, AFP states.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israel’s strategic affairs minister in New York on Thursday, telling him the ceasefire would “allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes”.

“Further escalation of the conflict will only make that objective more difficult,” his spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.