ISRAELI officials demanded today that their country should have the freedom to strike at Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement as part of any ceasefire deal.

The development came as an air strike hit the historic Syrian town of Palmyra, killing 36 people, according to Syria’s state-run media, which blamed the attack on Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar each said that their country sought to reserve the right to respond to any violations by Hezbollah of an emerging truce proposal, which would push the movement’s fighters and Israeli ground forces out of a United Nations buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

There have been signs of progress on the ceasefire deal, with Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government saying that it had responded positively to the proposal.

“In any agreement we will reach, we will have to maintain our freedom to act if there will be violations,” Mr Saar told dozens of foreign ambassadors in Jerusalem. “We will have to be able to act in time, before the problem will grow.”

Mr Katz, in a meeting with intelligence corps officers, said “the condition for any political settlement in Lebanon” was the right for the Israeli military “to act and protect the citizens of Israel from Hezbollah.”

Even if a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is reached, the war in Gaza, now in its 14th month, looks set to grind on.

Israel’s bombardment of the territory, ostensibly aimed at Islamist militant group Hamas, has killed over 44,000 people — over half of them women and children, according to local health officials.

Meanwhile, the US vetoed another UN resolution today demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, because it was not linked to an immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack on southern in Israel.

The 15-member security council voted 14 to one in favour of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members, but the US used its veto to block it.

The text put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

Only the five permanent members — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — have veto power.