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.