Serbia seeks pressure to facilitate Israel-Hezbollah truce in Lebanon

United Nations, New York — Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric has told TRT World that there needs to be an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon as fears of a possible Israel ground invasion mount.

"We want peace now," Djuric told TRT World on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Thursday.

"We need to put pressure on the stakeholders as much as we can, and I hope the discussions here in New York this week can contribute to dropping the level of tensions."

Tensions remain high in the Middle East as Israel launched more attacks on Lebanon, an Arab country already reeling from recent air strikes that killed more than 550 people, including children, and wounded hundreds.

Some 100,000 people have been internally displaced due to ongoing Israeli strikes and fears of Israeli land invasion.

Daily clashes between the Israeli army and Lebanon's Hezbollah group has depopulated civilian areas on both sides of the combustible Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah says it will only stop targeting Israeli military sites when Tel Aviv ends its war on besieged Gaza. Israel has vowed to continue its bombardment of Lebanon and return thousands of Israelis to the northern areas who fled the clashes since October 2023.

Countries have tried hard to convince Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a 21-day truce.

But Netanyahu upon his arrival in New York for his upcoming UNGA speech said his military would continue to attack Lebanon with "full force", dimming hopes for a ceasefire.

"We will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes," Netanyahu said.

Late on Thursday, Lebanon reported nearly 100 deaths due to Israeli strikes in 24 hours, taking the death toll from Israeli assaults across the country to 1,540 since last October.

UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon

Djuric told TRT World that his country is an active participant in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission, and it will continue to make its best efforts "despite the lack of resources."

"We have almost 200 of our sons and daughters trying to contribute to regional stability," he said.

Many countries are participating in the mission, including Türkiye, Indonesia, India, Ghana, Italy, Spain, France, Serbia and others. In recent months they have found themselves in the middle of a renewed, intense conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.

On Tuesday, the under-secretary-general for peace operations at the United Nations told TRT World that peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have not relocated to new positions.

"They're not repositioning. They're staying in the area of operation," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

"Whenever they have an opportunity to continue implementing their mandate and playing their role as peacekeepers, they do," he said.