Netanyahu dismisses reports about Lebanon cease-fire plan, asks IDF to continue fighting 'in full force'

Benjamin Netanyahu's office has ruled out media reports about a cease-fire proposal between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.

"The report on a cease-fire is not true," a statement read. "This is an American-French offer, to which the prime minister hasn’t responded yet."

Netanyahu asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to continue the fighting "in full force," the statement read.

Members of Netanyahu's government have publicly criticized the plan.

23 Syrians killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon: Media

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike late on Wednesday killed 23 Syrians near the city of Baalbek, according to the Associated Press.

The mayor of the northeastern town of Younine, where the strike occurred, said four Syrians and four Lebanese were also wounded in the strike, which hit a building housing the Syrians.

He said most of the dead were women and children

The village is in the Bekaa Valley, which runs along the Syrian border.

Lebanon hosts nearly 780,000 registered Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war there, and hundreds of thousands who are unregistered.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that more than 100 Syrian refugees had been killed since the beginning of the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including 23 women and 32 children.