Hezbollah Deputy Sheikh Naim Qassem on Tuesday vowed that Hezbollah would strike targets across Israel in the face of Israeli attacks on Lebanon but also called for a ceasefire, saying it was “the solution.”
“The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness,” Qassem said. “If the Israelis do not want that, we will continue.”
Qassem suggested Hezbollah would only agree to a ceasefire if there were also one in Gaza, although he recently signaled flexibility on that issue. “Lebanon cannot be separated from Palestine, nor can the region be separated from Palestine,” he said.
Qassem said that Hezbollah would expand its strikes in Israel in response to Israel launching attacks across Lebanon. On Monday, Israel bombed a northern Lebanese village in a Christian-majority area, killing at least 23 people.
“Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place,” Qassem said.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire in Lebanon. Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron that Israel is “opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was.”
The US is also opposed to a ceasefire in Lebanon and is strongly backing the Israeli assault despite previous claims that it sought a diplomatic solution.
Since Israel dramatically escalated its bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23, over 1,500 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including many civilians. Over the past year, Israeli attacks have killed a total of 2,350 people in Lebanon.
The Israeli assault has also caused a mass displacement crisis, with the UN saying about 1.2 million people have been displaced, including over 400,000 children. The UN also said that Israel has about 25% of Lebanon under evacuation orders.
"The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness" Yes, they are.
Not that I disagree,, but you of all people, who rambled on for weeks: if only Hezbollah stops throwing rockets on Israel, should be more welcoming of this gesture instead of commenting about their weakness.
It is important to note that Major T. Burns here, is unusual. His morality exists in Quantum Superposition.
By this I mean, presented with any obvious moral atrocity (the murder of civilians, the bombing of hospitals or refugee camps or schools, invasions, slaughter), young Timothy Burns immediately and simultaneously holds TWO positions on the matter : that The Action In Question is horrible and barbaric and criminal, AND that The Action In Question is perfectly justified, easily understood and excusable, and morally correct.
ONLY when it is established that the Apartheid State of Israel was the victim or the perpetrator, does Tim Burns' quantum duality "collapse" into one of those two opinions.
Tell him of a missile strike that killed dozens but do not identify the attackers or the victims; he WILL NOT have an opinion until you say "Israel attacked Hamas" or "Israel was attacked by Hamas" at which point, in the space of Planck Time, Major Burns will say "that's excellent" or "that's horrible", respectively. Over the exact same event.
Sad, that no one else in the world will rescue the innocent, but somehow they are the terrorists.
Hezbollah just doesn’t it get it. The only solution Israeli believe in, is the final solution. And just by mentioning a ceasefire, they have revealed they are weak. .Israel doesn’t respect weak groups, they eliminate them.
You're thinking like Israel IDF… Calling for a ceasefire is not sign of weakness…!
"Israel doesn’t respect weak groups"…. Israel does NOT respect any groups whatsoever…!
They need to get on with it. I want to see burning cities from the north to the south of Israel. The solution is not a "ceasefire" – which isn't ever going to happen – the solution is the utter destruction of Israel and the driving of the Zionist population out of the country. There needs to be a "reverse Nakba."