Sheikh Naim Kassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, said Sunday that the Lebanese group is in a “new phase” of its fight with Israel following a series of Israeli escalations in Lebanon.
Kassem described the new phase as an “open-ended battle of reckoning” and said Hezbollah attacks on Israel wouldn’t stop until there was a ceasefire in Gaza. “The Israeli settlers will not return to the North before the Israeli enemy accepts a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
Kassem made the comments at a funeral for Ibrahim Aqil, a senior Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of Beirut. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the death toll in the Friday strike rose to 45, which includes three children and seven women.
Hezbollah confirmed 16 of its members were killed in the attack, including Aqil and another senior commander. The Beirut bombing came a few days after Israel blew up pagers and beepers belonging to Hezbollah members, killing dozens, including at least two children, and wounding thousands.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday and Sunday in response to the Israeli airstrike in Beirut and said it targets several military sites, including the Ramat David Airbase, an Israeli Air Force base near Haifa. According to Israeli media, three people were wounded by Hezbollah rocket fire on Sunday.
Israeli airstrikes continued to pound Lebanon on Saturday and Sunday. According to CNN, an Israeli military spokesman said Israel launched 300 strikes against Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon. At least two people were reported killed by the Israeli strikes on Sunday.
Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, said Sunday that the strikes would continue. “The price that Hezbollah is paying has increased, our attacks will increase,” he said. “We will safely return the residents to their homes, and if Hezbollah has not understood this yet, it will get another blow and another blow – until the organization understands.”
Axios reported on Saturday that US officials support Israel’s strategy of escalation. Israeli officials claim the purpose of the escalation is to de-escalate the situation and not provoke a full-blown war, but there’s no sign Hezbollah will back down.
The Axios report reads: “US officials told Axios they recognize Israel’s rational and agree with it, but stress this is an ‘extremely difficult calibration’ that could easily go out of control and lead to an all-out war.”
The US has also continued to ship weapons to Israel to support the genocidal slaughter in Gaza, which also supports escalations throughout the Middle East. Israel has been emboldened by the US vows to intervene if the situation turns into a major regional war.
