Hezbollah rejects ceasefire, demands Israeli withdrawal
Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and the Lebanese Government, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal.
The announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four people, according to local authorities, and a UN peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, said the agreement’s demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean “surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy’s goals.” “What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” he said. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation,” he added.
The ongoing fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas whose closure has jolted the world economy.
Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon since Hezbollah began launching rocket and drone attacks in solidarity with Iran days into the wider war.
US President Donald Trump, who faced a rare rebuke from Congress on Wednesday, has sought to downplay the diplomatic deadlock and the failure of declared ceasefires to end the fighting, telling reporters that in the West Asia, “a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”
A Serbian peacekeeper was killed, and two other peacekeepers were wounded, when a mortar struck their location near Marjayoun, a Christian-majority town that has seen intense fighting, according to the UN mission, known as UNIFIL, and Serbia’s Defence Ministry. Neither said whether the mortar fire came from Israel or Hezbollah. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a drone strike killed a motorcyclist and wounded four people in the village of Maaroub.
