Hassan Nasrallah said cross-border shelling of Israel will only end when Israel's “aggression” into Gaza stops.
Hezbollah's top commander, Hassan Nasrallah, said the militant group's cross-border shelling of Israel would end only if Israel's “aggression” in the Gaza Strip stopped, calling for hostilities along the Lebanese border. He said previous diplomatic efforts to stop it appeared to only benefit Israel.
Lebanese armed groups continue to exchange fire with Israeli forces across the southern border in Lebanon in support of Palestinian ally Hamas. Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, coming under heavy ground, air, and artillery fire from Israeli forces. Ocean.
Prime Minister Nasrallah said on Tuesday that his group would only stop the gunfight if a complete ceasefire was reached in the Gaza Strip.
“On that day, when the shooting in Gaza stops, we will stop the shooting in the south,” he said in a televised address.
There are growing fears of another full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with tens of thousands of people displaced on both sides of the border and regional tensions rising.
Late last month, Defense Minister Yoav Galant said Israeli forces would “soon begin operations” near the northern border with Lebanon.
Diplomatic activity has increased in Beirut in recent weeks, with visits from foreign ministers from Germany, France and Britain in an effort to ease tensions.
Prime Minister Nasrallah said a number of foreign “delegations” had come to Beirut with “proposals” to end hostilities in southern Lebanon, but that they “only have one goal: Israel's security.” , the only option seems to be “protection of Israel.”
Reuters reported, citing a document, that the French foreign minister had submitted a proposal to Beirut, asking the fighters, including Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit, to withdraw 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. This is the content you are looking for.
Prime Minister Nasrallah did not specify France's proposal, but said a delegation had “submitted a document as a mediator.”
“I read the newspapers and there's nothing. Israel is safe,” he said.
“No one should think that Lebanon is weak and afraid or that Lebanon can impose conditions,” including the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters, Nasrallah said.
He added that his group would do the same if Israel escalated the war further in Lebanon.
He said that if Israel decided to go to war against Lebanon, those displaced from northern Israel “will not return” and that Israeli authorities will “create shelters, hotels, schools and tents for the two million people” who will be displaced. He warned that we should be prepared.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz warned last week that “time is running out” to reach a diplomatic solution in southern Lebanon.
If a diplomatic solution is not reached, Israel “will take military action to return the displaced population to its northern border areas,” he said.
The cross-border shelling killed around 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as 10 Israeli troops and five Israeli civilians.
