Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivering a speech live-streamed in Beirut's southern suburbs, on the occasion of Ashura commemorations, July 17, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today)
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah stated on Wednesday that if Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon cease, then the negotiations would occur between Israel and the Lebanese government, not Hezbollah. This comes as the party and Israel engage in daily deadly exchanges since the start of the war in Gaza last October.
"If the (Israeli) aggression stops, delegations will come to negotiate the future of southern Lebanon. The party negotiating on behalf of Lebanon is the Lebanese state. We have informed everyone who has contacted us that the entity responsible for negotiating and providing responses is the Lebanese state," stated the leader in a speech during the commemoration of Ashura, a major Shiite religious event. He emphasized in this regard that rumors circulating about a "ready agreement on the situation at the southern border are not true."
"Our Front Will Remain Active"
Nasrallah also threatened to target new cities in Israeli territory if Israel continues to kill civilians in Lebanon.
"If the enemy targets civilians again as it has done in recent days, this will push us to strike localities that we have not targeted so far," he said.
"Our front will remain active as long as the aggression against the Gaza Strip continues," added Nasrallah, stating that "after ten months of fighting, Israel seems incapable of achieving its objectives and is covering its failure by committing massacres and killing civilians."
He emphasized that the United States "bears full responsibility for the crimes and massacres of the Israeli enemy," calling for "solidarity with Gaza, its people, and its resistance."
"We will rebuild our homes and villages along the front line (...) as they are symbols of our steadfastness and resistance," he finally promised.
Five Syrian civilians, including three children, were killed on Tuesday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent in South Lebanon. Hezbollah announced that it had fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at several localities in northern Israel in retaliation. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, described on X as "horrible" the "killing of three more children by an airstrike (Tuesday) while they were playing in front of their house" in southern Lebanon.
The ongoing cross-border violence for several months has raised fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, who fought a devastating conflict in 2006. The violence has resulted in over 500 deaths in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also civilians. On the Israeli side, 17 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, according to AFP.
American envoy Amos Hochstein is negotiating between Beirut and Tel Aviv to reduce tensions between the two countries. Washington advocates for specific measures concerning Lebanon and Hezbollah, including what they believe should be Hezbollah's withdrawal from south of the Litani River, ensuring compliance with U.N. Resolution 1701. The next step will involve finalizing the delineation of the land border between the two countries, particularly addressing the issue of Ghajar (still contested by Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) and the disputed Shebaa Farms, which will require longer discussions.
On Monday, Samy Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb Party, called for "closing the front in southern Lebanon," criticizing the fact that talks for a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel do not take into account the opinion of the Lebanese population.
