Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Thursday demanded a comprehensive ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, urging authorities to abandon direct talks with Israel after a truce agreement was announced.
"The ceasefire must be comprehensive... without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill," Qassem said in a televised message, urging the government to halt "the farce and humiliation called direct talks" with Israel.
He also vowed that "as long as our villages are unsafe -- being bombed, destroyed and our people killed -- the settlements (north Israel) are unsafe."
The group rejected the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and the Lebanese government and stated that the 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,” Qassem said. “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation,” he added.
The announcement came as Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed at least five people, including a UN peacekeeper, after the ceasefire agreement came into place.
The ongoing fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have invaded and seized large swaths of the south, threatens efforts to end the US-Israeli war on Iran 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 attacks, aiming to seize more land and obliterate Hezbollah. Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon since the start of the war on Iran.
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 Middle East, "a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”
Peacekeeper killed in crossfire
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 U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, and Serbia's Defense 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. It said airstrikes on the village of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, killed three people and wounded others. It also reported airstrikes in other areas of the south.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has warned people not to go into parts of southern Lebanon where it claims it is striking Hezbollah facilities.
(With inputs from Associated Press, AFP)
