News24 | Hezbollah rejects truce, vows to keep attacking as ceasefire hangs by a thread

Hezbollah’s chief on Thursday rejected a conditional truce announced by Lebanese and Israeli envoys, demanding instead a comprehensive ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal as he threatened northern Israel with new attacks.

Naim Qassem’s message came after Lebanese and Israeli representatives in the United States agreed to a conditional ceasefire that Lebanon’s president called the “last chance” for a durable end to the fighting.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the 28 February killing of Iran’s supreme leader.

Hezbollah has rejected the Israel-Lebanon talks, and a previous ceasefire announced on 17 April has been breached daily, with Israeli troops deployed deep inside Lebanese territory and the Iran-backed militants continuing to attack Israel.

“The ceasefire must be comprehensive... without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill,” Qassem said on Thursday, 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”.

READ | Lebanon announces partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel

The speech followed new Israeli strikes on Lebanon and fresh threats against Beirut by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who said that the army will “at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations... without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure”.

Israeli forces also retain the “freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities and territory”, he added.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Hezbollah official told AFP the group had informed the Lebanese government of its rejection of the truce agreement.

In south Lebanon, a United Nations peacekeeper was killed and two others were wounded, the UNIFIL force said, after a base was hit the previous night.

Belgrade said the slain peacekeeper was Serbian, with seven blue helmets now killed since the latest war erupted in March. Israel blamed Hezbollah for his death.

Hezbollah is Lebanon’s only militant group that refused to hand over its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon.

After Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, calls on Hezbollah to disarm multiplied, with the leadership under President Joseph Aoun taking the firmest stance yet.

The Lebanese government has declared Hezbollah’s military activit