Lebanon’s Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned Israel on Friday evening not to continue its attacks on Lebanon, emphasizing that his group has options to respond to these attacks at the appropriate time if they continue.
In a televised address, Qassem condemned Israel’s actions, saying it has carried out “over 2,700 attacks on Lebanon since the ceasefire was agreed upon (in November last year), despite having no justification for such hostilities.”
He stressed that while Hezbollah has allowed room for diplomacy to address these violations, this opportunity is not open-ended.
Directly addressing Israel, Qassem noted that Hezbollah has “multiple response options and does not fear confrontation,” stressing that the response will come at a time of Hezbollah’s choosing.
On the issue of disarming Hezbollah, he dismissed such calls as misguided, arguing that only one party, without naming it, in Lebanon is behind such calls.
He accused those inciting “forced disarmament” of Hezbollah of serving Israeli interests and attempting to create a schism between the resistance group and the Lebanese army, stressing that a scenario like that is unlikely to happen.
“We will never allow anyone to disarm Hezbollah or the resistance; this idea must be erased from consideration,” Qassem said in his concluding remarks.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since November, which ended months of cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.
Lebanese authorities have reported more than 2,742 Israeli violations of the truce, including the deaths of at least 192 victims and injuries to 485 others.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, but the deadline was extended to Feb. 18 after Israel refused to comply. It still maintains a military presence at five border outposts.