Hezbollah leader calls on government to work harder to end Israel's attacks on Lebanon
BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group called on the government Monday to work harder to end Israel's attacks in the country a day after an Israeli airstrike hit a suburb of Beirut.
Naim Kassem said in a televised speech that Hezbollah implemented the ceasefire deal that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war in late November. But despite that, Israel is continuing with near-daily airstrikes.
Kassem's comments came as the Israeli military said it carried out more than 50 strikes in Lebanon this month saying they came after Hezbollah violated the US-brokered ceasefire.
On Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck Beirut's southern suburbs after issuing a warning about an hour earlier, marking the third Israeli strike on the area since a ceasefire took effect in late November. The Israeli military said it struck a precision-guided missiles facility.
'The resistance complied 100 percent with the (ceasefire) deal and I tell state officials that it's your duty to guarantee protection,' Kassem said, adding that Lebanese officials should contact sponsors of the ceasefire so that they pressure Israel to cease its attacks.
'Put pressure on America and make it understand that Lebanon cannot rise if the aggression doesn't stop,' Kassem said, pointing to Lebanese officials. He added that the US has interests in Lebanon and 'stability achieves these interests.'
Kassem said the priority should be for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, an end to Israeli strikes in the country and the release of Lebanese held in Israel since the war that ended on Nov. 27.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel by its Hamas allies ignited the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 251 others during the 2023 attack.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict exploded into all-out war last September when Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group's senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people.
The Lebanese government said earlier this month that 190 people have been killed and 485 injured in Lebanon by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
Wartime NATO summits have focused on Ukraine. With Trump, this one will be different
BRUSSELS: At its first summits after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO gave President Volodymyr Zelensky pride of place at its table. It won't be the same this time. Europe's biggest land conflict since World War II is now in its fourth year and still poses an existential threat to the continent. Ukraine continues to fight a war so that Europeans don't have to. Just last week, Russia launched one of the biggest drone attacks of the invasion on Kyiv. But things have changed. The Trump administration insists that it must preserve maneuvering space to entice Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, so Ukraine must not be allowed steal the limelight. In Washington last year, the military alliance's weighty summit communique included a vow to supply long-term security assistance to Ukraine, and a commitment to back the country 'on its irreversible path' to NATO membership. The year before, a statement more than twice as long was published in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. A new NATO-Ukraine Council was set up, and Kyiv's membership path fast-tracked. Zelensky received a hero's welcome at a concert downtown. It will be very different at a two-day summit in the Netherlands that starts Tuesday. NATO's most powerful member, the United States, is vetoing Ukraine's membership. It's unclear how long for. Zelensky is invited again, but will not be seated at NATO's table. The summit statement is likely to run to around five paragraphs, on a single page, NATO diplomats and experts say. Ukraine will only get a passing mention. If the G7 summit is anything to go by ... Recent developments do not augur well for Ukraine. Earlier this month, frustrated by the lack of a ceasefire agreement, US President Donald Trump said it might be best to let Ukraine and Russia 'fight for a while' before pulling them apart and pursuing peace. Last weekend, he and Putin spoke by phone, mostly about Israel and Iran, but a little about Ukraine, too, Trump said. America has warned its allies that it has other security priorities, including in the Indo-Pacific and on its own borders. Then at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, Trump called for Russia to be allowed back into the group; a move that would rehabilitate Putin on the global stage. The next day, Russia launched its mass drone attack on Kyiv. Putin 'is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it,' Zelensky said. Trump left the G7 gathering early to focus on the conflict between Israel and Iran. Zelensky had traveled to Canada to meet with him. No meeting happened, and no statement on Russia or the war was agreed. Lacking unanimity, other leaders met with Zelensky to reassure him of their support. Questions about US support for Ukraine Trump wants to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. He said he could do it within 100 days, but that target has come and gone. Things are not going well, as a very public bust up with Zelensky at the White House demonstrated. Trump froze military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine's armed forces for a week. The US has stepped back from the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that was set up under the Biden administration and helped to drum up weapons and ammunition. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth skipped its last meeting; the first time a Pentagon chief has been absent since Russian forces invaded in February 2022. Addressing Congress on June 10, Hegseth also acknowledged that funding for Ukraine military assistance, which has been robust for the past two years, will be reduced in the upcoming defense budget. It means Kyiv will receive fewer of the weapons systems that have been key to countering Russia's attack. Indeed, no new aid packages have been approved for Ukraine since Trump took office again in January. 'The message from the administration is clear: Far from guaranteed, future US support for Ukraine may be in jeopardy,' said Riley McCabe, Associate Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US-based policy research organization. Cutting aid, McCabe warned, could make the Kremlin believe 'that US resolve is fleeting, and that time is on Russia's side.' 'Putin has less incentive to negotiate if he believes that US disengagement is inevitable and that Russia will soon gain an advantage on the battlefield,' he said. What the summit might mean for Kyiv Trump wants the summit to focus on defense spending. The 32 allies are expected to agree on an investment pledge that should meet his demands. Still, the Europeans and Canada are determined to keep a spotlight on the war, wary that Russia could set its sights on one of them next. They back Trump's ceasefire efforts with Putin but also worry that the two men are cozying up. Also, some governments may struggle to convince their citizens of the need to boost defense spending at the expense of other budget demands without a strong show of support for Ukraine — and acknowledgement that Russia remains NATO's biggest security threat. The summit is highly symbolic for Ukraine in other ways. Zelensky wants to prevent his country from being sidelined from international diplomacy, but both he and his allies rely on Trump for US military backup against Russia. Concretely, Trump and his counterparts will dine with the Dutch King on Tuesday evening. Zelensky could take part. Elsewhere, foreign ministers will hold a NATO-Ukraine Council, the forum where Kyiv sits among the 32 allies as an equal to discuss its security concerns and needs. What is clear is that the summit will be short. One working session on Wednesday. It was set up that way to prevent the meeting from derailing. If the G7 is anything to go by, Trump's focus on his new security priorities — right now, the conflict between Israel and Iran — might make it even shorter.
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Israel rejects critical EU report ahead of ministers' meeting
BRUSSELS: Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a 'moral and methodological failure,' according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday. The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc's diplomatic service failed to consider Israel's challenges and was based on inaccurate information. 'The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document ... and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,' the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely. European nations have been increasingly critical of the massive civilian toll of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas since its October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli communities.
Al Arabiya
7 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Netanyahu says Israel close to meeting its goals in Iran
Israel was very close to meeting its goals in Iran of removing the threats of ballistic missiles and the nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. Speaking to Israeli reporters, he said: 'We won't pursue our actions beyond what is needed to achieve them, but we also won't finish too soon. When the objectives are achieved, then the operation is complete and the fighting will stop.' 'I have no doubt that this is a regime that wants to wipe us out, and that's why we embarked on this operation to eliminate the two concrete threats to our existence: the nuclear threat, the ballistic missile threat. We are moving step by step towards achieving these goals. We are very, very close to completing them,' he said. Earlier, The Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck 'dozens' of targets across Iran on Sunday, including a long-range missile site in Yazd in the center of the country for the first time. A statement said that 'approximately 30 IAF (air force) fighter jets struck dozens of military targets throughout Iran' – including 'the 'Imam Hussein' Strategic Missile Command Center in the Yazd area, where long-range Khorramshahr missiles were stored.' The statement also confirmed strikes on missile launchers in Bushehr province, where a 'massive explosion' was reported by Iranian media on Sunday, as well as in Ahwaz in the southwest and central Isfahan. Isfahan is home to a uranium conversion facility targeted by more than two dozen missiles fired from a US submarine in the Middle East overnight. Earlier Sunday, military spokesman Effie Defrin vowed there would be no let-up in Israel's offensive against Iran despite overnight US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites which President Donald Trump claimed had been 'obliterated.' 'We are continuing and are determined to achieve the objectives of the operation: eliminating the existential threat to the state of Israel, damaging Iran's nuclear program and destroying its missile systems,' Defrin said.
