Hezbollah rejected the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government on Thursday and demanded a complete withdrawal by the Israeli forces. Meanwhile, local authorities reported that Israel launched fresh airstrikes in Lebanon, killing at least four people.
Leader of Hezbollah Naim Kassem released a written statement, which was read on television, stating that the agreement’s 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,” said the statement “We did not make any commitment to any party to stop resisting as long as there is occupation.”
The United States had brokered the latest ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese government, which accuses the Iran-backed Hezbollah of dragging the country into war. The current agreement does not officially include Hezbollah and calls for Lebanon’s armed forces to take control of security zones in the country from which the group would be banned.
The agreement said that Hezbollah “is not just an enemy of Israel and an enemy of America, but that it is an enemy of Lebanon” and called for dismantling it.
Israeli strikes kill 4 people
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that a drone strike killed a motorcyclist and injured four people in the village of Maaroub. Another airstrike on the Sohmor village in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon killed three people and injured several others.
A mortar strike near the Christian-majority town of Marjayoun killed a Serbian UN peacekeeper, injuring two others, according to the UN mission UNIFIL and Serbian Defence Ministry. However, they did not confirm whether the strike was from Israel or Hezbollah.
Israeli military has not yet made a comment on the attacks.
Since the resumption of the war between Israel and Hezbollah after the joint U.S-Israel strike on Iran, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon and over 1.2 million have been displaced. Israel’s fatalities include 27 soldiers and three civilians.
