Hezbollah's deputy chief: Gaza truce to bring halt to cross-border clashes with Israel

A high-ranking official of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says a halt to fighting in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible would trigger an end to confrontations along Lebanon's southern border with the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories.

Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said his group would stop its operations against Israeli military outposts if the Tel Aviv regime decides to put a complete end to its relentless hostilities in the besieged Gaza Strip, noting that all issues related to southern Lebanon would be effectively resolved then.

Sheikh Qassem also reacted to a recent visit by senior US official Amos Hochstein to Beirut, stressing that there would be a ceasefire in Lebanon once such a measure comes into effect in Gaza. “Hochstein can make whatever comment he wishes. Nevertheless, we will do our job.”

Hochstein, an adviser to US President Joe Biden, said on Monday that a diplomatic solution is key to ending five months of intensifying cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel.

“A diplomatic solution is the only way to end the current hostilities”, Hochstein told reporters after meeting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut.

He asserted escalation will not resolve this crisis and will certainly not help Lebanon rebuild and advance forward at this critical time in Lebanon’s history.

“A temporary ceasefire is not enough. A limited war is not containable and the security paradigm along the Blue Line has to change in order to guarantee everyone’s security,” Hochstein added.

Israeli attack on Lebanon will ignite new version of 2006 war: Hezbollah deputy chief

The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement has warned that any Israeli act of aggression against the Arab country would ignite a new version of the 33-day war fought back in the summer of 2006.

“If Israel commits an act of folly [and carries out an attack on Lebanon], it will suffer a more ignominious defeat.  They (Zionists) threaten us with aggression and we respond to them with stability, resistance and struggle," Sheikh Naim added. 

The Hezbollah deputy secretary general also dismissed threats by Hochstein and other US officials that Israel would expand its attacks in southern country and drag the Arab country into a broader war, emphasizing they are in no position to make anti-Lebanon threats.

The Israeli regime has been attacking southern Lebanon off and on since October 7, when it launched the devastating campaign of death and destruction in Gaza.

In retaliation, Hezbollah has launched near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions.

At least 280 people have been killed on the Lebanese border, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 44 civilians. 

Israel says at least ten of its troopers and six illegal settlers have been killed in the area.

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