Gaza ceasefire key to easement of tensions on Lebanon's southern border: Hezbollah deputy chief
A high-ranking official with the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement says a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is the sole way to bring calm to the volatile border between Lebanon and the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories.
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem, in an interview on Tuesday, reiterated his group’s stance on retaliatory strikes against Israel, linking their termination to the end of Israeli offensives against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Hezbollah would cease all operations, without any hesitation, if a ceasefire is declared in Gaza,” he said.
Sheikh Qassem further noted that a ceasefire agreement can determine the state of affairs both in the Gaza Strip, and along the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied lands.
The Hezbollah deputy chief added that Israel lacks the military prowess to launch a full-blown war on Lebanon, stressing that the occupying regime is yet to take a decision about the matter.
“It is up to Israel to decide whether it seeks a full-scale, limited or partial war,” Sheikh Qassem said, emphasizing that Hezbollah’s response will be crushing and will go beyond the rules of engagement that it has already set out.
He warned that Israel would not be able to control the scope of a possible war on Lebanon and should not expect the fighting to remain limited.
The senior Hezbollah official continued that US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein, through mediators, has asked Hezbollah to press Hamas to accept a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal proposed by President Joe Biden. Hezbollah, however, has turned down the appeal.
“Hamas makes its own decisions,” Sheikh Qassem said, underlining that whoever wants to demand something from the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement should directly engage with it.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group.
The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 37,925 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 87,141 others.
Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel but if it happens they are ready.
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