Shafaq News- Beirut
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Wednesday said Israel “must leave” Lebanese territory, rejecting any buffer or special security zones in southern Lebanon.
“There are no experimental zones, no safe zones for Israel, and no yellow, red or green areas … It will leave,” Qassem declared in a televised address, portraying Tel Aviv as an “existential threat” to Lebanon and accusing it of seeking to eliminate Hezbollah “militarily, culturally, politically, socially and popularly” as part of a plan to “erase a large segment of Lebanese society.”
⭕مشروعهم إنهاء حزب الله عسكرياً وثقافياً وسياسياً واجتماعياً بما يعني إبادة وإعدام شريحة كبيرة من المجتمع اللبناني⭕الخطر وجودي ونحن لا نقاتل من أجل رقعة أرض بل ندافع عن وجود وحياة وأرض ومستقبل وخط ومسارالأمين العام لحزب الله الشيخ نعيم قاسم #الميادين pic.twitter.com/GJfUn25gr6
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) June 17, 2026
“We are not fighting over a piece of land or because of a minor aggression. We are defending our existence, our lives, our land, our future and our path. We have the right to defend ourselves, and we must do so.”
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He argued that the group had blocked Israeli objectives by preventing the occupation of Lebanese territory and thwarting the Greater Israel project. Hezbollah, he noted, carried out 3,185 operations during the latest war, averaging 30 attacks a day, and targeted hundreds of Israeli assets, including 518 military vehicles and 85 aircraft, while downing 12 drones and 12 loitering munitions, damaging a helicopter, and inflicting 1,347 casualties on Israeli forces.
Reaffirming the group’s support for the deployment of the Lebanese Army south of the Litani River in accordance with the ceasefire agreement reached on Nov. 27, 2024, the Hezbollah leader rejected direct negotiations with Israel and maintained that any contacts should focus on “mutual security” and restoring Lebanese sovereignty rather than disarmament.
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