Shafaq News – Beirut

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Tuesday said the ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw south of the Litani River and authorizes the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border.

In a public address, Qassem affirmed that the November 2024 accord applies “exclusively to the area south of the Litani River,” emphasizing that “there is no threat to the security of the [Israeli] settlements, and the Lebanese state is responsible for ensuring the entity's [Israel] withdrawal.”

Qassem said the army’s presence in the south represents an acceptable—and even preferable—alternative to Hezbollah fighters, explaining that “the resistance does not lose by transferring security responsibilities to state forces.”

“Israel must withdraw, without any gains,” he added.

He accused the United States and Israel of seeking to shape Lebanon’s political future by weakening what he called the country’s “resistance capacity” and pressuring its government into concessions.

Washington, he explained, was using Israel as “an instrument to dismantle the resistance’s military strength” while supporting the Lebanese army only to the extent that it could confront Hezbollah. “We will not abandon our weapons that enable us to defend ourselves,” he stated.

UNIFIL spokesperson Danny Gafari told local media that since the ceasefire, the mission has documented more than 7,000 Israeli airspace violations and 2,400 incidents north of the Blue Line — a 120-kilometer boundary established by the UN in 2000 following Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon — describing the situation as “a source of deep concern.” Lebanese authorities report that more than 300 people have been killed and over 650 wounded since the agreement took effect.

Earlier, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the Lebanese army should be the sole force exercising state authority across the country’s territory and borders, stressing that the military’s duty is to uphold national sovereignty, end Israeli violations, and secure withdrawal from occupied areas through political means.

Qassem said that once the agreement is implemented, “all avenues will be open for a positive and cooperative internal dialogue based on Lebanon’s strength and independence, and no one else has a say in that.” He described repeated Israeli strikes and daily violations as an ongoing “criminal aggression” that has caused deaths and destruction across Lebanon.

He dismissed calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament as attempts to eliminate the group, accusing some Lebanese political figures of “serving” Israel by refusing to condemn its actions and by “collaborating with external pressures.”

Qassem warned that continued Israeli attacks and the international pressures supporting them risk broadening the conflict, urging the Lebanese government to set a clear timetable for restoring full sovereignty and resisting US dictates that he described as part of an expansionist agenda. “If the south continues to bleed,” he said, “the bleeding will spread to all of Lebanon.”