Hezbollah publicly endorses ceasefire efforts in Lebanon for the first time as Israel steps up its offensive

CNN
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Hezbollah is supporting efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon, its top official said on Tuesday. This is the first time the group has publicly endorsed a ceasefire and not made it conditional on ending the war in Gaza.

“We support (Parliament Speaker Nabih) Berri’s political efforts to achieve a ceasefire. Once the ceasefire is firmly established and diplomacy can achieve it, all further details will be discussed and decisions will be made jointly,” said Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem.

Lebanon's Hezbollah began firing on Israel on October 8 last year to show solidarity with Hamas, which had launched an attack on Israel from Gaza a day earlier. Hezbollah had previously said it would not stop its attacks on Israel until a ceasefire was reached with Hamas in Gaza. However, Israel insisted that Hezbollah separate its conflict with Israel from the ongoing war with Hamas.

In his speech marking the first anniversary of Hezbollah's involvement in the war, Qassem did not mention a ceasefire in Gaza as a prerequisite for achieving a ceasefire in Lebanon. It was Qassem's second speech since Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah late last month. Since then, Israel has conducted limited ground operations in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, which continues to fire rockets into northern Israel.

Nabih Berri, the leader of the Shiite Amal Party, which is allied with Hezbollah, was a key figure in negotiations for a ceasefire brokered by Western nations.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN last week that Nasrallah had agreed to a temporary ceasefire that US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and other allies called for during the UN General Assembly last month. Shortly thereafter, Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel.

US officials have told CNN that the Biden administration is not actively seeking to revive the deal and has resigned itself to shaping and limiting Israeli operations in Lebanon and against Iran rather than ceasing hostilities.

Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, said in an interview with Sky News on Sunday that Nasrallah had not agreed to a ceasefire and called Bou Habib's claim “ridiculous.”

In a video message on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had “eliminated” Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah's successor. However, the Israeli military said it was still investigating whether he was killed in an attack on Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut.

Netanyahu addressed the people of Lebanon directly in the message, urging them to defy Hezbollah and “take back your country” and threatening them with a Gaza-style war if they do not do so.

“Christians, Druze, Muslims – Sunnis and Shiites – they are all suffering from Hezbollah’s futile war in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “You have the opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will bring destruction and suffering similar to what we are witnessing in Gaza,” he continued.

Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon has killed more than 1,400 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Lebanese authorities say more than 1.2 million people have been displaced since fighting escalated last month.

Despite agreeing to ceasefire talks, much of Qassem's speech on Tuesday had a defiant tone, emphasizing Hezbollah's willingness and ability to continue its fight against Israel.

“If the enemy continues his war, the battlefield will be decisive, and the battlefield will be ours,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah fired a large barrage of rockets into the Israeli cities of Haifa and Kiryat, one of the largest in the city since the war began. The rockets were fired from Lebanon in two separate salvos, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. While numerous rockets were intercepted or struck in open areas, the military said at least two buildings in Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin were directly hit, it said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had expanded its “limited, localized and targeted operations” to southwest Lebanon.