&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Hezbollah says it will harm Israel, but called for a ceasefire Foreign Defense Security News")
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Tuesday that the Iran-backed group would “torture” Israel, but called for a ceasefire amid clashes between them in southern Lebanon.
Israel has been turning up the heat on Hezbollah since launching an offensive in the region last month, killing Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including its senior secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, in the worst blow to the group in decades.
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“The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness, if the Israelis don't want it, we will continue,” Qassem said in a recorded speech.
“But according to the intermediate agreement, after the ceasefire, the settlers will return to the north and other steps will be taken.”
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which said its operation in Lebanon was aimed at securing tens of thousands of residents forced to flee their homes in northern Israel because of Hezbollah attacks.
Qassem said Hezbollah reserved the right to attack anywhere in Israel because its enemy had done the same in Lebanon. He said more Israelis would be displaced and “hundreds of thousands, even more than two million, would be in danger at any time, any time, every day.”
“We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and their centers and barracks,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah “without mercy” across Lebanon, including Beirut.
Israel has issued a military evacuation order that covers more than a quarter of Lebanon, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday, two weeks after the Israeli military began infiltrating southern Lebanon to fight Hezbollah.
The figures underscore the high price the Lebanese are paying as Israel tries to defeat Iran-backed militant groups and destroy their infrastructure in the year-long conflict.
Rema Jamous Imseis, Middle East director of the United Nations Refugee Agency, said Israel's renewed evacuation order on 20 villages in southern Lebanon means the problem now affects more than a quarter of the country.
“People hear calls to evacuate and flee with almost nothing,” he told a briefing in Geneva.
The Lebanese government said Israeli attacks killed at least 2,309 people last year and displaced more than 1.2 million.
Most have been killed since Israel expanded its military operations in late September. The amount of fees does not distinguish between civilians and veterans.
According to Israel, approximately 50 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were killed.
Israel expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 22 people in an airstrike on a house in the north where displaced people had sought refuge from Israeli attacks further south, health officials said.
“We hear that 22 people have died, including 12 women and two children,” U.N. Human Rights Office spokesman Jeremy Lawrence said of Monday's attack in Christian-majority Itu.
He called for an investigation into the strike, which he said raised concerns about “martial law.”
Local media reported that rescuers were pulling bodies from the rubble in Aitu on Tuesday. Israel did not comment on the attack on Aitu, but said it had taken all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
Concern about attacks on peacekeepers
Israeli military operations in Lebanon have focused mainly on the Bekaa Valley in the east, the outskirts of Beirut and the south, where UN peacekeepers say Israeli fire has repeatedly hit their bases and injured peacekeepers.
The Israeli military said about 20 missiles from Lebanon entered Israeli territory after sirens sounded in Haifa Bay and the Upper Galilee area, and some were intercepted.
Massive displacements in Lebanon during the Israeli military campaign have revived the specter of sectarian conflict.
The population of Lebanon consists of over a dozen religious communities, whose political representation is divided along divisions. Religious divisions fueled the violence of the 1975-1990 civil war, which killed nearly 150,000 people and attracted neighboring countries.
The United States sided with Israel in the conflict despite concerns about civilian casualties. In a statement on Tuesday, the Pentagon said that elements of the advanced anti-missile system began arriving in Israel on Monday and will be fully operational in the near future.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah reignited a year ago when, at the beginning of the Gaza war, a Hamas-backed militant group began firing rockets at Israel.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Israel is on alert in case of retaliation against Iran for a series of missile launches on October 1 in response to the Israeli attack on Lebanon.
