&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Hezbollah says it will harm Israel, but calls for ceasefire Foreign Defense Security News")
Naim Qassem, deputy head of Hezbollah, 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 increasing pressure on Hezbollah since launching an offensive in the region last month, killing Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, in the biggest blow to the group in decades.
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“The solution is a ceasefire, we are not talking 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 indirect agreement after the armistice, the settlers will return to the north and other measures will be taken.”
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which said its operation in Lebanon was aimed at protecting tens of thousands of residents forced to flee their homes in northern Israel due to Hezbollah attacks.
Qassem said Hezbollah reserves the right to attack anywhere in Israel because its enemy did 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, any day.”
“We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centers and barracks,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would continue to attack Hezbollah “without mercy” across Lebanon, including Beirut.
Israel has issued a military evacuation order affecting more than a quarter of Lebanon, the United Nations 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 Iranian-backed militant groups and destroy their infrastructure in the year-old conflict.
Rema Jamous Imseis, director of the UN refugee agency for the Middle East, said Israel's new evacuation order for 20 villages in southern Lebanon means more than a quarter of the country has been affected.
“People are listening to these calls to evacuate and are fleeing with almost nothing,” he said at a news conference in Geneva.
At least 2,309 people were killed and more than 1.2 million were displaced by Israeli attacks last year, Lebanon's government said.
Most have been killed since Israel expanded its military operations in late September. The number of victims does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
According to Israel, around 50 Israelis, including 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 were seeking refuge from Israeli attacks further south, health officials said.
“What we heard is that 22 people were killed, 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 inquiry into the strike which he said raised concerns about “martial law”.
Rescuers were pulling bodies from the rubble in Aitu on Tuesday, local media reported. Israel did not comment on the attack in Aitu, but said it took all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
Concern about attacks on peacekeepers
The main focus of Israel's military operations in Lebanon has been the Bekaa Valley in the east, the Beirut suburbs and the south, where UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire struck their bases several times and injured peacekeeping forces.
Israel's military said about 20 projectiles from Lebanon entered Israeli territory after sirens sounded in Haifa Bay and the Upper Galilee region, and some were intercepted.
Mass displacement in Lebanon during Israel's military campaign has revived the specter of sectarian conflict.
Lebanon's population consists of more than a dozen religious communities, with political representation divided along sectarian lines. Religious divisions fueled the violence of the 1975-1990 civil war, which killed nearly 150,000 people and drew in neighboring states.
The US supported Israel in its conflict despite concerns about civilian casualties. In a statement released Tuesday, the Pentagon said components of an advanced anti-missile system began arriving in Israel on Monday and will be fully operational in the near future.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict resumed a year ago when the Hamas-backed militant group began firing rockets at Israel at the start of the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Middle East keeps Israel on alert for retaliation against Iran for its barrage of missile launches on October 1 in response to Israel's attack on Lebanon.
