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Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Saturday said the group would not accept continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon, a day after the first strike on Beirut since a fragile November truce.
“This aggression must end. Israel … bombed Beirut's southern suburbs for the first time since the truce … we cannot allow this to continue,” Mr Qassem said in a televised address.
“If Israel believes it can impose a new equation by using false pretexts … to attack the south, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, this is unacceptable.”
Israeli strikes hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday for the first time since a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah in November. Despite the truce, Israel has not stopped bombarding south Lebanon and continues to occupy five positions in Lebanese territory where it was supposed to withdraw from.
The strikes flattened a building in the Hadath neighbourhood, seriously injuring one person.
“The equation has changed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will continue to enforce the ceasefire with force, strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat to the state of Israel.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier said “there will be no quiet in Beirut either” if there is none in northern Israel.
A week ago, three rockets were launched from south Lebanon at Israel. The Israeli army responded with a major bombing campaign of south Lebanon, leading to several deaths. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the rocket attacks.
A Lebanese security source told The National that the “improvised” nature of the launch sites used in the attack indicated that it was “unlikely” that Hezbollah was involved.
Following the Beirut strike, Hezbollah cancelled a rally it had been scheduled to hold in the southern suburbs on Friday to mark Quds Day.
“It is still possible to resolve the situation through political and diplomatic means, but … there is a limit to everything,” Mr Qassem said, calling on the Lebanese state to act.
If “the Lebanese state fails to achieve the necessary results politically, we will be forced to resort to other options,” he added, without elaborating.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun was in France when the strikes on Beirut occurred. French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, speaking next to Mr Aoun, called the Israeli air strikes on Lebanon “unacceptable”, saying it was a “violation of the ceasefire” agreed in November.
“There is no activity that justifies such strikes,” Mr Macron said.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce after the Beirut strikes said Lebanon must disarm Hezbollah as agreed under the terms of the truce.
“The reason that any attacks have happened is because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon. That is a violation of the cessation of hostilities. It is a violation of the ceasefire when terrorist groups, when armed groups, shoot rockets,” Ms Bruce said.
“As part of the cessation of hostilities agreement, the government of Lebanon is responsible for disarming Hezbollah, and we expect the Lebanese armed forces to disarm these terrorists to prevent further hostilities,” she said.
