Hezbollah added more pressure on the Lebanese government for engaging in direct talks with Israel, which is fighting the group's militants in southern Lebanon.
Top Hezbollah officials, including secretary general Naim Qassem, in the past 24 hours have made fiery statements to mark the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 25, 2000.
Mr Qassem condemned the Lebanese government's move to ban the Iran-backed group's military activities and for succumbing to pressure from the US, Israel's main ally.
“If this government cannot protect sovereignty, it should resign. Where is sovereignty if America controls Lebanon’s institutions, policies and appointments?" he asked.
Mr Qassem said “the people have the right to go on to the streets and to bring down the government” in response to Israeli strikes and US sanctions on Al Qard Al Hassan, a financial institution associated with Hezbollah that provides support for ordinary Lebanese, mainly from the Shiite community.
He said the government's push to disarm the group “means stripping Lebanon, [Hezbollah] and the people of their defensive capability as a prelude to extermination. Understand clearly: disarmament is extermination, and we will never accept it".
Israeli forces have entered and occupied Lebanese territory as far as 10km from the southern border after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel on March 2, days after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli troops continues in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire declared in April after Lebanese and Israeli representatives held their first round of talks in Washington.
Israel has so far killed more than 3,100 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million, mainly from the south.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Mr Qassem's remarks and denounced what he called Hezbollah's “reckless call to overthrow Lebanon's democratically elected government”. He said the group was “actively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction”.
Hezbollah officials continue to be publicly optimistic despite Israel's continuing attacks against what it claims are the group's members and military sites, as well as its razing of towns and villages in border areas.
One Hezbollah official told The National that the group had seen a slowdown in the destruction by Israeli bulldozers in southern Lebanon, which he said was because of attacks using explosive fibre-optic drones that Israel had been unable to stop.
“They are facing a shortage in bulldozers – that's why they are not doing demolitions like they used to do,” the official said.
He said the drones were "so effective that the Israelis had to withdraw their military bulldozers and use civilian ones. But that didn't work out because civilian drivers don't want to do the job".
The Israeli military on Monday issued a forced displacement order for the entire city of Tyre on the southern coast, and for 10 villages and towns in the Jezzine and Nabatieh areas near the border. Such orders are issued to residents before Israeli attacks.
Lebanese leaders, including President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, also issued messages to mark the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal in 2000.
Mr Salam, who has berated Hezbollah over its refusal to disarm, said he would not celebrate the day "until the day of Israel's complete withdrawal from our land and the safe and dignified return of our people to it".
Mr Aoun has said talks with Israel would include five key points – withdrawal from Lebanese territory; a ceasefire; the posting of Lebanese troops along the border; the return of displaced families; and economic support for reconstruction.
According to a report in Axios, a draft preliminary agreement between the US and Iran for a peace agreement also contains language that “makes clear the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon would end”.
The Israeli military said on Monday that one soldier was killed during combat in southern Lebanon, and another was severely injured.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume bombing Beirut in response to increased drone attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli troops and northern Israel towns.
“The explosive drones harming our fighters are not a decree of fate,” Mr Smotrich said in a statement. “For every explosive drone, 10 buildings should fall in Beirut.”
