Hezbollah says Gaza cease-fire key to end conflict

ISTANBUL (AA) – Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem has said that a Gaza cease-fire is the key to ending the current crisis.

“We have the right to target any point in Israel after its violations in Lebanon,” Qassem said in a televised speech. “Rocket fire will continue.”

“The solution is a cease-fire based on an indirect agreement, after which the settlers can return to the north (in Israel),” he said. “We are not speaking from a position of weakness.”

Qassem said Israel and the US were seeking to create a new Middle East.

“Meanwhile, Tel Aviv seeks an expansionist occupation that does not settle for the Arab region but for the entire Islamic sphere, intending to control the world through its position in the region,” he added.

Lebanon “is part of this Israeli expansionist project,” Qassem said.

The Hezbollah leader said his group has moved since last month’s pager explosions from supporting Gaza to confrontation with Israel.

Qassem called the assassination of its top leadership a “severe blow.”

“Despite the severe blows we have endured, we have regained our strength on the battlefield,” he said. “Israel did not achieve its goal of eliminating the resistance.”

Regional tensions have escalated due to Israel’s brutal genocidal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 42,400 people, mostly women and children, since October last year.

The conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Israel launching deadly strikes, which have killed more than 2000 people and injured over 4,500 others since September 23.