Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem. Photo: Reuters
The Lebanese group Hezbollah warned on Tuesday that it would strike targets throughout Israel and declared it would not be vanquished by the ongoing intense bombardment of its strongholds and leadership. Naim Qassem, the group's deputy leader, stated that the sole resolution was a ceasefire. "I am addressing the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire," he said during a live broadcast. In another day of hostilities, the Iran-backed group claimed it fired a barrage of rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Haifa and targeted Israeli bulldozers and a tank near the border. Israel retaliated with fresh air strikes across Lebanon, a day after an estimated 41 people were killed in attacks on the country, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
In his speech, Qassem vowed that the group "will not be defeated" and would start expanding the range of its targets within Israel. "Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive standpoint to target any location" in Israel, he said. Only after a ceasefire would residents of northern Israel be able to return home, he added, referring to Israel's stated war objective. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that he opposed any "unilateral ceasefire, which does not alter the security situation in Lebanon".
Iran, which supports Hezbollah, has recently engaged in diplomatic efforts to establish ceasefires in Lebanon and war-torn Gaza amid growing concerns of a broader regional conflict. Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati told AFP that his country was prepared to increase its military presence in the south following any ceasefire, noting that Israeli troops were making brief cross-border incursions. Security has been heightened at the country's sole airport in Beirut "to eliminate any pretexts" for an Israeli attack, Mikati added.
Israel significantly escalated its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon starting from September 23 and subsequently launched a ground invasion a week later aimed at pushing the group back from its northern border. Hezbollah has been launching thousands of projectiles into Israel over the past year in support of Hamas, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis. Israel's military targeted several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was rendered inoperative, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency.
An Israeli strike on the northern, Christian-majority village of Aito on Monday resulted in the deaths of 21 people, mostly women and children, according to a revised toll from the Lebanese health ministry. The UN rights office called for a "prompt, independent, and thorough investigation" of the strike that leveled a residential building reportedly occupied by displaced individuals. At least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel intensified its bombing last month, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the actual toll is likely higher. The war in Lebanon, which has endured years of economic crisis, has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to data from the International Organization for Migration.
Israel is also considering how to respond to Iran's decision to launch approximately 200 missiles at the country on October 1. Netanyahu's office stated that Israel—not its top ally the US—would determine how to retaliate. "We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest," it said in a statement on Tuesday. The Iranian barrage was in response to an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan on September 27. US President Joe Biden—whose government is Israel's top arms supplier—has cautioned Israel against targeting Iran's nuclear or oil facilities. According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was only contemplating targeting military sites.
