Military action still needed to counter Hezbollah rockets and drones, Israel's PM says
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Hezbollah's rockets and drones were still a key threat demanding military action as the country’s military expanded strikes on Lebanon despite a...
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Hezbollah's rockets and drones were still a key threat demanding military action as the country’s military expanded strikes on Lebanon despite a ceasefire.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said direct negotiations with Israel sought to end the Israel-Hezbollah war and that those who dragged Lebanon into it were the ones committing "treason," a jab at the Iran-backed militant group, which claimed several attacks on Israeli targets in south Lebanon on Monday.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem called direct talks between the two countries a "sin," while Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned the group's rejection of negotiations would bring catastrophic consequences for Lebanon.
Lebanon and Israel's US ambassadors met twice in Washington in recent weeks, the first such meetings in decades, for discussions that Hezbollah has categorically rejected.
After the first talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire that began on 17 April, announcing a three-week extension after the second round.
Netanyahu said in a statement that "there are still two central threats from Hezbollah: the 122mm rockets and the drones. This demands a combination of operational and technological activity."
Israel's army on Monday announced strikes on the eastern Bekaa region and southern Lebanon targeting "Hezbollah infrastructure."
Under the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks."
'Humiliating agreement' rejected
Lebanese state media reported Israeli air strikes in several southern towns, along with artillery shelling and demolition operations in at least two locations.
Hezbollah said its fighters launched several attacks on Israeli troops in the country's south, including on an Israeli army bulldozer that it said was demolishing homes in the border town of Bint Jbeil.
Aoun said in a statement that "my goal is to reach an end to the state of war with Israel, similar to the armistice agreement" of 1949.
Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, signed an armistice after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
"I assure you that I will not accept reaching a humiliating agreement," said Aoun.
Earlier, Hezbollah's chief sharply criticised the government, describing direct negotiations with Israel as a "grave sin."
"We categorically reject direct negotiations with Israel and those in power should know that their actions will not benefit Lebanon or themselves," Qassem said in a statement aired by the group's TV channel, Al-Manar.
He urged authorities to "back down from their grave sin that is putting Lebanon in a spiral of instability."
The government "cannot continue while it is neglecting Lebanon's rights, giving up land, and confronting" those resisting Israel, he said, adding: "we will not give up our weapons...and the Israeli enemy will not remain on a single inch of our occupied land."
Israeli troops who invaded south Lebanon after the war erupted on 2 March are operating inside an Israeli-announced "yellow line," a ribbon of Lebanese territory around 10 kilometres deep along the border, where Lebanese have been warned not to return.
'Consensus'
Aoun said that "what we are doing is not treason. Rather, treason is committed by those who take their country to war to achieve foreign interests."
Aoun has faced intense criticism from Hezbollah and its supporters.
They say his push for direct talks with Israel lacks consensus among Lebanon's various communities, the latest point of contention after the government decided to disarm the group last year and outlawed its military activities in March.
"Some want to hold us accountable over the decision to go to negotiations on the grounds that there is no national consensus" over the talks, Aoun said.
"My question to them is: when you went to war, did you first obtain national consensus?"
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by firing rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
Katz said Qassem was "playing with fire and the fire will burn Hezbollah and all of Lebanon".
Israeli attacks have killed 2,521 people since 2 March, Lebanese authorities said Monday.
