The Fort Worth Press - Hezbollah chief rejects truce, demands Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon

Naim Qassem's message came after Lebanese and Israeli representatives in the United States agreed to a conditional ceasefire that Lebanon's president called the "last chance" for a durable end to the fighting.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war when Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the February 28 killing of Iran's supreme leader.

Hezbollah has rejected the Israel-Lebanon talks, and a previous ceasefire announced on April 17 has been breached daily, with Israeli troops deployed deep inside Lebanese territory and the Iran-backed militants continuing to attack Israel.

"The ceasefire must be comprehensive... without the Israeli enemy having the freedom to kill," Qassem said Thursday, urging the government to halt "the farce and humiliation called direct talks" with Israel.

He also vowed that "as long as our villages are unsafe -- being bombed, destroyed and our people killed -- the settlements (north Israel) are unsafe".

The speech followed new Israeli strikes on Lebanon and fresh threats against Beirut by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who said that the army will "at this stage, continue its fire and ground operations... without the return of the population, while continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructure".

- 'Freedom of action' -

Israeli forces also retain the "freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities and territory", he added.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Hezbollah official told AFP the group had informed the Lebanese government of its rejection of the truce agreement.

In south Lebanon, a United Nations peacekeeper was killed and two others were wounded, the UNIFIL force said, after a base was hit the previous night.

Belgrade said the slain peacekeeper was Serbian, with seven blue helmets now killed since the latest war erupted in March. Israel blamed Hezbollah for his death.

Hezbollah is Lebanon's only militant group that refused to hand over its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that it was fighting Israel's occupation of south Lebanon.

After Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, calls on Hezbollah to disarm multiplied, with the leadership under President Joseph Aoun taking the firmest stance yet.

The Lebanese government has declared Hezbollah's military activities illegal, and the army was working to disarm the group in areas south of the Litani River near Israel.

The war launched by the US and Israel on Iran saw Hezbollah return to the battlefield, launching attacks into Israel while fighting Israeli troops in their deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades.

Speaking of the deal announced in Washington, Aoun said it represented "the last chance to enter into a final, comprehensive ceasefire".

Hezbollah's Qassem, however, said that Hezbollah pulling back would amount to "surrender and defeat".

Esmail Qaani, the head of Iran's Quds Force -- the foreign arm of its powerful Revolutionary Guards -- insisted Israel withdraw to its pre-war positions in Lebanon as a "minimum demand", adding that "supporting the resistance in Lebanon is the duty of all of us".

- 'Words on paper' -

Mohammad Chamseddine, 56, from Beirut's southern suburbs, told AFP that "this isn't the first time there's been a ceasefire and Israel violates it".

As an Israeli drone buzzed overhead, Chamseddine said the ceasefire for now was just "words on paper. I won't believe it until I see it on the ground. How can a ceasefire be on one side only?"

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes in more than 20 locations in Lebanon's south and east on Thursday, some causing casualties, including a couple and their daughter who were wounded in an attack on their car.

Israel's military renewed a warning to Lebanese not to cross the Zahrani River, around 45 kilometres from the border, after it last week declared all areas south of the river "combat zones".

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel, with one incident involving a "suspicious aerial target" resolved, while another incident was found to be a false alarm.

Hezbollah on Thursday claimed several attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon.

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticised the latest deal, calling it a "serious mistake".

According to a statement issued after the meeting in Washington, the two sides -- which do not have diplomatic relations -- had agreed to create "pilot zones" in which the Lebanese army "will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors".

burs/ser/smw

H.Carroll--TFWP