A top Hezbollah leader announced on Tuesday the group’s support for a ceasefire with Israel, the first time he’s publicly endorsed a cessation of hostilities.
Hezbollah’s top official, Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, publicly addressed the one-year anniversary of the start of the attacks on Israel on Tuesday. Hezbollah started firing rockets and missiles from southern Lebanon into northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iranian-backed U.S.-designated terrorist group based in Gaza that had attacked Israel one day earlier.
“We support the political efforts led by [Parliament Speaker Nabih] Berri under the banner of achieving a ceasefire. Once the ceasefire is firmly established and diplomacy can reach it, all other details will be discussed, and decisions will be made collaboratively,” Qassem said.
His comments came the same day the Israeli military said it identified about 135 projectiles launched from Hezbollah into Israel.
Prior to Qassem’s speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah leaders had said they would not stop carrying out their attacks on Israel until Israel agreed to a ceasefire deal to end its war against Hamas in Gaza, while the Israelis refused to link the two conflicts in negotiations.
He did not mention Gaza in this address, his second since Israel assassinated longtime Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Days before Israel killed Nasrallah, President Joe Biden and several other world leaders announced a three-week ceasefire proposal between Hezbollah and Israel. The deal fell apart quickly after Nasrallah’s killing.
Israel’s military had primarily focused its attention on Hamas for most of the year of conflict but recently turned to stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in September. It has targeted several senior Hezbollah leaders, including multiple likely Nasrallah successors, in addition to going after Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal in southern Lebanon.
“We have eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, Nasrallah’s successor, and the successor of Nasrallah’s successor,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement.
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Israel has also carried out limited ground operations in southern Lebanon and continues to do so.
Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006, and it lasted about a month. The war ended when the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1701, which called for Israel’s military to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for Hezbollah to move north of the Litani River, which would, if implemented, create a roughly 18-mile buffer zone between Israel’s border and where Hezbollah would be allowed to station. Hezbollah has never abided by the terms of the resolution.