Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said support for Gaza was “definitive” as cross-border fighting displaces thousands.
The leader of the powerful Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said residents of northern Israel would not be able to return home next school year if their government continued its attack on the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah exchanged fire with the Israeli army across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the assault on Gaza that began on October 7. The Iran-aligned armed group said it was launching rockets at Israel both to support its ally, the Palestinian group Hamas which governs Gaza, and to deter Israel from launching an attack on Lebanon.
In a televised speech Monday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that the group would continue fighting as long as Israel continued its attack on Gaza.
“The link between the Lebanese Solidarity Front and Gaza is definitive, definitive and conclusive,” he said. “No one will be able to separate them.”
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border and raised fears of a more serious war between the heavily armed adversaries.
Israel has said it wants to secure the north so residents can return home, either through a negotiated diplomatic deal or a military attack on Lebanon. Displaced families in northern Israel hoped to return home by September 1 for the start of the school year.
“Tell them to stop the war on Gaza”
Nasrallah addressed the displaced, saying: “If you want to solve the problem, go to your government and tell it to stop the war on Gaza. »
He added that Israel now finds itself at an “impasse” in its widely criticized operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, as it struggles to dismantle Hamas despite months of bombing of the small Palestinian enclave, killing at least least 35,000 Palestinians.
Israeli forces also resumed ground and air attacks on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Monday, after previously announcing that their troops were withdrawing from the largely devastated north.
Nasrallah said the military activities of Hamas allies in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon – all of which are backed by Iran – have put pressure on the Israeli military during its war in Gaza.
Efforts by Egypt and Qatar to secure a ceasefire in Gaza failed last week after Israel effectively rejected a proposal from international mediators.
On Monday, Israeli forces moved deep into the ruins of Gaza’s northern border to recapture an area where they claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago, while to the south, tanks and troops crossed a highway to enter the crowded city of Rafah.
The Israeli army also continued its attacks against Lebanon this weekend and Monday, security sources said. Hezbollah responded with rocket fire, and Nasrallah said his group “continued to expand its operations in quantity and quality.”
Israeli attacks have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters from Hezbollah and allied groups, but also more than 50 civilians. In Israel, attacks from Lebanon killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.
