Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Says It Is Ready for Any Israeli Land Invasion in Lebanon

 People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pass by buildings damaged in an Israeli strike, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Cola, central Beirut, Lebanon September 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in his first public address since Israel assassinated the group's chief Hassan Nasrallah last week, said the movement is ready to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.

Israel will not achieve its goals, he said.

"We will face any possibility and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land and the resistance forces are ready for a ground engagement," he said.

Israeli forces have dealt multiple blows to Hezbollah in a two-week wave of attacks on targets in Lebanon that has eliminated several commanders. The possibility that Israel's next move might be to send ground troops and tanks over the border is on many minds.

In other developments, the Palestinian group Hamas said an Israeli airstrike killed its leader in Lebanon in the city of Tyre on Monday, and another Palestinian organization said three of its leaders died in a strike in central Beirut - the first such hit inside the capital's limits.

The killings were the latest in a wave of intensified Israeli attacks on militant targets in Lebanon, part of a conflict also stretching from the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, to Yemen, and within Israel itself.

Hamas said its leader in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was killed along with his wife, son and daughter, in a strike that targeted their house in a refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre in the early hours of Monday.

Another group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said three of its leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut's Cola district.

This was the first time Israel had struck Beirut beyond its southern suburbs in a campaign which culminated in the assassination of Nasrallah last week in a succession of heavy air strikes.

The strike against the PFLP hit the upper floor of an apartment building, Reuters witnesses said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The latest attacks indicated Israel has no intention of slowing down its offensive on multiple fronts even after eliminating Nasrallah, who was Iran's most powerful ally in its "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US influence in the region.

Israel's intensified attacks against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militias in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran would not leave any of Israel's "criminal acts" go unanswered. He was referring to the killing of Nasrallah and an Iranian Guard deputy commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who died in the same strikes on Friday.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without specifying how many were civilians. One million people - a fifth of the population - have fled their homes, the government says.

The escalation has put Beirut on edge, with Lebanese fearful that Israel will expand its military campaign.

"There is nothing else to say or add, except God save Lebanon," Beirut resident Nawel said. "What will happen to me is the same as what can happen to anyone."



Lebanon PM Ready to Implement 2006 Deal on Hezbollah’s Armed Presence South of Litani River

This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on September 29, 2024. (Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on September 29, 2024. (Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Ready to Implement 2006 Deal on Hezbollah’s Armed Presence South of Litani River

This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on September 29, 2024. (Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture provided by the Lebanese Prime Minister's press office shows Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati delivering a statement to the press in Beirut on September 29, 2024. (Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office / AFP)

The Lebanese government is ready to fully implement a UN resolution that had aimed to end Hezbollah's armed presence south of the Litani River as part of an agreement to stop war with Israel, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.

Mikati said Lebanon was ready to fully implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and deploy the army south of the river, which lies about 30 km (around 20 miles) from Lebanon's southern border.

Mikati also said he and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had agreed that electing a new president to end a near two-year vacancy at the top post would only happen after a ceasefire took hold, in comments delivered after the pair met in Beirut.

Israeli forces have dealt multiple blows to Hezbollah in a two-week wave of attacks on targets in Lebanon that has eliminated several commanders.

The possibility that Israel's next move might be to send ground troops and tanks over the border is on many minds.

Lebanon's Health Ministry says more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without specifying how many were civilians. One million people - a fifth of the population - have fled their homes, the government says.

"We in Lebanon are ready to implement 1701, and immediately upon the implementation of the ceasefire, Lebanon is ready to send the Lebanese army to the area south of the Litani River and to carry out its full duties," in coordination with UN peacemakers, Mikati said.

He said parliament would then convene to elect a consensus president.

UNSC 1701 ended the month-long 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel and called for a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and that the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers be the only armed force south of the Litani River.