Hezbollah Officials Drop Gaza Truce as Condition for Lebanon Ceasefire

Smoke billows over Beirut southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Beirut southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Officials Drop Gaza Truce as Condition for Lebanon Ceasefire

Smoke billows over Beirut southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 8, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Beirut southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 8, 2024. (Reuters)

Hezbollah officials are no longer demanding a truce in Gaza as a condition for reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon, rowing back from an oft-repeated promise to keep fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hezbollah's Iran-backed ally Hamas.

Ever since Hezbollah began launching missiles across Lebanon's border a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel, Hezbollah officials have consistently said they would not stop until Israel ended the war in Gaza.

But Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, broke that link in a televised speech on Tuesday, even as he promised to continue to stand with Hamas and Palestinians in their battle with Israel.

Qassem, now Hezbollah's top official after its chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike, said he backed efforts by Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a truce - without setting a precondition.

"We support the political activity being led by Berri under the title of a ceasefire," Qassem said. "If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide."

Two days earlier, two lower-ranking Hezbollah officials had also talked about a Lebanon truce without making a linkage with Gaza.

Hezbollah has not explicitly said it was shifting its position. The group did not comment for this story.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters his group was still "confident in Hezbollah's stance linking any agreement with a halt to the war in Gaza," citing previous Hezbollah statements.

However, a Lebanese government official who declined to be named told Reuters that Hezbollah had amended its position because of a host of pressures, including the mass displacement of people from the main constituencies where supporters of the Shiite group live in south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.

The official said it was also driven by Israel's intensifying ground campaign and objections to Hezbollah's stance from some Lebanese political actors.

Top lawmakers from other sects in Lebanon's patchwork politics have in recent days called for a resolution to end fighting that does not link the future of Lebanon - a nation that was already crippled by an economic crisis before the latest conflict - to the Gaza war.

"We will not tie our fate to the fate of Gaza," veteran Lebanese Druze figure Walid Jumblatt said on Monday.

Lebanese Christian politician Suleiman Franjieh, a close ally of Hezbollah, told reporters on Monday that the "priority" was a halt to Israel's offensive "and that we come out united from this attack and that Lebanon is victorious."

Preceding these comments, there were indications from two other officials that Hezbollah could be changing its stance.

One of them, Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qmati, told Iraqi state television on Sunday that the group would be "ready to begin examining political solutions after a halt to the aggression on Lebanon", again without mentioning Gaza.

Diplomats who also noted the shift said Hezbollah may have left it too late to generate any diplomatic momentum. Israel intensified its offensive by sending ground troops across more sections of the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday and is continuing airstrikes on Beirut and elsewhere.

Israel's "ruling logic" now was military rather than diplomatic, said one diplomat working on Lebanon.

A senior Western diplomat said there was no sign of any ceasefire on the horizon and that the position being expressed by Lebanese officials "evolved" from its previous stance focusing purely on a Gaza ceasefire when bombs started dropping on Beirut.

Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Israel had been able to seize the upper hand by ramping up the pressure on Hezbollah militarily.

"Hezbollah is playing politics... But that's not enough for the Israelis. It doesn't work that way," he said.



Syrian Defense Ministry Announces Completion of Military Operations Against Assad Loyalists

Members of the Syrian Security Forces stop vehicles at a checkpoint following violence that occurred in the previous days during clashes between government forces and supporters of the former Syrian regime, in Jableh town of Latakia, Syria, 09 March 2025. (EPA)
Members of the Syrian Security Forces stop vehicles at a checkpoint following violence that occurred in the previous days during clashes between government forces and supporters of the former Syrian regime, in Jableh town of Latakia, Syria, 09 March 2025. (EPA)
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Syrian Defense Ministry Announces Completion of Military Operations Against Assad Loyalists

Members of the Syrian Security Forces stop vehicles at a checkpoint following violence that occurred in the previous days during clashes between government forces and supporters of the former Syrian regime, in Jableh town of Latakia, Syria, 09 March 2025. (EPA)
Members of the Syrian Security Forces stop vehicles at a checkpoint following violence that occurred in the previous days during clashes between government forces and supporters of the former Syrian regime, in Jableh town of Latakia, Syria, 09 March 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian military operation against loyalists of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad has been completed, the defense ministry said on Monday. 

Hassan Abdul Ghany, the defense ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on X that public institutions were now able to resume their work and provide essential services. 

"We are paving the way for life to return to normal and for the consolidation of security and stability," he said. 

He added that plans were in place to continue combating the remnants of the former government and eliminate any future threats. 

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed on Sunday to hunt down the perpetrators of the violent clashes and said he would hold to account anyone who overstepped the new rulers' authority. 

Al-Sharaa's office also said it was forming an independent committee to investigate the clashes and killings carried out by both sides. 

Abdul Ghany added that the security forces would cooperate with the investigation committee, offering full access to uncover the circumstances of the events, verify the facts and ensure justice for the wronged. 

"We were able to absorb the attacks from the remnants of the former regime and its officers. We shattered their element of surprise and managed to push them away from vital centers, securing most of the main roads," he said. 

Syrian security sources said over the weekend more than 300 of their members had been killed in clashes with former army personnel owing allegiance to Assad in coordinated attacks and ambushes on their forces that began on Thursday.  

Syria's state news agency SANA reported on Sunday that a mass grave had been discovered near Qardaha, Assad's hometown, containing the bodies of recently killed security forces.  

The attacks spiraled into revenge killings when thousands of armed supporters of Syria's new leaders from across the country descended to the coastal areas to support beleaguered forces of the new administration.