Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Hezbollah’s Priority Is Defeating Israel, Open to Efforts to Stop the Attacks, Group’s Official

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Jbaa on October 11, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah's priority right now is defeating Israel militarily, but it is open to any efforts to stop "the aggression", the head of Lebanese group's media office, Mohammad Afif, said on Friday.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops into areas of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

"Tel Aviv is only the start, Israel has only seen so little," Afif said in a televised press conference in the southern suburbs of Beirut with the rubble of destroyed buildings behind him.

"Our absolute priority now is to defeat the enemy and force them to stop the aggression. However, any internal or external political effort to achieve a cessation of aggression is appreciated as long as it is consistent with our comprehensive vision of the battle, its circumstances and its results."

He denied there were weapons stored in Beirut's southern suburbs and said Israel used timed bombs to make it seem so, promising residents of the neighborhood and those displaced from southern Lebanon and Bekaa that they would return soon.



US Secretary of State Speaks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker about Situation

 Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP)
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US Secretary of State Speaks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker about Situation

 Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP)

Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri received a phone call from the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken on Friday, which lasted about 40 minutes, during which they discussed the situation in Lebanon amid the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a statement from the speaker's office said.

The conflict erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of the Palestinian group Hamas, at the start of the Gaza war.

It has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border. Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem had earlier this week said the party backed moves by Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a halt to the fighting.

Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to make northern Israel safe for tens of thousands of people forced to leave over the last year by Hezbollah rocket fire.

Its expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and more than 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting.